Living Lightness of Being

When I started on this little excursion, I was pulling a lot of gear and luggage, about 6 pieces worth. Two suitcases, a laptop bag, a satchel, 2 backpacks..

Now Im down to two backpacks, a luggage bag and a laptop bag.

I still have too much stuff.

I could easily shed one of the backpacks, but its good to have a spare.

The best way figure out what you REALLY need to live light, imagine having to carry all that you own around with you. Constantly. Every day. Truly excellent motivation to shed the superfluous. Ounces count.

The essentials are: a weeks worth of t-shirts, underwear and socks. (Clean and dry socks are ESSENTIAL.) 2-3 pairs of jeans, 3 pairs of shoes/sandals/boots, dress shirt and pants (more if working), and one or two fleece jackets, vests and tough outerwear.

Maximum.

I get rid of most of the books I have once Im done, with pending reading kept light. Books are HEAVY.

Paperwork accumulates, but they have to be kept. Only the essential.

Its tempting to load up on gear too, with all the stuff you think you need. You dont. :-/ All you need is what it takes to get the job done, no more.
A laptop with a CD burner, small external drive, 2 cameras and bag for cables. Even a PDA I find irritating.

But you DO need backup. Specially for the work I do. Hard drives fail, CD's fail less often.

I hate carrying around my CD case, but it has saved my arse far too often.

And that's still too much stuff to be carrying around, which is why a place to park most of it is like a dream come true.

Which is why I dream of a homebase to operate out of.

And even there, living light...

A flat mattress, a table, chairs and a few stands. Thats it.

A flat screen LCD with tuner hooked up to an old computer is all the entertainment center I need.

Although, I will prolly drag an old Lay-Z-Boy off the streets.

Some things you just cant do without. :-)