Why Everything I Own Fits in One Bag
About 2-3 years ago, I decided I wanted to start to declutter my life gradually. I went from one backpack and a carry-on bag to just one backpack. I count the following things as my belongings at this point, When I say "things that I count," it does actually mean that I'm somewhat cheating. I did only live with the above things until I moved into an apartment earlier in 2014. Since then I bought some kitchen utensils as well as a mattress, bed, a couch, some lamps and a desk. I do plan on getting rid of these things in early May again, so I'm putting them on a separate "temporary" list in the meantime. If you have ever cleared your desk one morning before working, you'll know the feeling of tranquility and peace this can give you. I found that that is exactly what happens when I got rid of most things I owned, apart from the crucial essentials. Here is a list of the amazing benefits I observed from getting rid of stuff, In order to see things clearly in life, and observe reality as it truly happens, owning less stuff is a super valuable step. Of course, I'd never claim to be at a place where I can truly do thatsee things as they are, without attachment or judgementbut I have an intuition that owning less things sets me on the right track towards that. There are of course moments when you have to go shopping and buy new things. I managed to do this while keeping to a minimalist lifestyle with one simple rule, So if I buy new shoes, I throw out my old pair of shoes. If I buy a new coat, sweater or T-shirt, the old sweater, coat or T-shirt are thrown out or given away. Between my co-founder Joel and myself this lead us to call it "replacement shopping" or "clothes replacement day.", Over the last few years, I also went up in quality gradually every time a new clothes replacement day came around. Recently, I invested in a MissionWorkshop backpack 380, ordered a pair of custom tailored jeans from Gebrueder Stitch 535 and bought a coat from Burberry 2200. The prices for these things may sound expensive at first, but I plan on owning and using them for several years to come, which makes this well worth the cost broken down over that period of time. I've also made an effort to prioritize function over formalthough at a very high level of quality, luckily often both are included. Dustin Curtis had some great thoughts on this with his post "The Best.", The thought for many to get started with one bag living is a scary one. Luckily Greg McKeown wrote a terrific book titled "Essentialism The Disciplined Pursuit of Less," where he outlines a very handy technique, Jessica Dang also wrote a great getting-started guide on one bag living that you can check out. One-bag living has simplified my life in a way that very few other things have and I can highly recommend giving it a try.