I don’t think most people really understand the desire to be ‘location independent’. It does go against what most people would consider success (being a house, owning a nice car, etc.). It kind of means abandoning a lot of those expectations doesn’t it? With that in mind, what was the hardest thing for you to give up?
I’m worried about giving up my car. I know, there will probably be plenty of opportunities to rent or times when a car would be more of a hinderance than a help, but I love the independence of it.
I don’t consider myself as a nomad but as some kind of bizar expat. I currently live my life in two places and I was going crazy because of all the things I needed to take care of. I had a lot off stuff because I didn’t know any better. I started searching online for tools to manage my things better and that’s how I discovered minimalism. By now, I can almost fit all my possessions in the back of a car.
To the car thing. Well at the end your always a little bit depended on a location or multiple locations. This could be out of financial (I can’t afford myself space travel yet), legal or voluntary constraints. By owning a car, you add some kind of constraint, which can be okay if you don’t want to travel the whole world but you’re fine limiting yourself to a geographic location (for example. North America or Europe) until you get rid of it. Yes, once you have car, you don’t need to own it forever, it’s just a tool that gives you some freedom but also a lot of liabilities.
This really depend on where you live. If you live in a reasonably sized city in Europe or Asia, a car is more of a hinderance than a help—as you write. At the moment I’m in Lisbon, Portugal, and owning a car here would not add any value to my life, and I would not seriously consider it unless I had a dedicated parking space (which is very rare in the city).
Mostly you can just walk , take public transportation (bus , metro , train , tram , ferry ), Uber , Taxify or eCooltra (by the minute electrical scooter rental) to anywhere in the city for about €1-5. If you need to go further, you can rent a car for about €10 per day. With all these options available with a tap, a car is really not needed.
Anyway, back to the topic…
Personally, I didn’t find it too hard to give up anything. After moving countries a handful times and doing some backpacking in my early 20s, I realized how little I actually needed to be happy. In fact, less turned out to be more.
If I am to name one thing however, it’s probably a nice stereo & home cinema system . But I find that a set of good headphones and occasionally going to the local IMAX theatre more than covers those needs.
Things were surprisingly easy to give up for us to be honest. We were already moving away from Sweden, and our things felt more like a bother than an asset at the time we started nomading. It was pretty hard to decide what to put in the luggage initially, but now that we don’t need to make that decision anymore, it’s become a lot easier.
Every time I sleep on a Casper mattress, I re-remember how much we love ours, and every time we get to my parents’ place and get to cook with the thermomix we re-remember how much fun that is. But we don’t actively miss it.
My husband is more of a gamer than I am, and I think he’s missing his graphics card quite a bit, but there’s solutions for that. He hasn’t missed it quite enough to go for an external one, though, so that’s saying something. We’re very excited to see how things work with Google’s Stadia, so there’s a few solutions in sight on that.
I’m worried about giving up my car. I know, there will probably be plenty of opportunities to rent or times when a car would be more of a hinderance than a help, but I love the independence of it.
It helps that we quite actively dislike cars. We moved from Bavaria to Sweden to no longer need one and threw a party when we sold it
My cats
Oh man! That is a pretty tough one. Hope you retained the right to visit them from time to time :). It can make one feel really guilty about the decision but nomading with pets is… really hard, and they probably wouldn’t have been very happy.
I never felt like I gave anything up… If anything, by staying I gave up my freedom.
I can do what I want, when I want… and I have the flexibility to go to the best places that suit my requirements at the time. Also I can go to places where there are better opportunities.
We have sold a large house, a car and everything we own with the exception of about 6 boxes of stuff that will stay at a relative’s house and we are feeling pretty good about it. My husband has struggled with giving up his extensive book collection (kept about 30) and for me giving up medical insurance is scary. Traveling around while needing prescription medicine is going to be a challenge.
Generally we are confronted with the fact that we didn’t need or even want most of it.
I never considered giving up my car … untill it got total-loss in a car accident. Replaced it with an electric bike ;-). But I still own a house, not quite ready to give that up, but thinking about letting it. Anyone experience with that?
Hi, I have taken the minimalist route first, for me starting as I commuted into Denmark from the UK and lived 5 days a week in the back of a 20ft sailing boat. As days grew into months I found that I was increasingly frustrated with my families need for more. Despite not getting change there then i slowly reduced my own footprint to now having a van i live out of… now when I say van i mean just about that, it is very minimalist and thanks to the Stitches & Steel conversion it is not a camper or at least not as most would label as one.
Now because of this, it made me also rid myself of another thing that didn’t give joy, which happened to be my wife of 22yrs😱.
I’ve kids at 21 & 18 and even they understand and so still do not think I’ve given up anything (as yet).
With reference to minimalism I still smile as I see the folks in airports red faced and stressed as I grab my bag and flow through the process… never gets old!!
So honestly (back to the topic) hardest thing ive lost is the pets, and my dog that I’ve had to leave behind, since my kids can join me throughout the travelling, but sadly not my dogs
Mein Name ist neo35 wenn ich überlege müßte man ein Fach nach vorn schauen und durch bösses gutes Taten zu erbringen ich hatte 19 Jahren mein lächel verloren und jetz versuche ich ihn mir nicht mehr zu zweifeln wie Jesus das uns lehrt nim ein tedy und geh mit ihn einkaufen also Offenheit zu sich selbst und die anderen Tugend ich werde durch das böses gehen ja das Feuer müsste mal immer löschen ihn sich. Ich habe mich heute verlaufen leicht
, take public transportation (bus 
, metro 
, train 
, tram 
, ferry 
), Uber 
, Taxify 
or eCooltra 
(by the minute electrical scooter rental) to anywhere in the city for about €1-5. If you need to go further, you can rent a car for about €10 per day. With all these options available with a tap, a car is really not needed.
. But I find that a set of good headphones 
and occasionally going to the local IMAX theatre 
more than covers those needs.
My husband is more of a gamer than I am, and I think he’s missing his graphics card quite a bit, but there’s solutions for that. He hasn’t missed it quite enough to go for an external one, though, so that’s saying something. We’re very excited to see how things work with Google’s Stadia, so there’s a few solutions in sight on that.
