Organizing and Minimalizing while Homeless
When I got out of the US Navy, everything I owned fit into two duffel bags and a cardboard box with a stereo in it, a tuner and turntable I'd bought in Singapore for $35 and I was convinced it was a great deal.
Since then, as my storage capacity grew to include a four-bedroom house with a full basement and a shed, I've often considered that I'd like to get back to where all my stuff fits into two duffel bags. I'm getting closer lately.
As i've mentioned before, I'm living in non-traditional housing. I don't have housing. For most of 2020 I've been staying with a friend in Manhattan. Sometimes, as situations change, I decamp to a sister's place on Long Island, or a sister's place in Brooklyn, or a sister's place in the Pocono's.
Most things you read about homeless living, or non-traditional living, say you need a Stash - a place to leave most of your gear. I leave most of my gear in a friend's office. I have two big duffel bags in a corner. Each duffel bag contains several interior bags, the kind you might get from Whole Foods - some sort of reinforced fabric, roughly a rectangle but softsided.
How does one obtain these alpha-bags? When you order groceries from Fresh Direct, which is a rather high-brow transaction, the groceries are delivered to your doorstep in the bags. Now that we're into no-contact delivery, they just sit on your step for a while.
Eco-conscious consumers bring in the groceries and leave the bag outside, so that on the next day when Freash Direct brings tomorrow's avacadoes, the staff will retrieve the used bag and recycle them. This leaves homeless people / entrepreneurs the opportunity to harvest (salvage?) the bags.
There's a homeless guy on 77th Street who scrounges the bags and sells nice clean ones for $4. In a twist on the Plague Protocol, he provides hand sanitizer for customer use before you handle the goods. He assures that the bags have been cleaned.
And so, the basis of my storage is that I do have a secure Stash of two duffel bags. Inside each duffel is 5 or 6 soft-sided tote bags. The Fresh Direct bags really are the best.
This is not to say that all my stuff fits into two duffel bags. I've also got four panniers and a dry-bag for my bikecamping kit. And in my car, I've got one big plastic bucket of various things.
This semi-minimalist lifestyle is not without some expenses. You can't buy six toothpastes or six bars of soap; you buy them by the onesies, which is much more expensive. You can't keep 13 t-shirts; about 6 is optimal.
Speaking of living in non-standard situations, here's a story of a waiter who lost his job due to COVID and ended up living in a tent. Also you might check Nomadic Micro Living on Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit. She's a great source.
I wonder how many people are living outside of the "normal" structure of deeds, leases, mortgages and rents.