Nov
Declutter Your Life In Preparation For Becoming Location Independent
Illustration: Jonathan Woodward
In the run up to your departure for your first LIP location, you will have a 1001 things to do. Putting your whole life into storage may be one of them.
If you’re planning to become location independent in the not too distant future (and even if you’re not but you’re drowning under the weight of your stuff), you can make this task a lot simpler and stress-free by starting to declutter right now - especially if you’re a hoarder.
Here is a simple process to help make this task a lot easier…
1) Start small and slowly go through your possessions
Starting your clear-out several months before you have to put everything into storage (even a year in advance) gives you plenty of time to organise yourself and prevent you from making hasty decisions. This is especially important if you have collated years and years of possessions and you’re a hoarder by nature - it gives you time to get used to the idea of decluttering and helps overcome some of the psychological barriers to doing this.
If getting started in itself seems like a daunting task, then chunk it down into smaller parts and start with one room then move on to the next; or if even that is too much, start with one closet or one chest of drawers or one corner of a room and then move on to the next.
2) Categorise Your Possessions
As you’re going through your things, consider categorising the items into the following groups:
- Will need as a LIP & take with me
- Won’t need but want to keep
- Won’t need, don’t want
- Unsure
3) Now comes the fun part! Start right now by getting rid of the things you won’t need and don’t want.
Not only will you find this one of the most exhilirating and liberating things you can do (really, you will - it is a shockingly good feeling) - it may also earn you some money to put in the kitty.
Here are some places you can get rid of your stuff:
- Ebay
- Freecycle
- Neighborrow
- Local charity shops
- Friends and family
4) Once you’ve whittled down your “Won’t need, don’t want” possessions, go back to your “unsure” list and make a second pass.
Any items that have moved into the “Won’t need, don’t want” category, go back to step 3 and get rid of them now.
5) As you get closer to your departure date, review your “Won’t need but want to keep” list.
Ask yourself if, after a passage of time, your feelings have changed about any items on the list. You may even want to further segment this list into things that you want to keep for now but may not want the next time you come back and review what you’ve got (this does happen after you’ve lived as a LIP and realised just how little you need in the way of possessions and how, if you’re paying to store them, it changes your attitude towards them).
6) Make a personal inventory of everything you own.
Once you’re comfortable that everything has been whittled down to the things you really do want to keep, consider using either a simple written list, a spreadsheet by room or by using an online personal inventory service like this one to create an inventory of everything you own and keep track of its whereabouts.
This is a useful exercise to complete, so that should you need anyone to organise anything, send you anything or sort anything out for you when you’re travelling - or you need to find anything whenever you’re back - you’ll know exactly where a specific item is and won’t have to go rooting around in unopened boxes to find it.
A note about the sentimental stuff…
I know how it feels to let go of personal possessions and sentimental items that belonged to a loved one who has died - I kept my Mum’s make-up bag for 2 years after she’d died, complete with gunky lipsticks and all.
These are some of the hardest things to let go of - but the question I asked myself when having to decide what to keep was this: “Did it really mean a lot to my Mum or was it just something she used that I’ve now attached more importance to than she ever did?”
If you want more tips, not only has Leo Babauta of Zen Habits recently compiled 10 resources and inspirations for decluttering your home, he has also written a number of posts about decluttering previously, such as “How to Declutter” and “15 Great Decluttering Tips” - that are worth checking out.
Happy Decluttering!
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We are in the process of deciding what to get rid of right now. I think that we are doing a great job. Since we are both teachers we will have some time off between Christmas and New Years. The stuff will be flying to eBay and what does not sell there will go straight to Good Will.
Another thing we have done is gotten with our families and told them not to get us anything for Christmas. Is it really important to give some junk that someone is not really going to need for a Christmas present? We have given them two options. Since we have so much to do to get ready for our adventure we have asked them to use the money that they would normally spend to come and visit us instead. Mrs. Coach Kip’s family has already been here. It was a great present. I hope mine will be visiting over New Years.
The other option is of course CASH. Who does not like cash. If they really want to get us something then that is what we need. Mrs. Kipke will be taking a class with the Travel Channel so she can become a freelance journalist. We of course need the equipment and the education on how to do a good job. Since they know that we will not be spending the money on just anything they are ok with it.
Besides it is much more pleasant to live a life that is simple and without clutter then have to keep up with all the stuff.
Coach Kip
Hey Coach Kip - nice to hear from you again!
You have made an excellent point about Xmas pressies…we keep getting that question from people at the moment..”what do you want?” - and you’re right, cash is always nice especially when you don’t need nor want lots of things that you can’t use/carry with you.
Happy Decluttering!!
Hi Lea… great - could have done with this post - like 6 months ago
teehee… everyone out there who hasn’t reached this stage yet - I highly recommend you take heed of Lea’s post! we’ve just finished decluttering and it was a complete nightmare…
We allowed ourselves - eerrmm - less than a week… it was nowhere near long enough to capitalise on things we could sell…
good luck - and you will feel lighter afterwards
All great tips, Lea.
I would add that you should get into a truly ruthless mindset when decluttering your life. This is the best way I’ve found to seriously cut down on my piles of “stuff”.
Just like packing your luggage/backpack, if there’s any doubt in your mind about whether you should keep something or not, the answer is that you should probably get rid of it.
My rule of thumb for clothes applies to just about anything else: if you haven’t worn it in six months and it’s not seasonal, you don’t need it. Same applies to kitchen utensils and appliances (do you really *need* a panini maker?), gadgets, CDs, toys, etc.
@Freebird Pro - ooops sorry about the timing with that! A week?!?!? Having said that, we put a lot of things into a larger storage room at first and then sold more on our first trip back to the UK so we could then organis a smaller storage room. It gives you such a different perspective when you’ve lived without your things for a while and I found it made the decision-making process so much easier the 2nd time round.
BTW - Are there any posts you’d like me to write so the timing works better for you??
@Mike - great tip - being ruthless is definitely the best mindset to be in. I think hardcore travellers are often quite good at this - probably from years of having to whittle down everything they wanted to fit in their backpack. Now what do you have against panini makers, eh?!?
Hi Lea
Thanks for the reply.
Just in case you do feel inclined to write your posts around the things I’m working on at the moment here’s a snippet into my existing things to do list:
1. Sort out insurance to cover expensive new laptop and Paul’s camera equipment.. Nomad insurance doesn’t seem to cover this type of thing… So we may need to get individual insurance on each of our prized professional equipment..??
2. Establish company format, tax implications etc…
Waiting for international tax expert to come back to me…
3. Decide which visa is most suitable and apply for it..
Can’t do that - until point 2 is done!!
4. Get set up with Skype - get mobile phone unlocked, and work out what to do about changing telephone numbers when changing sim cards in the different countries.. (perhaps use a consistent skype number and forward to various mobile numbers which will alternate depending which country I’m in?)
5. Figure out what luggage to take (read your book!)
6. See everyone we want to see before we head off and make sure they know how to use skype etc…
7. Finish the contract I’m working on at the moment
8. Keep on developing new ideas and securing new contracts
9. Keep up the daily yoga routine
10. Have fun and have an excellent Xmas
We leave on 1st January….. Very exciting times, and very busy…
bye for now ….
Thanks for the insight into your “to do” list
1) You’ll find that many insurance companies have a limit on the max. amount they’ll cover for high value items and that sometimes, it’s just not worth paying the extra…altho’ if it’s a shiny new laptop, then it may well be!
4) Do you have to be contactable by mobile all the time? I’ve found that I barely switch mine on nowadays. If it’s for clients, I usually just email them my new no. wherever I am (but actually haven’t done this in a long time) - but I don’t really work on an ‘on call’ basis so always schedule any calls in advance and use my skypeIn number. Cuts out this problem perfectly!!
Not long to go now for you….