🧘 Is minimalism overrated for digital nomads?

Hey Freaking Nomads,

Yes, minimalism is overrated for digital nomads. There, I said it.

I’m not sure when it happened exactly, but somewhere along the way, minimalism turned sorta into a moral badge in the digital nomad world.

And when I became a digital nomad, I bought into it super hard.

I thought the less I owned, the more evolved I was. I downsized aggressively, sold things I actually liked, and forced my life into what would fit on my back.

But, in the end, I rebought the same things over and over because I refused to carry them. I worked long hours from uncomfortable setups because I didn’t want to accumulate. And I lived in places that never felt like home because I told myself home is a mindset.

Digital nomad life is already unstable by default, we all know that. And taking away some sort of comfort, familiarity, and personal objects on top of that makes life unnecessarily harder.

Minimalism works great when it’s a choice.

But I do think it becomes toxic when it turns into a forced identity.

At some point, I realized I wasn’t being minimalist. I was being performative.

I was optimizing for how my life looked rather than how it actually felt. And the cost was constant low-level stress, decision fatigue, and a feeling of never fully landing anywhere.

Now, I travel with more stuff. On purpose.

I bring things like my books that make me feel grounded. I pack two identical Uniqlo t-shirts so I don’t have to think. I choose comfort over aesthetics and practicality over ideology. And I still feel free.

If minimalism genuinely works for you, amazing. Keep it.

But if you’ve been forcing yourself into a backpack-sized life because you think that’s the price of freedom, you’re allowed to stop. At least, in my opinion.

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We'll see you there, Freaking Nomads 👋

Written by Angelina Bertoni

After trying the conventional life, I packed everything into a backpack and started walking the world. I feel the energy of the spaces I explore — and that’s what I write about.

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