between tour prep, tour, small brake tossed in, more tour and ending tour i was out for about a month. for some reason that really didn't click to me as an actual tour. alas, it was. that means i have to blog about something regarding tour. here it is.
we own so much shit. too much shit. we have knick knacks and trinkets and collections of collectibles and storage rooms full of boxes of clothes we don't fit in and attics with old furniture and dishes and we have books we have already read and movies we have already seen we have dead flowers and old love letters and shit upon shit upon shit. so many fucking things that we rent space in warehouses and mini-storage facilities to house our expanding universe of totally pointless and useless crap.
why do we have so much stuff? what makes us decide what to keep? what do we actually need? this is all answered as a result to life on the road. why? because space is a priceless possession. you get a small fraction of the storage area under the bus. you get your bunk, which is basically body sized. you even possibly get a small part of a closet or a little space in a bunk that didn't become someone's bedroom. in most cases, when you are on tour, you have less space for you and all of your needed materials than is in the average bedroom closet. with this in mind, decide what you need. decide what is enough to get you through life.
when i tour i take 4 bags. one large suitcase. one small suitcase. one computer bag. one xbox bag. in the large suitcase is 14 days worth of clothing. typically 14 pairs of socks, underwear and 14 shirts. 7 pairs of jeans. a few heavy sweatshirts/sweaters/ and a jacket. in the small suitcase, extra shoes, shave kit and extra belt. also, some small electronics such as a wireless router and 12 to 120 volt inverter. there will be space left in the small suitcase in the event that i need to bring some extra things home. the computer bag has just that. the xbox bag... same idea. this is my life. my mobile world. i live with only these things for many weeks/months at a time. just enough to not do laundry every freaking day, play games, and write emails to the people back home. there is nothing more. this is how i know what is important. this is how i know what i need in order to get by.
that knowledge makes it easy for me to decide what to buy and what not to buy when i get home. it also helps me decide what to throw away. sure, i have a lot of stuff. i didn't exclude myself from paragraph two. but i dont have much and i like to think that i am not bound to my possessions. i came up with a goal a long time ago. if i dont use it in 6 months, i dont need it and it has to go. things like your sofa and your kitchen appliances and a certain amount of decorative things are shared items and are required for the level of comfort and standard of living that is to be expected in an average persons life. we won't consider them. what we will consider... everything else. many of the things i mentioned in the second paragraph. books, trinkets, media, nostalgic items. you just don't need them. more than likely, many of them are tied to old memories that just aren't worth the space they take up in your house or head.
plan a trip in your mind, to live on a bus for 2 months. what would you take? keep that.
