 I've lived with just 111 possessions, all which fit into a backpack just like this. I also lived with just 44 possessions which fit into a day pack. And I've biked across the United States three times with all of my gear on my bicycle. Right now, I actually own about 600 possessions. And about half of those are jars because I do a lot of foraging and growing food and I store that food. I've been simplifying and downsizing my life for over a decade. And today, I want to share with you what I would own if everything fit into just a backpack and into my bicycle and the bags on that bicycle. What I'm going to show you is how to live simply, how to live freely, and at the same time how to live sustainably and deeply connected to the earth and to our communities. So I'm going to go ahead and show you my clothing which is one of the most important categories of items that I own. Generally I own about five t-shirts. They are all green. And I own a wool sweater. Typically about two pairs of shorts. One pair of lighter pants and then generally a more heavy duty pair of pants and a hat that has a large brim to keep the sun especially off the nose. So at this exact moment, I just own 12 items of clothing and it's summertime. Normally I would own more items of clothing than this and there are more items that I'm going to be getting. Some of the really key ones are a pair of long underwear, wool is ideal for that. Another hat, a winter hat, which also for me wool is ideal for that. A jacket, a couple of pairs of socks, wool are ideal for that as well. And also a really helpful item that I do not currently have is a rain jacket or even potentially a rain suit. And then of course shoes. And you might want to own one pair of closed toad shoes and one pair of lightweight barefoot shoes. Generally I do have just one pair of shoes but right now no shoes at the exact moment. And then I fit it all, or not fit it all but most of the stuff generally I put it into small stuff sacks which helps to keep it compressed and helps to keep it clean. And I go for natural fiber clothing so for me my key fibers, fabrics are wool, linen and cotton. A lot of people use synthetic fabrics and especially if you're you know doing you know cycling heavy athletics a lot of people would lean towards those synthetic fabrics but I do just fine with 100% natural fibers so that all of them can return to the earth and if I lose them they will simply return to the earth rather than being litter. The next category that I want to share with you is food, cooking and then also some of these are elements of zero waste living. And cooking and food is incredibly important. I mean it's the source of life, it's nutrient, it's also a lot of the joy and the connection to earth. So my probably most prized possession or one of my most used possession is my pot. And I love this pot because one it does serve as a bowl, it serves as a to-go container, so it serves as a lot. And then I can use this for cooking while I'm camping and I can also use it for cooking while I'm at a at a friend's house or staying at someone's house. This goes into a bag which helps to keep this, you know, the ashes from getting everything else all blackened up and it might not look like it now but with this steel wool I can get this whole thing back to shiny as well. So if I'm in the city for a while and I know I'm not going to be cooking over a fire I'll shine this up and it's going to look just as good as these plates and bowls. So steel wool is one of the most key items for me. Then I have a stainless steel bowl, plate and fork and spoon. Just keep in mind that you don't need anything special. In the past I had bamboo, you know, spoons and forks and I lost them and then I realized you know just use ones that cost a quarter at the thrift store so you can always replace them. So nothing special is needed. One of my again most important items if I only have somewhere in the 44 item range is a multi-tool and I've been using the same multi-tool well I've lost it a few times but the same model for over 20 years now it's a Leatherman super tool and so this has numerous things on it including your you know your pliers but you're also your knife, your file, your screwdriver, a saw and a can opener so I use this a lot. It's one of my most useful possessions. Then I have a lighter and this is key for starting fires and especially when camping and I also have a flint and steel which is a great backup. I do tend to generally use the lighter but I really like to have this. Now speaking of cooking I have a simple rocket stove here and this thing is excellent whether I'm biking or backpacking or camping in someone's backyard or just needing to make a meal in a city park I just need to pick up some small twigs and branches and scraps of wood and I can easily cook my meals, my tea, etc. with this little stove that folds right up then goes into my either bike panniers, my bike bags or my gear my backpack and I put that inside of a bag as well. I like to carry a hand towel and then a rag these are cotton so once they have worn out fully they can just be composted and returned to the earth. I have a nut milk bag or a strainer so if I'm making juices or nut milk I can pour those through here and this thing dries and is easy to carry with me. I have a generally I'm looking at probably carrying about 10 or more reusable bags so these allow me to go to the grocery store and fill up in the bulk section without creating any waste and more so these days though I'm using them for foraging so if I'm gathering herbs, different spices, nuts and seeds, greens, berries, that's what I use these reusable bags for they're all made of cotton and these come in handy for a lot of things not just that but organizing my gear you'll see throughout everything that I show you today there's going to be some of these bags around I carry a couple of basic cloth grocery sized bags and these come in handy as day bags if I'm just going out for a little while or for grocery shopping this is a really key thing I mentioned making tea I love to have a strainer that can just sit on right on top of my mason jars and then pour the tea or other things right through there of course jars the challenge of biking and you know long distances and also backpacking is jars are heavy this jar right here is about a pound in itself I tend to travel on the heavier side and don't mind that because I try to minimize plastics as much as I can you'll see right here there's basically nothing plastic at all here I guess there's some plastic on these lids and my stuff is heavier because of that so a lot of travelers you know you might choose to use plastic for reducing that weight and certainly at times I do this is my drinking bottle it's also can be used for storage it's great for to go soup on my jars I like to have mason jars that actually have measuring units on the side because that way without adding in another possession I also have a measuring cup so my big challenge is that since my earlier videos of owning just 44 and 111 possessions I have very much immersed in foraging which means I'm harvesting food and medicine everywhere I go which means I have to store that and so that's where I've I'm not living with just 44 111 possessions anymore because I tend to be harvesting and storing a lot of food versus going to the grocery store but a couple things that I always like to be carrying that would be an herbal tea one or two different herbal teas and a spice mix and this can be a blend of a whole bunch of different herbs and spices and that way I don't need to have many different mixes and it's really easy for cooking and then I generally am always carrying apple cider vinegar if you want to drastically reduce the size of your gear and the weight then just carrying these in little bags and that could be paper bags or it could be could be plastic bags so yeah this is this is the area of cooking and food and and then also elements of zero waste here that help me to live independently to live connected to the earth and to have my basic needs met in a sustainable and simple way the next category is water water is life we all need to drink water every single day and what I like to have with me is a basic water filter that allows me to be able to drink water from lakes rivers streams as well as from the city so this is my simple water filter and you can hook up a plastic water bottle to it with the right size lid it'll screw it on there and you can squeeze that and have pure water straight out of the lakes rivers ponds and I've drinking out of some sources that you would be pretty surprised that you can drink out of there's different water filters out there and I've owned a lot of different ones but this is the one that I have right now again for me this is my water bottle of choice I really like to be drinking out of glass and I do not like to touch plastic to my lips metal is another option as well metal can be lighter now if I am there's there's scenarios where I don't need to be carrying much water with me you know if I'm living in the city at the time or I'm traveling through the city but some of my more immersive adventures and you know away from society require me to carry larger volumes of water so for example as I'm biking across the United States I usually carry a one gallon swim one gallon bladder that way when it's not filled it's small but when it's filled you know then you then you have the water that you need so if I'm not doing that then I carry a one gallon jug a one gallon glass jug especially like if I'm doing canoe trips or things like that where you know size and weight don't matter personal hygiene is incredibly important to me and for some people it's challenging to have the same hygiene they do while they're backpacking or cycling as when they're living at home but for me it's one in the same my natural hygiene is the same whether I'm living in a tiny house living in you know a house or backpacking or cycling across the country these are my basic possessions for a very simple and natural personal hygiene first of all I have my toothbrush and my toothpaste pretty simple along with that I have my floss and this is a biodegradable floss it's made of silk so it can return right to the earth just like the toothpaste it's all natural items that I can spit right out onto the soil for it to biodegrade and return to the earth I have a natural sunscreen which is really key especially for my nose a body oil coconut oil is kind of my go-to but sometimes I have other moisturizer or body oil I carry some biodegradable soap this is especially used as my hand soap and again this can return to the earth and then I have my essential oils right here is lavender and peppermint and I will often be carrying tea tree oil as well these help me with relaxation reducing stress they can also serve as a great antimicrobial especially the tea tree oil and they just boost my my spirits in general I have earplugs these are great because I'm often sleeping in places that are kind of on the noisier side so these have really helped me get a lot of really good night sleeps good nights rest and then a couple of tools that I have here are a pair of scissors these are key for these come in handy just a lot besides natural personal hygiene but I use these for trimming my hair and beard I have a fingernail clipper and then this is actually a nut pick for like walnuts and hickory nuts and such but I use this for a light scraping of the teeth and one of the keys to possessions is having them be multi-purposed and this little nut pick comes in handy quite often here I have my electric razor one of my few electric technology items I had a manual hand-powered one for five years but I went a little soft and have been using this electric one for about two years now and then that same towel this comes in great for personal hygiene as well and as far as speak as a towel goes I don't carry a big bath towel that can take up a huge amount of space instead what is also one of my items of clothing also I can use as my towel so this also not being really thick it dries faster and that's one of the keys is having things that dry quicker this also serves as a picnic blanket or laying out you know in the sun this is an item that really comes in handy it's coming handy in many other ways than that also as a sleeping sheet blankets on the warmer nights and so this which was just a tablecloth has been a really key important possession for me there's also laundry detergent and I use a biodegradable not laundry detergent and in the past I've often had soap nuts which you can actually harvest from trees in different regions I've harvested them in the Everglades of Florida but you can also purchase them and that's a you know totally natural soap sleeping is absolutely key without quality sleep life just is not the same with this basic gear I'm able to create a little home wherever I need to go and I have the shelter that I need wherever I am whether that's deep in the remote wilderness or you know often sometimes just right in a city park so I have my tent I like to carry a two-person tent it makes a little more spacious versus a small one person I have a sleeping bag and you can get stuff that's a lot smaller than this this is kind of like more of the mid-size it's relatively small fits into my backpack and then I have a sleeping mat and for the last ten years I've had a mat that's half this size but I haven't been getting as good of sleep as I wanted so I have a larger pad and this is the largest one that I've ever had and I just switched that out a couple weeks ago actually then I have a sleeping bag liner which helps adds about 5 to 10 degrees of warmth to this and then also because this is synthetic then I'm sleeping with cotton directly on my body natural fiber rather than the synthetics a small pillow and then of course this comes in handy again as a sheet or for laying down underneath my underneath my sleeping gear technology is one of my most difficult balances if I would love to just own no technology but for now I use technology that really helps to add value to my life and helps me to be of service my computer is my number one and I actually got rid of my computer at the age of 30 that was one of my goals and after three months realized I just wasn't effective at spreading messages without the computer so I use this is about a 10 year old computer it's a 2013 nothing special I you bought this used for $100 after the one I last had broke after seven years with the computer I carry a charger and then the other item that I have right now is an iPod touch and this is a very simple device I do not own a cell phone which is key for living in a more mindful and present state for me and I use this primarily for taking photos and I also use it for social media although most of that's done I'm here this isn't an item that I absolutely need but I found that it's been pretty useful at times and I have at times when I didn't have a computer lived with just this this is like a 2016 ish so about seven year old iPod touch they don't even make them anymore so video photo and some social media is what I generally use this for I have headphones these are pretty key for especially when I'm traveling or working at cafes I do a lot of my work at public libraries or cafes so those are very key for that a wall charger USB charger I tend to have a little tripod often I'm traveling alone so this helps me to be able to make some simple videos or take some photos although to be honest I almost never actually use this and then I carry a watch which is a new development for me the watch has been a helpful little helpful little tool for me and then I also don't need to look at my computer as much my goal is to be off this for substantial periods of every single day I also have a headlamp which is something that I use a lot whether especially for reading at night or you know being able to maneuver myself very quietly and simply at night rather than having to use overhead lights and then two things that I don't have here are a solar panel I've often had a solar panel there's solar panels that fit into my backpack or bike that are enough to charge this and then also a battery a battery is something that can come pretty and handy if I'm you know trying to be off the grid but still be working still of being of service then a battery is something that comes pretty and handy generally I like for all of this stuff to each each day all of this stuff goes away at the end of the day each of these things has their own little pouch so that when I'm not using them one they're protected but just as importantly they are out of sight out of mind I really like to have a balance of technology and to create a clear separation and these little pouches help me to stick this technology away at the end of the day and have a have a nice separation from it of living more mindfully and presently I have a handful of things here in front of me that fit into numerous different categories so I've just brought them all together first I generally I'm always carrying one book maybe a couple of books a foraging book is often a book that I'm holding on to and then a book on like mindfulness and presence how to stay balanced at life in the busyness and the rat race of life as a forager a pair of hand pruners is an incredibly helpful tool I'm finding food and medicine growing all around me all the time and this is a tool that helps me to harvest that abundance a lot this is paracord but any rope will do such as twine for a lot of what I do this comes in handy in so many scenarios but my number one is this is my clothes line for hanging out my clothes keeping things dry is very important after doing my laundry by hand drying them but just anytime things are getting wet I always want to keep these dry so wherever I am I have my clothes line set up but this is also great for tying things down to the bike rack this is also great for tying things onto the backpack so plenty of rope is a key thing as far as the the clothes line goes carrying some clothes pin is pins is kind of a luxury and these things can come in handy most of the time I haven't owned these but right now these are really something that comes in handy a patch kit is key for my sleeping mat and my tent I like to have a patch kit with me goggles are something great I'm swimming in clear bodies of water or anybody of water is like as far as exercise goes and connection to earth it's something that really just yeah I love it and then a notebook notebook is key and I actually just finished the last pages in my notebook and ripped out of the pages that I had left that I hadn't transferred into my computer so a notebook is key and a pen or pencil usually I also have my goals sheet with me my daily goals this is the thing that helps me to look at each day to remind me of how I want to be living and the things that I want to be doing each day or each week and then I practice compassionate communication I do have a big nonviolent communication binder but if I'm traveling with just my possessions then this little nonviolent communication or compassionate communication card or mini guide comes in a lot of handy both as a reminder and as a tool as a tool to remember when I'm not in my NBC consciousness here I also have a little sewing kit so some needles some thread and some safety pins and some little pieces of fabric for patching things a little sewing kit is something that really comes in handy something that I don't have here with me is a first aid kit I generally carry well often if I do cut myself like really deep there's been numerous times where I've stitched myself up with just dental floss or fishing line and a needle from here so this does serve as part of my first aid kit the tea tree oil and soap are a part of my first aid kit so I do have some of those things but a little bit more of a substantial first aid kit is something that you might find really useful and then of course I've already mentioned this but my multi-tool this comes in handy both in my first aid kit and just in all realms of my life now I travel with just cash I have no ID and I have no credit card or bank account I got rid of those well my last ID I got rid of a year ago but my bank account my credit card about seven years ago and so those are things that you know there's a good chance those are things that you'll want to have identification and maybe you know access to a bank account or credit card but for me it's just cash and my cash goes into a little pouch that I created and actually you'll notice all these pouches are the same that's because this was an old sheet and I turned it into a lot of the pouches that I use as well as rags so that's some of the you know different miscellaneous items that I've consistently found to be useful over the last decade of being on the road whether cycling or backpacking or just at home at life as well when it comes to the items that I own for the bicycle it's a little hard to have an exact number of possessions to go with this and the exact number isn't what's really important I like to have it because one it serves as a goal of downsizing and simplifying to it helps me to share you know it's helps me to share clearly that so that you get an idea of how many items or possessions are needed to live like at the most simple and basic but for example when it comes to the bicycle what counts as an item inside of my bicycle tires there's what's called rim tape and once you put the rim tape in there it's basically a part of the bicycle but you could very easily count it as another possession or the rear view mirror but here I have about 20 items that are my key items for touring across the country for getting around town for meeting all of my basic needs while traveling lightly so I'll go through them first this is the multi-tool and this is absolutely key for doing some minor repairs and adjustments of the bicycle other things a patch kit I always carry two new intertubes or two intertubes that have already been patched but I like to always carry a patch kit as well and that helps having that helps to reduce the number of new tubes that you need to buy tire levers for changing the bike tire when you get a flat this is a basic tool that helps with taking off the the pedals if I need to do that for example if I'm getting onto a train some trains require you to actually remove the pedals or helps with putting it into a box if you're getting on to public you know a flight or public transportation a bike lock as much as I would love to not own a bike lock I've had numerous bike stolen and a solid bike lock is key but number one is just not letting the bike really out of sight unless it's in a house in an apartment in a place where it's really safe so I try to lock my bike as little as possible and instead have it in a place where it just doesn't even need to be locked bike lights are key especially you know with being more self-sufficient I ride my bike a lot whether it's long distances or local and so a front light and a rear light are absolutely key this is the charger I like to have USB powered ones not battery powered ones because that's creating trash so USB powered ones this tape has come in handy a lot a electrical tape numerous ways in which this is common handy I like to keep my bike really well tuned and in top shape and one way I do that is by consistently cleaning the chain and it does get away from me but I like to have some scrap pieces of cloth for cleaning the chain and what I generally do is I find rags on the side of the road that have fallen out of people's cars so that way I can use those I pick up litter and then clean my chain and I can throw those right into the garbage without making garbage because they were already litter and I like to have an old toothbrush because I find that this is really helpful with cleaning as well so once I've already used up a toothbrush get some more use out of it as a tool for my bicycle there is my lube and I'm actually just using vegetable oil as my chain lube and then this is a bike pump and I do when I'm living long term in a place have a floor pump but I can meet all of my needs with this basic basic hand pump that fits into my bike bags and then I already showed you this but the paracord the rope is is really helpful with the bike all of this stuff fits into a pouch within my bike bags these are called paniers it's a French word and these hook right on to the bicycle and I'm excited to show you the bike that I'm currently riding so these bags are designed to connect right to the bike rack and these are so key from breaking free from driving these allow me to bike literally all the way across the country or just to do what I need to do whether it's grocery shopping or running errands I like to have a bike rack that's a little on the heavier duty side that way I can carry quite a bit of gear whether it's groceries grocery stores I used to do a lot of dumpster diving and I would just fill this with that and then you can also put gear on top of this rack as well so your tent sleeping bag things like that a couple other key features of the bicycle is a rear view mirror this really helps you don't have to be looking back and I like to have flat pedals these allow me to ride barefoot on the bicycle so the flat pedals are really key for me I like to have tires that are on the wider side rather than the really narrow road tires these are generally around the 40 700 by 40 rather than like some of the smaller ones which are 700 by 28 I like to have leather handlebar tape so I'm not having my hands on plastic all day and then for me this bike the ideal bike is a touring bicycle a touring bicycle is one that's designed to be able to carry a lot of gear and also to be able to travel travel really long distances at the same time these wider tires allow me to go off-road and still be efficient on road in the past you've probably seen me riding the bamboo bicycles I've been going with steel frame for the last three or four years now and the reason why is they can really get the job done this bike could be a bike that I have for the next 40 years it's already 40 years old this is a 1982 touring bike and it's relatively lightweight it's not super lightweight so this is my ideal setup some of simple steel frame bike that has simple design so that I can easily work on it so that I can do the basics and not need a bike shop especially if I break down the backpack is one of the absolute key possessions and I like to have a backpacking backpack so that I can do long trips like for example I did 108 miles packing through Shenandoah National Park and this is the perfect pack for that it's also great just for you know going from city to city as well most everything that I buy is secondhand including this pack and this is a mid-sized pack somewhere around the 60 liters range so that to me like if I have the amount of possessions that you're seeing today that mid-sized pack is key I've had smaller ones which worked and I've had bigger ones which were just way over the top so that you know 50-60 liter area is what definitely works for me and I also like to have a day pack which I don't have right now so that I can leave this where I am and have just a smaller pack to go out for the day so there you have it those are the possessions that I would own if I was living just out of my backpack and my bicycle and as I've shared I did live with just 111 possessions and 44 possessions so I have a lot of experience with this so this is based on 10 years of simplifying and downsizing and minimalism and so I'm really excited to be able to share this with you because I think this could be really really helpful for those of you who are trying to break free from stuff to live a more simple life and to live freely be who you really want to be rather than being stuck in your stuff on that note I want to share about 10 key tips that I have that are more of the philosophical side to do this I choose to own the items that add meaning and value to my life rather than items that take away value that reduce my time that keep me stuck in the rat race a big thing is owning items that can be used in multiple different ways multi-use items I showed you my pot and I showed you my multi-tool items like this allow you to have a lot more while still having less the goal is to be able to purchase these things or accumulate these things and not have to do it over and over so getting items that might cost more up front but that are going to last high quality items that last and at the same time items that can be fixed rather than things that once they break you have to throw them away items that are designed to be repairable ideally there's things that are designed to even be repairable by you saving you a lot of money and having to find someone to fix them for you so I like to focus on low-tech items definitely a lot of the things that I have are things of the 21st century there's still quite a bit of plastic and in in these items and I try to minimize my plastic but the key is at the very least is keeping my items low-tech as much as possible I try to keep items that are natural so they're made of natural items straight from the earth that are biodegradable so when they break if they're no longer usable they can be returned to the earth rather than sent to the dump as much as possible I buy second-hand items rather than purchasing new items there are shops that actually focus on second-hand gear thrift stores of course and then Craigslist and eBay are websites that can be really helpful with that if I do decide to buy something new then I really focus on sourcing it from companies that have a level of ethics and that practice sustainability and care about the way that they are impacting the earth our plants and animal relatives and our fellow humanity and then of course one of the keys to owning less is simply sharing there's so many things that we use that we don't all need to own one of there's so many things that we have that we only use every once in a while and so the key is sharing things and that comes to a mindset getting rid of the individualist mindset that we need to own everything and we need to earn everything in our own and connecting with community that is the key for me it's one of the greatest solutions to all of our problems is community as well as biodiversity and diversity focusing on these in all of the ways that we look at our stuff is absolutely key so if you got a lot out of this video I definitely recommend checking out some of my other videos I dive into more depth of how you can live more simply and sustainably and more connected to the earth and if you would like to and you haven't already feel free to subscribe to this channel there is a lot here and there's so much more coming I love you all very much and I'm so happy to be able to share this with you and I'm happy for the changes that you'll be making in your life to live more simply simply and sustainably