Post: #1

I always wondered how you guys do it when traveling for an extended period of time, say a few months? My longest trip was just four weeks long, but I felt so guilty for paying an entire month worth of rent without actually living at my place.

I know some people have a home base, like a parents house or a friend that lets you store your stuff in the basement. I don't have that option, but I was thinking about cancelling my lease, putting all my stuff in storage (~$100/mo), and going away for two months straight. I could save a ton of money that way and possibly stay longer.

The only problem I anticipate is that once I get back, I will technically be homeless. I talked to my boss and he said that I could crash in the office for a couple of days and I don't mind showering at the gym. Either way I should be able to find a new place in July.

What do you think?

Post: #2

I have put stuff into storage before for combat deployments. It is an extreme hassle, your stuff gets musty or damaged. There is a lot of labor and hidden costs. In hindsight it would have been a better idea to have less stuff so that one could drop everything and move on to better places. Two months does not seem long enough to justify the cost of moving things into storage and then back out. Another problem is that people lie to steal from storage units since they know you are out of town for a long time.

Post: #3

The way I see it, you have four options:

1) Get rid of all that shit (this is what I do). Get rid of all the furniture you don't need, all those CDs lying around, all the material items that you own that don't actually really make your life better.

2) Lease out your living space. Depending on how desirable the area of your apartment is or whatever and when you are away, you can just lease out your apartment with all your stuff in it furnished and not have to pay the rent.

3) Just pay the rent. I do this sometimes, I only pay ~$400 rent including utilities so it's not really a big deal for me.

4) Storage your shit and lose your apartment. This is a hassle to move your stuff and then have no where to live immediately when you get back, but probably cheaper than number 3.

I think most people on this board that are frequent movers practice the first option. If being mobile and location independent is something you start to value, I think minimalism will naturally follow. Everything I own (that isn't readily disposable such as a bed, table, or kitchen supplies) can be fit into a large backpack. If I set up shop somewhere I know I can furnish an apartment for very cheap off of craigslist and/or budget means.

What I actually own (excluding perishable items):

- A few books.
- Simple but effective wardrobe.
- Laptop, external drive, and charger.
- Phone (which I actually don't really even use that often).
- Razor, brush, nail clippers, and toothbrush.
- Towel.
- Ipod mini and headphones.
- Wallet, credit cards, passport, and debit cards.

That's it man. A few ways to get to where I have gotten:

1) Digitize Everything: We live in an age where you don't need that dope library, physical music collection, or DVD collection. Learn to torrent and stream things for free and create digital libraries of entertainment if you are into it. I have a TB of ebooks, academic literature, movies, and music that is available to me at all times when I have my laptop.

2) Cut your wardrobe. Depending on your job, you may need certain things such as suits. Whatever type of clothes you like to wear is fine, but for the most part, we actually don't need more than a week's supply of clothes. That means 7 pairs of underwear and socks, a few plain tees, a few dress shirts, a couple pairs of pants, a pair of shoes or two, a jacket or sweater, and perhaps a suit. You would be amazed by how easily you can get by with just this basic setup.

3) Cut out your cosmetic products. You don't need moisturizers, colognes, creams, hair products, or whatever. If you like cologne, fine have a bottle of cologne. If you have dry skin, fine have a bottle of moisturizer. But you don't need an array of these things to maintain hygiene at all.

4) Cut out large assets. If you live in cities, don't invest in cars, motorbikes, ect. Don't buy housing unless you can fiscally do so by maintaining a profit or little cost; rent instead.

5) Don't purchase things retail that don't bring much value to your life. This means not spending lots of money on couches, bedding, curtains, linens, kitchen tables, that don't really mean anything at the end of the day.

The bottom line is find out which things you actually need in your life to be happy and get rid of everything else.

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That being said, if you live a very anchored life and only want to go away for a couple months every once in a while, all this might not be for you. Then you start looking at other options such as subletting. Post an ad on craigslist, put all your valuables somewhere else and let someone live in your apartment while you are gone and pay your rent. Perhaps put it on airbnb and get someone you know to manage it for you. There are plenty of options that don't involve getting rid of your apartment and storing your stuff for a measly two month trip.

Post: #4

Unless your leaving for good or at least like 6 months or year or more its though it is a waste of money having your place sit idle it's almost more a waste for only two months getting rid of yoru place, packing and storing, just to have to move stuff out of storage when you get back, find another place, maybe another security depsoit, etc. Is there any way you could sublet your place for that month or two? If you really want to live a transient lifestyle maybe simplify your life, keep a min amount of stuff and just rent rooms. I'm kinda fascinated with this tiny house movement eing able to move your house around with you in the US, maybe even mexico and canda, if you plan on traveling elsewhere you can basically put your entire house into storage.

Post: #5

When I moved back from Europe, I put everything I really needed into suitcases. I just kept the other stuff with the moving company who stores it for me for $34 a month. It's been there for several years now. I got rid of all my books and have everything on kindle. That lightens the load by several tons.

Post: #6

Quote:you can basically put your entire house into storage

Ha, now that's a concept. I've seen some tiny houses on youtube, but the whole composting toilet thing freaks me out. The loft beds are nice though.

I don't know if my landlord will let me sublet. I've never done it and I don't know anything about that, except I am not comfortable with someone else using all my things. I don't have much stuff and have moved it all by myself (including the furniture) over a weekend.

So far the consensus is that I should just pay rent (~$600/mo).

Well, let me crank up the complexity a little bit. The reason I can afford to have so much time off is because I am planning to leave my current job. My contract lasts until August, but I am done with everything in May. I will be receiving paychecks for most of the summer and then I will have to find a new job, which may or may not be in the same city I live in (Detroit). I am totally open to the idea of moving for a job, hence the whole storage thing. The depressing part is that I will probably have a measly 2 weeks/year vacation no matter where I end up, so I have to travel while I can.

Post: #7

(09-16-2014 10:43 PM)one-two Wrote:  I always wondered how you guys do it when traveling for an extended period of time, say a few months? My longest trip was just four weeks long, but I felt so guilty for paying an entire month worth of rent without actually living at my place.

I know some people have a home base, like a parents house or a friend that lets you store your stuff in the basement. I don't have that option, but I was thinking about cancelling my lease, putting all my stuff in storage (~$100/mo), and going away for two months straight. I could save a ton of money that way and possibly stay longer.

The only problem I anticipate is that once I get back, I will technically be homeless. I talked to my boss and he said that I could crash in the office for a couple of days and I don't mind showering at the gym. Either way I should be able to find a new place in July.

What do you think?

I've done stuff like that and it doesn't work out well.
The month you return will cost more than expected, you will not have something you need at that moment and have to go out and buy it.

Do you have a car? if so where will it go.
What about your mail, it needs to be forwarded somewhere.
Your bank, motor vehicle bureau and health insurance company require a physical address that you will need to change to.
All the addresses we use become electronic records in websites like Spokeo which can reflect negatively to employers and creditors doing background searches. Not worth it for 2 months.

Post: #8

(09-17-2014 12:01 AM)Americas Wrote:  1) Digitize Everything: We live in an age where you don't need that dope library, physical music collection, or DVD collection. Learn to torrent and stream things for free and create digital libraries of entertainment if you are into it. I have a TB of ebooks, academic literature, movies, and music that is available to me at all times when I have my laptop.

Fortunately or unfortunately I've lived the American dream/scheme! I have been downsizing for years for my long term escape. Please tell me how digitize all my DVDs. What software do you recommend? How about a lesson in how to torrent and stream? Are you keeping everything on the cloud or how do you do it? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Post: #9

(09-18-2014 01:01 AM)brianmark Wrote:  Fortunately or unfortunately I've lived the American dream/scheme! I have been downsizing for years for my long term escape. Please tell me how digitize all my DVDs. What software do you recommend? How about a lesson in how to torrent and stream? Are you keeping everything on the cloud or how do you do it? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

You can rip all of your current DVDs into digital files if you want:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045217/h...cloud.html

But honestly, it's probably just faster to sell/donate/throw away all your DVDs and start from scratch by torrents.

I don't use clouds. I do use dropbox for work and saving certain files that I don't want to lose, but I don't use them for entertainment or media files. If you want to cloud for free, you will have to set up multiple accounts under different services because these services don't give you a lot of space for free. Or, you can pay a monthly fee to have unlimited storage under one account. Here are some cloud services you can take a look at:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413556,00.asp

I personally use an external drive because I like to have it with me and easily accessible rather than manage multiple accounts and all that hassle. Something durable that has a TB or more is more space than you really ever would need:

http://www.amazon.com/ADATA-USA-DashDriv...B00HF8JXUI

Some people prefer to stream rather than download, but I prefer to download. I do stream on occasion (particularly sports and sometimes TV shows). Finding places to stream is fairly easy and straightforward. There are tonnes of websites with free streaming of multiple TV shows and/or movies, such as this one:

http://watchseries.lt/Watch

For sports, I use:

http://www.wiziwig.tv/index.php?part=sports (you can pretty much watch any sporting event on here).

Or you can just search for something + 'stream' or 'streaming' and a bunch of sites will come up for that show or movie.

As for torrent downloading...first you need to install a bit client such as utorrent. I have been using utorrent for years, and I think most of the clients are pretty much the same thing so I just stuck with them.

http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/win?us

Just download the free one.

Then you need something you play the movies on your computer. You may already have an application for this, but I think VLC is by far the best:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Now you just need to find torrent hosting sites and search for whatever you want to download. There are a bunch of them such as:

http://thepiratebay.se/
http://kickass.to/
http://www.demonoid.ph/ (need a referral for this one)
http://torrentz.eu/
http://isohunt.to/

I usually use the pirate bay the most for movies/TV shows/music just because they have probably the best selection and have a lot of seeders. But I do use kickass torrents as well. Demonoid is good for pirated computer applications/software.

A few basics about torrenting:

Once you have downloaded the bitclient, and found a torrent you want to download then you just click on the 'get this torrent' link (usually has a magnet right beside it). For example, say you wanted to download the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street." Just do a search for it in one of the website's search queries, then it will show you all the torrents that are available. Click on one for example:

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/9453041/T....XviD-BiDA

Just click on the 'GET THIS TORRENT' link. Then it will queue up in your utorrent app, press ok, then it will start downloading. Once it is done, then you can just open it with your VLC player and watch it at your leisure.

Also, there are things called 'seeds.' Seeds are basically how many people have the torrent in their bit client and are sharing it. The more seeds a torrent has, the faster it will download. This is fairly important as when you search for a torrent and have multiple files to choose from, you can sort them by how many seeds they have and download the one with the most seeds. There are also things called "peers" which are people who have downloaded/or currently downloading the torrent but are not sharing it. These make the download go slower. So sometimes its not necessarily about the most seeds but rather the best ratio of seeds to peers.

----------

The internet is full of virtually unlimited content for free. The ability to learn certain tricks and harness that potential means you can basically read, watch, listen to anything you ever want to for free.

Post: #10

I hate paying storage because my income is low. Once in Ukraine I pretty much had to go back to in Ukraine.Then I found out Ukraine had the slowest most corrupt customs clearing in Europe. Cost me thousands.

The only stuff you store should be valuable, and with me it's music equipment .. I have a friend with a recording studio, and I leave the stuff there, he uses it and doesn't charge me storage, plus if I croak on the high seas he inherits the stuff. Win win. There are things starting now with peer-to-peer car rentals, but I don't know much about it.

In the future I want to make moving easier by never "moving in". Keep what I need in the transport containers and take it out to use.

But cheap dishes and stuff, but know when you move next time it's all gone. So every time you move somewhere, unless you own it for a lifetime, you know everything you buy will be chucked next move.

Post: #11

I say RENT your place out on Craigslist. If you're in a part of town desirable enough for you to rent, then someone else will, too!

Sublet agreements can be found online. Be sure to add any odd requirements on the agreement that are already on record with your landlord, or else it may not be enforceable. (Check with any renter's rights" group online to important local ordinances that you also need to honor - or else local [city] government for a list of landlord-renter ordinances. The most important ones should already be in your lease agreement - but maybe some are too recent and maybe some were overlooked - check, check, check it out!)

The ideal situation is having a friend - or a friend of a friend - and therefore recommended and in some sense vetted as reliable - who needs a (furnished) place for a couple or several months.

The alternative is to find a stranger with REFERENCES whose renting history you can check out. (This is normal for landlords - it's not intrusive. Also, make sure they have steady income.)

There are exceptions: suppose your prospect has been through divorce recently and has to downsize their life. Then don't go ahead unless the unfortunate 'bad patch' is over - in this case, check personal (family or friends) references.

Not even doing all of this can guarantee going without headaches or losses of rental income. Thus, always have a backup plan - know HOW to exercise unlawful detainer though the courts and get your place and money back.

(09-17-2014 11:42 AM)one-two Wrote:  

Quote:you can basically put your entire house into storage

Ha, now that's a concept. I've seen some tiny houses on youtube, but the whole composting toilet thing freaks me out. The loft beds are nice though.

I don't know if my landlord will let me sublet. I've never done it and I don't know anything about that, except I am not comfortable with someone else using all my things. I don't have much stuff and have moved it all by myself (including the furniture) over a weekend.

So far the consensus is that I should just pay rent (~$600/mo).

Well, let me crank up the complexity a little bit. The reason I can afford to have so much time off is because I am planning to leave my current job. My contract lasts until August, but I am done with everything in May. I will be receiving paychecks for most of the summer and then I will have to find a new job, which may or may not be in the same city I live in (Detroit). I am totally open to the idea of moving for a job, hence the whole storage thing. The depressing part is that I will probably have a measly 2 weeks/year vacation no matter where I end up, so I have to travel while I can.

Post: #12

When traveling outside the US if under contract your cellphone bill will still be due. You can probably put it on hold but there will be a fee involved. If off contract switch to a pay per minute plan. T Mobile has a plan, $100 into account and the minutes are good for a year. You can take the sim card out and not use any minutes and keep the $100 balance until returning. You can call into you # from abroad to access voice mails.
For USPS mail you can have it forwarded to a mail receiving service that will scan the unopened mail to you online account for your viewing. If you need it they can send it anywhere in the world. Monthly fees and mailing costs involved.
If you have a car still gotta pay insurance.
Health insurance premiums still due.
When keeping an apartment you can hold or cancel cable and internet but again more costs.

USA costs when not in the US can be a lot.

Post: #13

I will be in US. All my bills are automatically paid online. I use T-mobile prepaid. 99% of my mail goes in the trash unopened.

Post: #14

(09-18-2014 12:10 PM)Americas Wrote:  I personally use an external drive because I like to have it with me and easily accessible rather than manage multiple accounts and all that hassle. Something durable that has a TB or more is more space than you really ever would need:

http://www.amazon.com/ADATA-USA-DashDriv...B00HF8JXUI

Thank you for the in depth answer. I will have to get started. Do you like the ADATA hard drive better than a Western Digital Passport? How is the backup software. I'm not that happy with the WD backup software because I don't think you can easily find a single file if you use their backup software, only restore everything, but I may be totally wrong. I just read a review on Amazon of WD Passport and it said the Smartware backup software was garbage. Any ideas for good HD backup software?

How much space does a single 2 hour movie take up?

Has anybody tried to download anything like a movie while in Ukraine, Thailand, or Philippines. Is it possible or is the internet too slow in these countries?

Post: #15

the problem with torrents is that they are closing down more and more of the torrents websites

the big leaders of our world want everybody to spend a lot of money each time they want to watch a movie or listen to their favourite songs...

so torrents is probably not a longterm solution unfortunately

Post: #16

Generally the source of most things on the Torrent sites is the Newsgroups which have been around forever. No one has started to crack down on those yet since there's a learning curve to downloading off those. I almost never have to resort to torrenting something unless it is extremely rare. My last torrent was the Quadraphonic copy of Steely Dan's "Can't Buy a Thrill" album (from a Q8 tape).

Post: #17

newsgroups are some things like 4chan and you need to get an invitation from a respected member, or what do you mean exactly ny newsgroups where you can get any movie and any album?

Post: #18

Newsgroup access is open and free, but since most ISPs do not allow access to alt.bin anymore (those that even provide news access) you just purchase service from someone for about $10 a month.

http://www.sparefoot.com is a great place to find cheap self-storage.

Post: #19

So I have narrowed it down to two options:

A. Everything stays as is (pay 1200 for rent upfront). Travel for two months. Come back and start looking for a job. Advantage: piece of mind. Disadvantage: cost + good chance of being stuck in Detroit with a nice job.

B. Move to the west coast first (I like San Diego). Put stuff in storage and travel for two months (savings ~1000). Come back and start looking for a job. Advantage: a shit job in San Diego must be better than a nice job in Detroit. Disadvantage: high risk, probably no financial advantage if I consider the moving/living costs.

Regarding finding a job: I am a web developer by trade, but I would like to get into software project management (blame LouieG). I just got my PHP and MySQL certifications and plan to get the Scrum Master certification next. I should be able to find a job within 6 months or so. That is the amount of living expenses I can cover from my savings.

I guess it all boils down to this: I plan to move and look for a job. Which should I do first?

Post: #20

How attached to this stuff are you? Why not just flog it all and start fresh when you come back? If you have any sentimental trinkets you could always leave them at a friends or relatives house in a box.

It sounds like that isn't even being considered by you. The freedom you'll gain by not being attached to a bunch of stuff is fantastic.

Post: #21

I don't have much stuff, but I don't want to get rid of it. For example, i've got to keep my mattress and my sweet tv. I know that a tv is a waste of space, but I bought it with my own money and it got me laid more than the rest of my things.

Post: #22

Good thread.

for me piece of mind comes first. I do own a couple of expensive shits in my apartment (Designed furniture, art work, music equipment, clothing, high end electronics,etc...)

I basically keep paying rent/mortgage once i am out traveling. I do keep all my travels down to 1 month at most. If I go over 6 months I will sell everything online and just keep the basics in a friends house.

Traveling a lot helps you get rid off you materialistic side. Unfortunately for us with hobbies, this is always tough. I do not want to sell a guitar that cost me a fortune to get, or that surfboard that you brought from Hawaii,etc...etc...

Post: #23

(12-31-2014 04:35 PM)one-two Wrote:  I don't have much stuff, but I don't want to get rid of it. For example, i've got to keep my mattress and my sweet tv. I know that a tv is a waste of space, but I bought it with my own money and it got me laid more than the rest of my things.

But those things are fungible...
Both can easily be sold on craigslist/gumtree etc, both are easily replaceable, and the replacements will see you through just as much sexy time. Anyway, just my two cents, if you really want to travel and move somewhere then attachment to these items will only make life harder.

Post: #24

I once packed up an apartment into one of those pods that they haul off and store for you. Back then it was like $50 a month. But when over a year went by, I realized I wasn't going to need most of that stuff anymore, or rather it was nothing that couldn't be easily replaced (basic furniture items for most part).

So I went back and cleaned out what I wanted to keep. While I was loading up my rental car, one of the workers there surveyed my stuff and said, "Man, you could get most of this at a garage sale."
He was right... I was paying to store a bunch of relatively cheap junk (Ikea-level furniture and so on).

Since then I more or less abide by "America's" approach above (minimalistic etc.)

Post: #25

If you're willing to give it a try, you can try sleeping in a hammock. I used to own one but it does takes some getting used to. This would eliminate the mattress problem. I used 2 "eyebolt" screws to fasten it to the wall. It's cheap to set up. Ask a chick to join you and show her how you sleep in it, killing two birds with one stone in the process. Another thing, is that any time I mentioned the hammock in casual conversation girls would sometimes get intrigued by it.