Thoughts :
Minimalism
Why?
In May of 2023, I thought - maybe I should finally move out of my city that I lived in for the past 18 years?
A quick walk around my apartment made me realize how much stuff I own, that I don’t really need.
As I didn’t have a car, neither lots of money - I couldn’t really allow myself to move out with a lot of things.
After implementing minimalism - In 2023 I moved 6 times, and went to a lot of places with just a backpack.
How?
I started by getting rid of stuff that I won’t need:
- 27” Monitor for my laptop, why do I need that if my laptop already provides me with a very high quality screen?
- Vacuum cleaner.
- Pouffe.
- Rice cooker.
- Documents and souvenirs were all scanned and moved to my parents.
- Unused clothes were given out to charity.
- And many more that there’s a low chance that I will need to have throughout my journey.
Having so few things allowed me to try packing myself into a backpack.
What backpack? Well, I thought I will for sure want to fly cheap airlines like Ryanair without having to pay extra for luggage - and that brought me to a 40L backpack that I still use on my every trip to this day.
Packing at first was not that easy, but having a strict limit on the size made me even further reduce my wardrobe, cosmetics and other accessories.
Replacements I implemented in my life:
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Showering gel | Soap bar 1 |
| Shampoo | Shampoo bar 1 |
| Conditioner | Conditioner bar 1 |
| Shaving Gel | Soap/conditioner |
| Face wash | Soap |
| Face cream | Coconut oil |
| Face tonic | Not needed anymore |
| Lip balm | Not needed anymore 2 |
| Heavy coat | Good quality Merino underwear |
Wardrobe
I managed to implement a capsule wardrobe into my life. That’s how my current wardrobe looks like:
- 3x white T-shirts
- 1x white airy shirt
- 1x navy blue light cotton pants
- 1x beige light cotton pants
- 1x beige shorts
- 1x black sweatshirt
- 1x gray pullover
- 1x old The North Face 3-in-one jacket.
- 5x underwear boxers
1x jeansI stopped using jeans, because they’re very heavy and take a really long time to dry.
When it comes to accessories:
- Wool crocheted olive hat made by my mom
- Wool crocheted olive scarf made by my mom
- Gloves
List of my things
Some time ago I collected all my stuff, weighted them and made a list available at Lighter Pack.
Impact
- Cheaper trips: I don’t have to pay for RyanAir luggage, it’s a bit of a saving.
- Less to maintain, less to care, less to spend: using soap for almost all of my skincare removes the need of buying stuff every once in a while.
- Easier decisions: less clutter means less options to decide from - no more “should I wear X or Y?”.
- Environmental impact: consuming less also makes me waste less, just imagine all the stuff you bought and rarely or never used.
- Improved relationships: by caring less about things, you start caring more about people, and they’re the ones you attach to.
Why use non-liquid equivalents? It was well explained at onebag.com/packing-liquids ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Lip balm is an interesting thing, because I was on accutane for a total of 2 years, it made my skin very dry and irritated, so I had to use the lip balm. But the problem I noticed is that I still had to use the lip balm a long time after accutane - that turned out not to be really necessary, after I stopped using the artificial moisturizer on my lips my lips were in a really bad state for a few days, but then my skin came back to working properly and since then I have used lip balm maybe twice. ↩︎