The freedom of owning less
As I already wrote in a previous post: for the coming weeks (probably months) I will be living lean and mean, with only the stuff I can carry and/or roll.1
One of the last items of furniture I own, is the couch I am sitting on right now, while writing these lines. It will hopefully get picked up by its future owner on Monday. The Saturday after that I will get rid of my bed and my desk and that’s it!
It feels incredible.
During our lifetime we tend to amass an unbelievable shitload of crap. A couple of years ago I made myself the promise to throw out all the things I hadn’t used (or worn) in over a year. In the last couple of weeks I still managed to gather a huge pile of stuff, that I wasn’t using (anymore) and that wasn’t worth keeping.
I donated half of my wardrobe to the Oxfam second hand shop2. I put most of my books into a public bookcase. I sold bikes, toys, old electronics3, shoes and furniture. This will actually pay for my trip to New York at the end of this month!
I am now able to just pick up my backpack and my suitcase and go wherever, whenever I like.4
And I will definitely take lots of pictures, wherever I will go.
The good thing about those is, that they don’t weigh anything and they need no physical space, so I can take (and keep) as many of them as I want.
- Meaning: A backpack and a suitcase. I will make a list of all the items in the coming weeks (and probably add some pictures as well). ↩︎
- In Germany most of the organizations that are collecting old and used clothes are commercial businesses, and not charitable organizations they would like to be seen as. So if you really care, where your stuff ends up, check fairwertung.de. ↩︎
- If you still have an old Sony WM-DD–33 Walkman lying around: sell it on eBay! ↩︎
- I am very lucky that I can earn my living in a way that is pretty much location-independent. ↩︎