Lead singer Rai Thistlewayte from Australian band Thirsty Merc did one of those “at home with” interviews recently.
“Owning stuff is a burden,” he told the journalist.
“That said, I learnt the hard way. So, now I like to keep it simple. You end up putting an apartment’s worth of stuff into a storage unit, then you don’t use it or even see most of it for two years and you wonder why you ever needed it in the first place, ’cause you’re not missing it any more and you’re perfectly good without it. Now, you’ve got to get around to cleaning all your stuff out and sell it, give it away, that’s a process in itself. Moving forward, I reckon it’s gonna be more about just getting the bare essentials. In my opinion, it’s better on the environment to just have a smaller footprint too. And I think it’s great that more people are seeming to be feeling the same way about all these material things.”
How funny, I thought, that’s my life. I’ve lived nomadically for seven years. It started when I put my few belongings in a storage unit the size of half a single garage (with room to spare) and lived out of two suitcases. I’ve dropped into the storage shed to pick up birth certificates and old jumpers. My sleeping bag, or a book. But in seven years I’ve never wanted any of the stuff back in my life. If I’m ever missing something, I prefer to fend, make do or make without.
I realised I know quite a few people who live like this. Most have way more stuff than me in their storage units. But all of us find we miss none of it.
Do you live like this? Feel the same?
