A question like this is usually asked seeking answers like family, money, or Netflix. My question, however, is about the physical items that you own.
When we decided to put all our belongings into storage and drive around North America for a year in a small SUV, staying in hotels, we didn’t quite comprehend how little room we’d have for stuff. Stuff like soaps, clothes, books, snacks, computers, etc. We own a lot of stuff.
Once I finished packing our car with the stuff we chose, we knew we’d chosen too much stuff. Packed to the max, I had to slam the back doors hard to cram the contents in. Rearview mirror? Useless. Comfort? Unacceptable.
Fortunately, our first leg was only an hour and a half away. We unpacked into our hotel room and tasked ourselves with cutting back.
We shipped a Nintendo Switch, camera bag, and GoPro bag (I’m only keeping the GoPro and one mount), to our kids to hold for us.
It’ll be tough without my DSLR camera, because I’m used to prioritizing pictures over the experiences. This time I won’t let myself. I’ll take phone photos for sharing, then just enjoy.
We left some books and other stuff in our hotel room for the staff to decide if they want. Overall, we cut back about a suitcase sized amount of stuff. We have more cutting to do.
For us, what’s important is about 7 days worth of clothes to repeat each week, our laptops, our Kindles, a cooler for drinks, stuff for our dog Chip, prescriptions and supplements, deodorant, and our pillows. Anyone who has stayed in a hotel understands needing good pillows.
What would be important to pack for you in this situation?