Gijs Heerkens

Only a backpack 🎒

Gijs Heerkens

Four years ago I did a try-out to live in a foreign city for a month. I chose Barcelona. I wanted to discover if living abroad is something I like and how this would all work out with my company and clients.

It was back in the days when Nomad List’s MVP was launched as a spreadsheet by Pieter Levels.

It was a nice coincidence that this happened right at that time. I started to get interested in the digital nomad life style more and more.

After that month in Barcelona my conclusion was clear. It had been great and it turned out to be no problem at all to manage my company remotely. Hence, I wanted to go live abroad in different cities in the world while working online.

Finally I gave away and sold all my stuff in The Netherlands and canceled my rental flat. Since that moment I only have a carry-on backpack with everything I need.

The idea of possessing only a few things was a bit scary in the beginning and people often can’t understand it when I tell them about it.

But I don’t ever miss anything. And it gives me peace of mind to have so little stuff to care for.

My 5 tricks to bring so little stuff are:

  1. You don’t use as many clothes as you might think. Just check your wardrobe and count the clothes you are really ever wearing.
  2. Washing machines are everywhere. If you wash your clothes once a week, there is no difference between traveling one week or three months or four years. So bring clothes for one week.
  3. Don’t bring daily toiletries because you can buy them everywhere.
  4. Quality is way more important than quantity. I decided to only buy high quality stuff. That is more expensive of course, but you don’t need to replace it every year. And user satisfaction is higher.
  5. You can carry a lot of things on your body during flights, like clothes and accessories if you make sure you have proper zipped pockets.

I have 62 items left and bring them everywhere. My fully packed carry-on weights 9.6 kilos so I can bring it into the cabin of all airliners. Less waiting lines at airports.

I listed all my items below. I wear the bold ones on my body.

I’m using Trello to make sure I bring everything.

PS: OK I lied 😀. I do still have a bicycle parked on the streets in Barcelona and a winter jacket stored at my parents’ house in The Netherlands to survive winters over there.

Exit mobile version