Why living out of a suitcase isn’t so bad:

If there’s a silver lining to living out of a suitcase it’s the ability to learn how to make choices.

In a carry on, you have 28x16x18 of cubic space. When you’re living out of a suitcase for 30 days, that means you have to make choices. Of what to bring and what not to bring and really put into perspective the things you NEED.

You have to anticipate – what might I run into? What might I need?

You have to plan.

You have to prioritize.

And you have to adapt.

The beauty of all of this is that you start to learn more things about yourself than you probably ever expected to know. For example, do I value another blouse or do I value being able to carry my makeup? Do I need an extra pair of shoes or can I do just fine with a combo of three?

You start to make permutations of combinations of outfits, you start to mix and match. And then something magical happens:

1. You get more creative – If you’ve ever struggled with being creative, there’s no better time than to figure out what to put in your suitcase. You’d be surprised with the combos you come up with and how you use them.
2. You learn to live with less – Turns out, you DON’T need that many things. You just need a FEW key things that are REALLY nice and high quality to get the most out of life. You don’t need five bags, you need one really good one. You don’t need 10 pieces of jewelry, you need only a few that are versatile enough to get you through. Excess starts to become the enemy because you start to sacrifice the value of choosing greatness.
3. You learn what matters to you – When faced with choice you will instinctively start to choose the most important things that matter to you. The more sentimental pieces, the pieces that flatter you and the pieces that make you feel good. When you make these choices, you learn that you won’t settle for mediocrity and with this action, you have all of a sudden raised the standards for yourself and your way of living.

When I was forced to choose, the following happened:

1. I started choosing GREAT, not GOOD. I deserve the best of what I bring with me.
2. I started to feel really good about myself and the choices I made (bonus: I started getting more compliments on my outfit and accessory choice)
3. I opened my mind up to more mentally stimulating activities: reading, writing and creating. When you have less stuff to sort, work out and take care of you have more time to do things that nurture yourself.

While I thought living out of a suitcase would be confining, it turns out it became the opposite. It was freeing. Granted the situation that’s been imposed on me is shitty, I’m trying to see the silver lining in everything. I didn’t NEED a ton of stuff, I just needed the RIGHT stuff. Now, I find myself rethinking the essentials and my life’s necessities and in a way I haven’t thought of before. I found myself expecting less from things and expecting more out of life. As a result, I found that I actually AM able to adapt well to different locations and different living situations. When your life and your travels restrict you to living out of a box, it’s surprising how much a suitcase can break you out of your own personal lethargy.

Moving onward.