Today I was thinking about how we downsized one room in our former home. This was the office. We used to store printing paper in boxes in the closet. We had bins of documents for filing. Books on shelves and in more boxes. Drawers with other office supplies like pens, staples, paperclips, tape and envelopes.
As digital nomads, the contents of the office now fits in a small Ziploc bag. It contains 6 paperclips, 5 comfortable pens, 6 envelopes and 2 memory sticks in case we need it. We've never used it. We also travel with one notebook each to doodle or take notes. If we need paper, we use it from our books.
Books are now in digital form which we read or listen to from our phone. I can't believe we had a whole room dedicated to an office.
How do we decide what to keep and give away? We think about the seasons that we will be heading to. For example, when we traveled to Brasil, we knew we were heading into summer so we packed the few light clothing we acquired in Portugal. We were unprepared for how hot it is in Brasil. We donated most of what we had and purchased a few very light pieces instead.
Now that we've chosen to be at the beach more often, there's another opportunity for donating again.
I brought too many shoes with me, in case I had to attend business meetings. They take up too much room and weight in my suitcase so I will say goodbye to a couple of them. At the beach, business and casual wear include flip flops.
If you are thinking about how to downsize to travel, it's easy. Be prepared to let go of things. It's a valuable lesson in becoming emotionally and physically detached from possessions that one can live without to be able to travel freely. This is my office today.
