- Passport
- Passport Card
- Yellow Fever Immunization Certificate
- Driver's License
- Birth Certificate
- Credit Card, Debit Card, two ATM Cards
- USB Flash Drive
- A few thousand USA dollars in cash
- Digital Camera
I created a prototype and all of these things easily fit into a 1 Liter zipper bag. I don't have any USA Dollars so I substituted various India Rupees, China Remnibi, and Mexico pesos, and various other banknotes which I do have. I put 100 bills. The maximum you can legally take into/out of the USA and most other countries is USD$10,000. That is one hundred $100 bills. If you use €500 Euro notes you only need 15 bills.
Ironically, most of this stuff is among the oldest and grossest stuff I own. My passport, issued in 2003, is very musty and smelly, and I believe the oldest thing I own, and also the only book which I own. And the cash is just truly disgusting. I hate my passport, and I think the Passport Card is the future of travel, but currently the only place it is recognized is USA/Mexico/Canada land border crossings. Of course I believe electronic cash is the future although that is not currently feasible in third world countries.
Things like clothes and personal toiletries are cheap and can be purchased anywhere, they are not worth weighing me down if I can only bring 1 Liter. I can rent time on a computer at an internet cafe anywhere in the world. This would be practical if I had to evacuate due to local disaster, or if I wanted to completely reset my life. If I had 5 liters, I would also have a couple external hard drives (mainly music & video). I have a few terabytes of data, it worries me how to transport this, right now that much data requires a lot of space.
If I had a carryon (the limit is currently around 45 liters) I would also take some of my favorite clothes and powerful laptop. I thought it was also interesting to figure the volume of my current dwelling (around 180,000 liters) and a 2,200 square foot McMansion (around 600,000 liters). And I'm about 80 liters.
I don't own many sentimental items. I have a shirt from a night club, with my name embroidered, which the owners of the place who were my friends made for me, two weeks before they were assassinated outside their home. However, I have never actually worn it, and I cannot really envision any situation where I would. I look at it, and I could easily have it remade if I needed to. It's just stuff.
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12 comments:
You can actually take more than $10,000 into or out of the U.S. legally. You just have to declare it.
- terrabytes of music/video??? Hola, my friend, seems like you've forgotten to apply minimalism to this corner of your life! (For the record, I'm in the same position, but I'm cleaning it up as we speak)
- 1-liter exercise: cash is not a need (you can earn it back), ID card etc. can be replaced, and the docs on your USB key ... nice to have, but can be missed to. Conclusion: a 0-liter zipper will do as well :-)
- Another interesting exercise would be piling up all your earthly positions in one room and re-evaluating them one by one.
- Personally I don't have much stuff, but I do keep 'paper memories' like my (self-made) drawings, travel diaries, cards... I feel those are really worth keeping and I'm glad I haven't thrown them out with other stuff whose value is just material. I admit I rarely look at them, but throwing them away would be erasing fond memories (litterally). So I don't do it. 3D objects get thrown away though (after taking a picture).
It would be interesting to have you analyzed by Dr. Phil and see what category you fit into. You clearly are going against the norm, in an extreme way, and I just wonder why.
Frugal, Have you considered adding a bit of chip gold, or silver rounds to your bag?
@Concojones - yes, digital clutter is a big concern of mine. I have more than 2TB (bigger than biggest hard drive) and less than 4TB so it is physically very real. I don't delete anything. You are right, this is anti-minimalism, digital equivalent to throwing away nothing. Love your handle BTW.
@Andy - yes but as far as I have heard if you do declare you basically will be treated as suspected money launderer .
@Jason - Gold coins - definitely yes. This has been on my list for a while to have a few ounces, very compact and will fit in my bag.
You're going to need some clean underwear and shoes. Not very frugal to chuck these things away and then have to buy them again.
Actually, I'm more interested in the assasination.
Do you know about the Jet Blue all you can fly pass? $600 and you can go anywhere Jet Blue goes from Sept 8 to Oct 8. Seems like something you'd be interested in.
@FB: do you have a plan on how to declutter those data? I've been there (couple of 100GB) and in hindsight, this is how I'd proceed if I ever had to do it again:
- first pick the FEW things that have proven their value and that I really want to keep.
- I'll probably not be able to follow this strictly, so I decide that the 'extra' material has to be no more than x GB and that anything I don't review by next weekend has to go
- I store the remaining data in a distant location that I can access if I need anything. Miraculously, after a month or two I realize I no longer care and want to ditch the thing.
@Concojones - I do keep my essential data (i.e. irreplaceable stuff I created, photos etc.) to strict 64GB which can fit on USB drive. For stuff beyond that, i.e. music and movies, in theory it is all replaceable since there are copies elsewhere but it would take a long time of course, 98% is stuff I never access anyways and don't need, but I am scared to delete. I need to think about this topic further.
@VC - they don't go anywhere I want to go. :-(
I don't think it's ironic that those things are old and musty. You're identifying the essential, and the essential is what you hold on to for a good long time.
A passport from 2003 is the oldest thing you own?!?! That is possibly the saddest thing I have heard in my life. Forget the frugality, you need to get some balance in your life!
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