About this blog
Two Bags and a Suitcase is a blog about life, travel, minimalism, and working from anywhere. That sounds like a very broad scope… and it is. But there are clear relationships between those four items. Together I believe they are the pillars of a life of freedom, independence, responsibility, and ultimately happiness. Below I will explain a little more about each of the four pillars.
Life
Life is… well, pretty much everything. I’m not going to tell you how to live yours. But I will through this blog share with you some things about mine. I used to live a pretty boring life. I worked in an office eight hours a day, had a pretty comfortable house, went out for drinks with the same five friends each friday night, and that was about it.
All of that changed about five years ago. I now travel the world, running my business from my laptop, doing things I have never done before, and making new friends everywhere. My life is a lot more exciting now. I’m also happier. I hope that my posts about life will inspire you to question your own assumptions, and try to get the maximum out of your life.
Travel
One of the things I enjoy most is travelling. It is the best way to learn about other people’s customs, viewpoints and way of life. It also enables you to better reflect upon your own views and practices. Travelling makes you grow both professionally and as an individual. I’ve never met anyone who became a worse person because of travelling.
Since I travel a lot, many posts on this blog are written while travelling. The places I visit serve as a backdrop for my articles, and the people I meet as the main characters (or at least the inspirators). This isn’t, however, a travel blog.
Minimalism
If I had to summarize minimalism in one phrase, I would say it means “don’t buy stuff you don’t really need”. Most psychological studies into the matter have shown that having more stuff doesn’t make you happier. Worse, it will often weigh you down. Having a lot of stuff makes it harder to move, travel, and make drastic changes to your life. Also, having more stuff increases your ecological footprint, which is bad for our planet.
My ideal is to limit all my stuff to two bags and a suitcase. It’s an amount I can easily take with me on a plane or a bus, and as such it keeps me free to pack up my belongings and move to a new place any time I want. This limit might not work for everyone. The situation changes drastically if you have kids, if you live in a rural area, or if your great passion in life is interior design. But the concept still applies: it’s better to err on the side of caution before buying something you won’t need after all.
Working from anywhere
A plain and simple truth about our world is that you need money to survive. Travelling a lot increases that need; living a minimalistic lifestyle decreases it. The traditional and most common solution to the problem is to get a job. Unfortunately, for many people this leads to a situation in which they are stuck in an office for 50 hours a week, doing something they don’t like, leaving them with little free time to enjoy their fortunes made.
This is an unnecessary sacrifice. There are many ways to work less, doing something you like, without being stuck in the same place. I’ve gotten to the point where I have to work only a few hours a week, and can do everything I need to do from my laptop. It leaves me with enough time to spend on travel, friendships, and this blog. But even if you can make only a modest step towards freedom it can give you greater happiness.