Five years ago I packed a suitcase and my whole life fit in it... now I've got a storage unit in three cities.

Last week I was in Bali trying to edit a video in a coworking space that had 20 different people on calls at once... it reminded me of 2019 when I first started this lifestyle and worked from a hammock in Costa Rica. My setup back then was just a laptop and a cheap pair of earbuds, no backup hard drive or anything. Now I'm running two monitors, a portable router, and a noise-cancelling headset that cost me $300 last month. I flew to Lisbon after that and my bag weighed 15 kilos over the limit because of all the gear I've collected over time. It's funny how much stuff we accumulate when we're supposed to be living light... has anyone else just given up on the minimalist dream and accepted the chaos?

3 comments

3 Comments

riley_miller2518d ago

That line about "packing a suitcase and your whole life fit in it" really hit me. I was listening to a podcast a few days ago where someone was talking about the same thing - how they started traveling with just a backpack and now they've got shipping containers full of gear. The hammock in Costa Rica part made me laugh because I remember when people acted like working from anywhere was this magical, simple thing.

christopherwilson18d ago

My buddy did the whole digital nomad thing for about two years. He started with a single duffel bag and a laptop, swore it was the only way to live. Then he met a girl, bought a guitar, got into photography, and suddenly he was paying for extra baggage on every flight. Last I heard he'd shipped a whole bicycle to Thailand and was complaining about storage. Real easy to keep things simple when you're still imagining the hammock.

robinson.hannah17d ago

My cousin shipped a kayak to Vietnam once and then had to sell it a week later @christopherwilson.