I've lived through minimalism brought about by moving every few months for a project, and I still miss some stuff that I had to throw away or that got lost. Some important things like documents that could have been filed better, some emotional stuff like mementos and souvenirs, and of course photos as negatives and CDs that were taken before digital cameras and cloud storage.
Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
11–20 of 85 posts
Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
#12I met my first “digital nomad” a while back. I have considerably less stuff than he does. Does that make me a digital nomad? My philosophy is merely that I hate clutter and kipple.
I don't understand the snarky feigned confusion around the term "digital nomad". If you move around while working online for extended periods of time, you're a digital nomad. I usually just tell people "I travel while working with a startup remotely" because I'm aware of the term's reputation, but it seems to be an apt description to me.
I think the problem is when you add a label to a lifestyle like this it becomes an aspirational cult and ideological thing. Or something to aspire to at the very least.
It is after all just a circumstance. I know many people who would classify for whom this is just normal life and entirely unworthy of labelling themselves under some status banner.
Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
#13I met my first “digital nomad” a while back. I have considerably less stuff than he does. Does that make me a digital nomad? My philosophy is merely that I hate clutter and kipple.
No one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot.
Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
#14I’ve been around Digital Nomads for a long time and I’ve been working digitally and remotely for periods of time most of my life. The sense of eradication Nomads are looking for can bite you back quite bad. This is something seldom discussed in DN circles, especially by hyper-positive (or toxic positive) digital Bromads of the “I dropship therefore I’m an Internet Entrepreneur” variety. Digital Nomadism is also very…
> can bite you back quite bad
Curious to hear what you mean by that?
Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
#15I met my first “digital nomad” a while back. I have considerably less stuff than he does. Does that make me a digital nomad? My philosophy is merely that I hate clutter and kipple.
No one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot.
I've developed a methodology of throwing it away on receipt :)
Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
#16If you have family, check in before you give the heirloom toy away, your brother or sister may kill you if they're harbouring dibs on it. I am still not forgiven for throwing away one half of Johnsons dictionary, the one with the "oats" joke despite it being mostly damaged, beyond repair and unsellably filthy. I'm writing this looking at a 15th or 16th C wooden stool my mother rescued from a skip. Kondo would have do…
Sure but modern stools are designed to break to make you buy another, so you'll save money in the long run. They don't make them like that anymore. You'll be able to pass it down to your grandkids one day.
Old stools broke as well, but the ones that broke don't exist any more. Only the really good ones remain.
Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
#17I’ve been around Digital Nomads for a long time and I’ve been working digitally and remotely for periods of time most of my life. The sense of eradication Nomads are looking for can bite you back quite bad. This is something seldom discussed in DN circles, especially by hyper-positive (or toxic positive) digital Bromads of the “I dropship therefore I’m an Internet Entrepreneur” variety. Digital Nomadism is also very…
> can bite you back quite bad Curious to hear what you mean by that?
Ask any digital nomads, and if they're not "bromads" they'll be usually ok to admit that they've experienced - at least at one point - a specific form of depression, mostly due to having to deal with all that comes with a self-imposed nomadic life (fleeting in-person relationships, lack of a stable community, lack of feeling "rooted", finding out how hard it becomes when you have to deal with serious health issues, and so on).
Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
#18If you have family, check in before you give the heirloom toy away, your brother or sister may kill you if they're harbouring dibs on it. I am still not forgiven for throwing away one half of Johnsons dictionary, the one with the "oats" joke despite it being mostly damaged, beyond repair and unsellably filthy. I'm writing this looking at a 15th or 16th C wooden stool my mother rescued from a skip. Kondo would have do…
Sure but modern stools are designed to break to make you buy another, so you'll save money in the long run. They don't make them like that anymore. You'll be able to pass it down to your grandkids one day.
We look at something old and think "They don't make them like this..."
No, we make them better. That old thing is lucky to have survived - most things we've made in the past broke. Wood? Oh, yeah, that'll dry out and crack and break in ways that it is easier to buy something new - or buy large woodworking tools. And honestly, if you are worried about long-lasting furniture, be more choosy and spend money for quality.
Also worth mentioning that old furniture was made for a different lifestyle and housing and isn't always as useful as modern furniture is.
Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
#19I don’t live in the country where I was born, and neither do most of my friends…still our apartments are full of stuff… trinkets, art, rescued furniture… to me it’s part of what makes me feel at home and what makes it fun to stay with others!
There’s this chastising of owning things (‘the things own you’) that comes up every now and again, but I think that could be reserved for when these objects stop being something you cherish and start to be something you consume: fast fashion, consumer electronics upgrade cycles, etc.
In this article not owning things seems to be a prerequisite for a certain lifestyle of hopping around the world with a laptop, but if that’s your thing, why not simply rent out your apartment? It seems unlikely to be something you’d want to do for years on end. Although I’d be curious to see some data on that, digital nomad churn rate.
Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure but modern stools are designed to break to make you buy another, so you'll save money in the long run. They don't make them like that anymore. You'll be able to pass it down to your grandkids one day.
Old stools broke as well, but the ones that broke don't exist any more. Only the really good ones remain.
Most of the really good ones have broken too: The ones that remain have been lucky.