Things I Love Having Wherever I Live in the World

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Our family lives a minimalist life and has been for over 15 years now. We move and travel a lot while having a sedentary life for school or university. We have what we need but own only a few things to live freely, at least regarding our stuff.

What we can do without

There are everyday things we have learned and realized we could do without. I don’t say we would never have those ever again, but we don’t really miss them for now:

• A fixed address (although the administration is not always easy to sort out, we don’t have to pay double rent when we travel. As a result, we don’t really travel anymore per se, we live in a different place)
• Our furniture (we do with what we find in our rentals)
• Decor with a meaning (we mainly do with what we find in our rentals, except for a few small items)
• Various activities with a lot of gear attached to them (we try to be more selective, we don’t miss out on anything, we are just mindful of what activities are most important to us)
• Stuff to entertain friends and family (we have learned to have a great time in a restaurant, renting a house for a weekend, etc. To speak the truth, it gives us more time with our guests!)
• House plants (although we love nature, we can’t move and travel with plants to care of. We try to spend even more time in actual nature instead of having some pots with small plants at home)

What we can’t do without

• Good knives (rentals usually have unsharpened blades)
• Our tech set up for work (headphones with noise cancellation, phone, laptop and tablet)
• A minimal number of home decor/wellness accessories to feel “at home” wherever (a salt lamp and some crystals, for example)
• A yoga mat (a foldable travel one, I have tried to do without, but a towel doesn’t do the job for me)
• A good frying pan (many rentals have some damaged, therefore toxic anti-adhesive ones)
• A printer (I have tried to do without, really, but it’s so time-consuming that we gave up a purchased one that moves with us in Canada, same in France)