The tiny tent I once lived in for two weeks in Italy.
First, a confession. I used to be a hoarder. I collected books, statues of elephants, old documents and all kinds of other stuff that I thought I might enjoy having around the house. When I travelled I always carried the maximum amount allowed by they airline and frequently had to pay overweight fees on my baggage when returning home from holidays abroad. I always had too many clothes and a lot of other unneccessary stuff. Like most people I continued to move to bigger flats and then finally a house where I could continue to collect and store things.
Then about 5 years ago I got divorced. I could no longer afford to live in a house and had to rent a series of apartments. Moving is no fun when you have to carry all this stuff! I started travelling alone and suddenly I had to carry all my luggage by myself and discovered that I couldn´t do it anymore. I felt more and more like material things were holding me back and being a burden on my life. I decided to make some changes.
First I started reading everything I could find about light travel. I´m by no means a master of the art of travelling light, but now I normally carry no more than 10kg of luggage and that includes a maximum of 10 pieces of clothing (not counting socks and underwear). Travelling is much easier this way, both when I travel for meetings and for fun. Now my holidays are about experiences and connections with people, not about carrying or worrying about my material posessions.
I found myself thinking more and more about reducing my posessions and searched for inspiration. I read the book “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau which made a profound impression on me. I have since reread it several times. I discovered that there is a whole movement of people searching for a more simple and meaningful life through minimalism. Two websites on the subject that I like very much are www.theminimalists.com and www.missminimalist.com. It is an ongoing process but I´m slowly getting rid of more and more things. Every time I take a bag or a box to the trash or to donate to charity I feel like a little weight has been lifted.
For the time being I have settled in a small house that I bought with my mum and living in such a small space is really a good motivation for clutter reduction. In the beginning I was all about organizing more so I could fit more in less space, but now I realize that this was just a way of putting the clutter away, not reducing it. Our house is about 100 square meters (1100 square feet) in size, and my private room is about 20 m2 (215 sf). My 17 year old son lives here too and we share a kitchen, living room, dining room and bathroom. We even had my sister living in the living room for a few months this year after she broke up with her boyfriend. We usually get along well and don´t feel bad about having such a small space. Another inspiration for simple living is the documentary “We the Tiny House People” that I love.
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