Minimize Stuff
It is actually quite easy to travel with minimal gear. The idea is that if one needs something, one just has to purchase it at the destination and then 'donate' it to someone before departing for home. That's great if one has the means, but for most people who want to travel more, there is a need for a budget. This section is devoted to being able to travel with less stuff, while making sure that you have (most) everything you need. You will find gear reviews and other recommendations for making do with less. We call this traveling light intelligently.Less Clutter–More Money for Travel
This article was written for Knoworthy.com. We have reprinted it here for your convenience, but you can view the original article here. In our ongoing effort to provide minimalist travel tips, here we present five things that you can do this week to reduce your clutter and save money so you can travel more. Decluttering your life can seem, well, impossible at times. Or, more likely, it is a project you will start on this weekend, or next month, or when you get back from your vacation this summer. There is always that elusive start date that seems to eternally slip away like a mirage in the desert. The key to decluttering is to start small. Here I present five things in order of difficulty (simplest to most difficult) that you can do this week to start you on your path to a clutter-free life. (more…)Minimalism and Family Life

This is the fourth in a series of posts about minimizing your lifestyle choices so that you can travel more. Last week’s post shows a good way to ease into minimalism.
Over the last few years, minimalism has really taken off as a movement. There are tons of articles and blogs out there which espouse the virtues of a minimalist lifestyle. Unfortunately, most of them are written by young, single men or women. There even seems to be a competition as to how few things they claim to own, usually trying to reach the magic number of 100 items or fewer. There are arguments as to whether a toiletry kit counts as one item or multiple items. Seriously.
I do not want to denigrate these enterprising youths, but a lot of their ideas and articles just do not apply to me and my situation. I have a wife, a 17-year old daughter, a 6-year old daughter and an ex-wife. I also run my own business with my wife. I will never, ever own fewer than 100 things. It’s not going to happen.
I do regularly read blogs like Zen Habits by Leo Babauta, whom I respect immensely as he lives in San Francisco with six children, no car and blogs full-time. Last summer, he traveled to Europe with five of his children and only carried a 16-liter backpack. For reference, a 16-liter backpack is about half the size of a typical backpack that college students use on a daily basis. He’s got some great ideas and I recommend that you check out his blog if you haven’t already. He will show you how to take minimalism to the extreme with a family.
I, however, subscribe to Aristotle’s philosophy on the Golden Mean. I prefer moderation when I do almost anything and find that even as a minimalist, I enjoy some comforts. (more…)
How to Get Rid of Your Stuff – The Ease-Into-It Method
This post is the third in a series called TravlMor, which is designed to show you ways to redesign your life to enable you to travel more often. Currently, we are concentrating on how to reduce the number of things that you own so you can have more money to travel. You might want to check out last week’s post for a more extreme method of how to get rid of your stuff.
If you know that you want to minimize the amount of stuff in your life, but don’t know how to even start, this is the place. Last week, I covered an extreme method to go about this, but honestly, this is not practical for everyone. This week, however, anyone can take advantage of the techniques we share and in a few weeks or months can make a dramatic difference in their lives.
I have found that just a few hours work in this area makes me feel so much better by relieving my stress. When my house is full of clutter, I have a certain amount of tension that never leaves. I think I have a mild case of obsessive compulsive disorder. Once I organize and get rid of the clutter, the tension magically leaves and I can truly relax.
I have noticed that I have a threshold that I can bump up against and can handle the added stress of stuff. However, just a slight increase in the clutter will set me off and I cannot function until I get things squared away. Sara and I have a term for this. We will ask each other if the other is feeling “dzzzt”. As we say this the one asking kind of shudders all over like they are being shocked. It’s easy for Sara to tell that I’m dzzzt because I get very grumpy and short with her. The only thing that can help is for me to get things back in their place.
Sometimes, though, the task can feel overwhelming. There is just so much clutter that I don’t really know what to do. (more…)
How to Get Rid of Your Stuff – The Extreme Method
This post is the second in a series called TravlMor, which is designed to show you ways to redesign your life to enable you to travel more often. Currently, we are concentrating on how to reduce the number of things that you own so you can have more money to travel. If you have not read the first article, you might want to check it out. Don’t worry, it’s not too long. One quick note. Sara tells me that she is afraid that people will think we are wacko after reading this. So, please, don't think we are wacko...
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that you have decided that you want to get rid of all of the superfluous stuff in your life. Well, you have come to the right place. I can say from lots of experience, that getting rid of stuff is one of the most liberating things you can do. For me, it is like lifting a burden from my shoulders. Now, truthfully, I think I might have a problem with this sort of thing. If I did not have a wife and two kids, I quite possibly would not be satisfied until I had nothing but what could fit in my backpack. Sara keeps me under control and let’s me know when I’m going overboard on getting rid of things. Sometimes, she lets me run wild, though.
There are many ways to get rid of things, but for the sake of space, I am going to cover two: the extreme method and the ease-into-it method. I have experience with both. I prefer the extreme method myself, but either way works. (more…)
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