Tiny Living · Minimalism · Digital Nomad
May 25, 2024
I don't need this! Why having less is more.
I'm standing at the airport when a rolling wall looms towards me like a sandstorm in the Sahara. I push my backpack aside with my foot, sip from my water bottle and close my eyes. When I open them again, two fully loaded luggage racks have rolled past me, one on either side. Their owners continue to push them down the aisle, yelling at each other, until one of the suitcases falls off the stack with a crash and the yelling gets significantly louder.
“My goodness,” I say half aloud and cranky. “What do they take with them?”
A question we should ask ourselves more often. What stuff do we actually have? In our home, in the car, at work, on vacation, in life. What do we keep that is effectively just standing around uselessly? Because we couldn't say no when it caught our eye in the store or online? Or possibly just because we can afford so much—so why not?
This thought bubble is precisely about the “why not”. Why we don't have to possess everything just because we can. How we can make it easier to just let something go. Why few possessions can be more.
October 24, 2021
Minimalism: More than White Walls.
Some themes are suddenly trendy. However, I seldom participate in the Trend Du Jour. Most of the time I'm sitting somewhere in the wilderness taking pictures of moose. So, at some point I found out that "freaking out about your life and getting rid of superfluous things" is now called "minimalism".
What exactly is this minimalism? White walls? Do I have to throw everything away? Must I live without anything, and rush into the nearest thrift store, plastic-free, riding on a wire bike with a large, vainglorious donation?
I don't think so. I think minimalism is about first cleaning up your own head. Then deciding what you really need to be happy. Because that is what we all want in the end: to be happy. So, let's give that a try!
November 17, 2019
Job to Go: My Life as a Digital Nomad.
"How can you travel all the time?" A mystery at least as exciting as the disappearance of MH17. Perhaps I have inherited a bunch of money, found gold in the groundwater or simply have some loose screws? The truth is that one day I filled out a form for tax registration on very German environmentally friendly paper in order to throw it into the mailbox of the tax office. Founding a company in Germany. It's euphoria riding tricycle on cocaine.
Since then all I need to earn money is my laptop and WiFi.
This is an honest report. Of how I manage to work next to traveling for six months a year.
April 14, 2019
Tiny Home Rumble: Redoing the Outdoor Facade.
"Of course, you will still have to paint the facade some day" says the owner of the tiny home on the day of my first viewing.
"Yes," I reply laxly, already headlessly in love with the house. Then I throw a glance full of devastating disrespect at the scratchy wooden wall. I'll put a pot of paint on it and it'll
work.
Shortly thereafter I have a new big project and construction site. Here comes Mission Painting the Outdoor Facade! With a crooked ladder, etching paint and the unconditional will to transform my
Tiny House optically into a true American Cabin!
February 7, 2019
Home Improvement: Color and Curses.
I shout "Good morning!" to the guys at the hardware store and stomp confidently into the main aisle with my phone in my hand. I'm wearing an XXL hoodie stained with yellow paint, jogging pants with pink speckles and a crazy cap for children by Bob the Builder on my head. It's about the 98th time I've shown up here. Since the beginning of January I have been working on the renovation and beautification of my Tiny Home. All by myself. Because I can. A report about fails, sweat and pure joy.
January 10, 2019
I bought a tiny house - with a bird.
I'm trudging down the gravel road to my new house. It's a few days before Christmas and I just signed all the contracts. My Tiny House. I could grow tomatoes. Or salad. Or uranium. I want to throw with paint, hang up two million pictures and put on a paper hat. But before that happens, I have a chaffinch on the fridge and a hard laughing fit. Read about my first steps as a Tiny Home owner.
May 12, 2018
Why I don't give a Shit about Possessions.
If now there would be a fire in my house, I only would need to grab my notebook, my camera and a box full of personal letters and souvenirs – and I would have saved 90 percent of all the things that do mean something to me. This is an anthem to Nothing. And how “Nothing” allows me to do everything I always wanted to do.