Here’s What It’s like to Be Able to Pack up Your Whole Life Within an Hour
And do it every few weeks
It feels weird to put this story out because since August 1, I no longer travel full time.
Whilst it was a good decision overall, I already miss the buzz of it all. Even more than that, whilst most people would think this is crazy, I miss the restrictions of living out of a suitcase.
I tell ya, it makes you a good Minimalist.
I wrote this story earlier in the summer. Call it a love letter to the life I’ve set aside for a few years as I make a home in Portugal.
I love alternative living arrangements.
So a few years back when I heard a dude say on a podcast he could pack up his life within two hours, I thought:
One day, I’ll better that.
I was right. Nowadays with my life on the road, I can pack my whole life up within an hour, tops.
Whilst this lifestyle absolutely isn’t for everyone, there are some key lessons I’ve learned that apply to most. Especially if your current living arrangement keeps you up at night.
And hey, you never know. Maybe you’ll like the sound of the lifestyle enough to *adopt Stanger Things’ Vecna voice* join me.
It’s amazing how much you can fit into one suitcase
Make no mistake, I am not living out of hand luggage but a full-sized 20kg suitcase. And it’s amazing how much you can fit into one of these.
So much so that when I documented in a recent article exactly what goes in there, a reader didn’t believe me.
There are clothes. Kitchen goods because you can take the hospitality worker out of hospitality etc etc. There are electronics and toiletries and laptops. There is everything I hold dear aside from my precious kitchen gear too big to fit. Believe me, if I could fit in my Le Creuset pot and pizza oven, I would.
When you see all my stuff spread out on the floor ready to be packed, it looks like a lot, yet it’s hardly 100 items. Whereas the average American home holds over 300,000.
No wonder McMansions have become so popular. Stuff takes up more room than you think. You learn that when you live out of a suitcase.
But at least I’ve gotten really good at packing.
You’d be surprised how little stuff you really use every day / week / year
There is a hack that some — more dedicated than I — Minimalists use to demonstrate how much stuff is superfluous in their lives called The Packing Party.
Pack everything in your house away and only unpack stuff you need when you need it.
Whilst this sounds like waaaaay too much effort just to prove a point, I can tell you from personal experience that it’s amazing how little stuff you use on a daily basis.
I’ve gotten pretty good at streamlining what I carry with me. Almost everything gets used. But back at the beginning of this life, I would carry a ton of stuff that never saw the light of day from extra clothing to just-in-case items.
100 items and not all of them were used? It just goes to show how little we truly use.
Who says you have to own everything you use?
When you live on the road you don’t just rent a roof over your head, you rent everything under that roof.
That includes bedding, kitchen equipment, furniture, TV, and even books and magazines. The sharing economy is alive and well and living in short-term rentals across the world.
We’ve become obsessed with ownership, believing we have to own everything we need but that’s not entirely true. And whilst my life is an extreme example, there are ways to rent seldom-used items IRL.
In Finland, the local library will rent you everything from garden tools to musical instruments for free.
For the rest of us not living in a people-first economy, it’s still possible to rent stuff through privately owned companies like Fat Llama. I’ve heard of communities owning shared equipment sheds to prevent 20 different houses from owning 20 versions of the same, infrequently-used thing.
I love the sharing economy. It’s cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and more egalitarian, giving people access to better quality stuff for less. After all, renting a decent lawnmower once a fortnight is a damn sight cheaper than buying one. Especially if you live in Finland (who’s with me?).
The old cliche is right. Live with less = gain more time
When you live out of a suitcase, you have to adopt a one-in, one-out policy. I’ll only buy clothes if really have to. Equipment is only replaced, not added. I literally have a space limit.
Thus, I don’t think about my stuff all that much.
Which means I get to think about lots of other things.
When my head would have once been occupied with going to the shops, online shopping, wondering which dress to buy next or if I need to go to the hardware store, now it’s occupied with reading, writing, learning, cooking, curiosity.
It’s filled with people. I can literally hear my 3-year-old niece opening my front door as we speak (BRB).
It sounds smug but it’s true. If you have less to buy, maintain, and ultimately dispose of, you have more time to do, well, anything else.
Whatever that means to you.
Living like this is both freeing and irritating
Freeing in that, like that podcast dude, I can be out the front door within an hour. Freeing in that I can largely choose where I go and what I see. Freeing in that if I am in a situation that doesn’t work for me, I can get out quickly (on the road, that happens more than you’d expect).
Freeing because I spend literally no time at all looking for things anymore. The average person spends 6 months of their life doing just that which is no small chunk of time.
But make no mistake. Living out of a suitcase is annoying. Practically, it means spending a lot of time rolling up clothes. It means continually unpacking and packing. Yes, that doesn’t take long but it is something most people don’t have to think about on a monthly basis.
Like I say, it means never being able to buy anything which is sad when I spy something that, in a more sedentary life, would make my life easier or prettier or better. I’m not saying I want to buy everything that comes my way, but the occasional thing would be nice.
It’s exhausting — more than you think. These days it takes me days to get over traveling days and it’s not like I’m past my prime in either age or fitness.
This life can be fun. It can be exciting. The time you gain by living with so little can nourish the mind. But that doesn’t mean it won’t annoy the hell out of you.
But hey, “normal” lives can do that too. Might as well take the fun bit too.
It may be long-term temporary but it’s still temporary
There aren’t many people who live like this their whole lives. Thanks to sedentary bias — “our belief that mobility and migration are the exception rather than the rule” — the world is not (yet) set up for nomads who have no base at all. If you want to give birth or have health issues or if you want to apply for residency in another country, you need to stay still.
For most people, my sort of life is temporary. It could be temporary for many years, even decades. But eventually, many people either return home or set up a base elsewhere. And when they do, they’re likely to own more than the 100 or so items they fit into their suitcase.
But that doesn’t mean returning to the old ways of owning 300,000 items.
As I prepare to make a base for myself in another country, I’m determined to continue with the philosophy of living with less. I might not be able to pack up within an hour, but I never want to be in a position again when it takes months to do so.
And that is the most important takeaway of all.
Of course, technology really helps. No longer do you have to pack books, notebooks, pens, calculator, address book, magazines, maps, etc. etc.
I love being on the plane, knowing that I am committed to the things I have packed, a much smaller number of things than I usually have access to. There is a freedom in living out of a suitcase.
It’s so impressive that you can do that! I’m not sure I could. I do remember when we were renovating our house, we lived in just two rooms and it was very surprising how few things we needed. But I was glad to have the kitchen back eventually!