4 Ways to Identify the Important Belongings in Your Life
How living in 49 places in 9 months turned me into a minimalist
The Backstory
*To jump straight to the 4 methods without the context click here (may not work in some browsers).
As I write this, me and my wife have been living out of a carry-on suitcase and a backpack each for 9 months now, travelling the world and working at the same time. My wife has been working as a locum vet and I’ve been running my UK-based product design business.
During this time we’ve lived in house-sits, hotels & home-stays, Airbnbs, caravans & farms, apartments, motels and even a boat. 49 places and counting.
Before we could leave everything behind in the UK though, we had to spend months boxing and labelling our possessions for long-term storage. As well as deciding what stuff we didn’t need and selling, donating or recycling it.
It took forever.
Then somehow, at long last, we were done. The last spatula was boxed up and our stuff was put into storage. We said our goodbyes and hopped on a plane.
At first, we were too excited to give much thought to what we’d just done. Too distracted to dwell on what we’d left behind and what might await us over the coming months.
This travel honeymoon period soon ended though, and living out of a suitcase began to feel somewhat routine, normal even.
Then, and I’m not sure exactly when, I came to a realisation...
I’d hardly given a second’s thought to the personal belonging we’d left behind. I didn’t miss them at all.
Then I began to fantasize. What would it be like to be a full-time nomad? A Jack Reacher type who literally owns nothing but the clothes on his back and the shoes on his feet?
Would it be liberating? Terrifying?
Now for me, this was just a visualisation exercise, as I’m the sort of person that needs a base. I miss our cats (they’re living with friends), I miss having a permanent home and I long for a shed or workshop to tinker in when I have new product ideas.
But aside from a home, cats and a shed, did I need much more?
No, not really.
2 Questions For You…
So far I’ve spoken a lot about myself and my personal experience, so thank you for indulging me to this point. The purpose of this preamble though is to build up to two questions I have for you.
1) If a fire destroyed all of your material possessions tomorrow, what would you actually miss?
2) What would you replace at all costs and what could you maybe, just maybe, live without?
From personal experience, it seems the longer you spend without your belongings, the shorter this list of things you’d replace gets. Let me elaborate.
Everyone has three different “unwritten lists” of belongings:
- The list of things you must have.
- The list of things that are nice to have.
- The list of things you could live without.
The longer you spend without something, the more likely it is to get demoted from one list to the next as you second guess your initial gut feeling.
The thing is, it took three quarters of a year for me to figure out my list of essentials.
What if you want to gain perspective on which belongings are important in your life, but don’t want to wait this long?
4 Ways to Quickly Learn What You Truly Need
1) Go Without Temporarily
Next time you go on a trip, take a smaller bag/suitcase than you normally would. This forces you to reduce what you take, and really consider what’s important to you on a daily basis and what’s not. This can help sort clothes, everyday carry items, and toiletries.
Me and my wife deliberately went travelling with carry-on sized hardshell suitcases. This forced us to carefully consider what we packed. It was one of the best decisions we made when planning this trip.
2) Make Yourself Wait
You’ll never get rid of clutter if you accumulate new belongings as quick as you get rid of old ones. So next time you’re considering buying a non-consumable item, make yourself wait a month first.
Then, after this time has passed, if you still think you need it, go right ahead! More often than not though, you’ll decide the money could be better used elsewhere.
As I only have a suitcase with me, any new purchase usually means getting rid of something else — or makes packing day more of a challenge — so I use this strategy a lot.
3) If in Doubt, Sell
If you’re not sure whether you need certain mid-to-low priced non-sentimental belongings, why not auction them off and make a little extra cash?
There’s no downside!
Think about it, either you make some money and move on, or you decide that letting go was a mistake and so you buy a replacement. At least then you know it’s something you genuinely need. Plus if you buy a replacement second-hand, chances are you won’t lose much money, if any.
I did this a lot right before we left, partly to de-clutter, partly to raise funds for the trip. I haven’t had to repurchase anything I sold so far.
4) Pack it Up
In each room of your house, pack items you don’t use that often into labelled boxes and seal them shut.
Then just live your life like you normally do for a few weeks.
If during this time you find yourself going through the effort of finding the right box and opening it up to get an item, then you can promote that item from “don’t need” to “need” and keep it. You then sell or donate the rest.
(Obviously, this technique won’t work with seasonal items like winter clothes or BBQ equipment.)
You can take this technique to the extreme and pack up almost everything as if you’re moving house. Or better yet, incorporate this technique into an actual house move - only unpacking what you need at your new place when you truly need it and getting rid of the rest.
I’ve used this technique on the go, but with my suitcase in the place of a box. If I haven’t taken something out of my suitcase to use in a month or so, then it goes! I plan on doing this when we return with all our boxed-up belongings.
Over To You
So here are 4 techniques you can use to help figure out what things are truly important and things what you’re simply holding onto “just in case”.
It’s time to take that first step.
What do you need, really?
About The Author
Simon Lyons is a product designer and entrepreneur. His project is Geco Hub, a wall-mounted organiser to de-clutter and give easy access to your important everyday belongings.
