A few months ago, someone sent me a link to a blog post. It was a guy sitting much like I did there, surrounded by his 101 possessions. He had changed his life, and went minimal, traveling the world with everything he owns on his back. As you can imagine, it made me curious given the similarity of our situation, as to how many items I actually owned. Turns out I’m not as much of a minimalist as he is, but then again he isn’t running his business from the road. In the end, I decided to attempt the same exercise and I finally got around to it lately. I can’t take credit for the idea, but I thought it was a good one and for me, an interesting opportunity to in a sense quantify my life. So, my magic number is 143. I know over time that number will fluctuate as I lose socks, or buy a new speaker, or donate an item of clothing, or lose stuff, which while rare, does happen.
Clothes
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3 sweaters
9 socks
10 underwear
15 tops
3 shorts
6 pants
4 dress(y) shirts
3 shoes
1 sleeping bag
1 glove
1 tuque
1 winter pants
1 winter jacket
1 towel
1 winter pajama
2 leggings
2 belts
Logistics
3 compression bags
1 large compression ziploc
3 travel ziplocs
1 tupperware
Tons of plastic bags
1 lifestraw
1 electronics case – reused conair hair trimmer
2 electronics screwdrivers
1 multi-tool knife
Headlamp
2 backpacks
1 day/grocery bag
Passport
Driver’s License
2 credit cards
4 bank cards
1 aeroplan card
1 med insurance card
1 vaccination history booklet
1 checkbook (don’t ask, I have no idea why I’ve kept this)
1 card holder
2 pens
1 mosquito repellent
Fun
Snorkel and mask
Speaker
Kobo E-reader
Platypus liquid bag
Camera
Mini tripod
Sports headphones
Toiletries
1 toiletry bag
1 deodorant
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Body cream
Baby oil
Rubbing Alcohol
Hydrogen peroxide
Aspirin
Qtips
Band aids
Immodium pills
Hair/beard trimmer and accessories
Chapstick
Dental floss
Exfoliation glove
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Work
Laptop
Additional USB screen
3 backup hard drives
power strip
international plug converter
1 wireless mouse
mousepad
2 unlocked smartphones
headset
2 Power banks
Relevant chargers
So that’s everything. There are definitely some items of clothing I’ll be getting rid of. I’ll get around to it. I’ve already gotten rid of a bunch of items, mainly clothing and some random papers, etc. That process of culling will continue. In the meantime, below is my list of must-haves. There are a few things I plan on getting when I get back to the states but the list is very short. All are below.
Most useful/prized possessions: in my opinion the following are absolutely necessary for a digital backpacker
Lenovo Laptop
Logitech Wireless mouse & pad
Motorola X 3rd Gen smartphone
UE Roll speaker
Lifestraw water container with built-in filter
Olympus Tough TG-4 Camera: waterproof to 15m, dustproof, shockproof, freezeproof
2 Power banks
Universal plug/power adapter
External hard drives
Zagg headset
Snorkel & mask
Credit cards and bank cards
Passport
Compression bags
1 Travel Backpack (Deuter 50L + 10) and one work/day backpack (Swiss Gear)
1 small/light Nike daypack/laundry bag
6 plug power strip
In the end, it all fits into this, mainly thanks to my compression bags.
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Still to buy:
3/4 pants
Aladdin pants
Plastc or Swype: https://plastc.com/ or http://www.swypcard.com/
Shorty Wetsuit
Dive computer
Dry snorkel
Dry bag
Speedo towel
Extra ue roll
Extra battery for camera
Fast charger
128 gb SD card for my phone
New running/day shoes
Sandals
Eventually, a new laptop
I have everything I need. Sure there are a few things I wouldn’t mind having but they aren’t necessary and each purchase requires a pretty comprehensive cost/benefit analysis to determine how much use I’ll get out of it, whether it will save me money, and is it worth the weight and space it’ll take up. It’s quite possible many of the things in my to buy list won’t be purchased, but I like keeping a short list partly out of curiosity and partly to track how my priorities change over time. In any case, hopefully this will serve as a good reference a few years down the line of how simple my life was during this period.