Learning Minimalism By World Travel

Learning Minimalism By World Travel

Want to travel the world non-stop for 10+ years?

Here’s one of the big tradeoffs. This is all Connie and I get to have with us. One bag each that has to weigh 23 kilos or less and one carry-on that has to weigh 10 kilos or less. That’s the whole show. Always.

We used to have a big home on 13 acres, fourteen licensed and insured vehicles, and off-site storage piled to the rafters with stuff that wouldn’t fit in the house or outbuildings. We were the over-consumers that sensible people lament.

Then we sold all of it. Except what’s in these bags and some prized books and family photos that are stored with our daughter.

As I write this we are waiting out the Covid-19 lockdown at our rented home in Ireland.

But for over 10 years of constant world travel we just had these bags. By choice.

Wonderful and Liberating

Want to buy that new shirt? You have to throw out an old one. Want that new cologne? You have to wait until the existing bottle is empty.

The truth is, it was also nice having all the stuff we had back in Idaho. But it wasn’t liberating. And it was as expensive as hell to maintain all of it – more expensive than touring the world, in fact.

Now it’s a nice feeling to rent a Jet Ski, or car, or motorcycle then hand it back in and walk away – without a care in the world about the machine.

We just buy the experience, not the corresponding ownership headaches.

It’s nice to rent a beachfront condo but not have to worry about a leaky roof or that hurricane that’s getting close.

It’s nice to visit Athens and soak in the magnificent history and deep culture, but not have to live with the daily economic unrest and hardship.

Same for London, for that matter. Great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to work there every day and commute on those delayed trains and overcrowded tube carriages.

I’m also pretty sure Connie and I have never had a smaller environmental footprint.

I know we’ve never* been happier.

(*Always feel like I need a disclaimer on ‘never been happier.’ Because I don’t think anything can exceed having all the kids at home with us when they were young. But kids don’t stay young and that ship has sailed. Best voyage ever! Now it’s time for some new chapters in our story.)

Perhaps the World is Rethinking Its Priorities

With half the global population taking a break from normal life and actually thinking about mortality and what they truly want from their life, I’m guessing many millions of them are getting ready to use the technologies that will allow them to live a more liberating lifestyle that involves a lot less feeling like being on a social and economic hamster wheel.

There’s a giant spectrum of choice between what our circumstances were – over a dozen vehicles and a big house on acreage, all the way down to 23 kilos of possessions and no fixed address while living on four continents.

But it shows you the range of freedom that all of us no have within our reach. If you could start with a clean sheet of paper and all the online income you needed, what lifestyle would you engineer? Ping me and we can talk about how to make it happen.