Preparations for a Nomad life
Plan what you can ….
When you decide to change your lifestyle to mainly live as a Digital Nomad, in most cases you have to cancel your apartment, move all your stuff to a storage facility, and cancel all your subscriptions.
That is also what I have done / planned the last month. I terminated my rental farm in southern Denmark, moved all my belongings to the storage facility chain BOXIT, and have cancelled most of my streaming services; Apple TV+, Viaplay, Sky Showtime, BritBox, etc. I will probably keep Netflix, just to see how it works in France when I arrive in less of one week.
About storage facility, I used BOXIT when living in Italy and their service just works and is very flexible. So, it was a no-brainer to use them again. I have rented a large storage room of 10 square meters and a height of 4 meters. It cost €190 a month and can hold all my belonging after I have thrown away all stuff with no value. My previous apartment cost €1200 a month, so the storage room is a bargain compared to that.
What to bring …
How much to bring on your trip depends highly on how you travel. If you travel by an CamperVan or Motorhome, you bring a lot - travelling by a normal car, bring less - and if you travel by plane you really have pack very light.
My car is a 22 year old Volvo estate car with room for pretty much, so I’ll pack medium size:
Clothes and footwear for min. two weeks of no washing facilities
IT gear, laptops, external monitor, harddrives, etc.
Photo gear, drones, gimbals, etc.
Backpacks and walking boots
It is a matter of minimise and degluttering. I started with way too much gear, but after two decluttering sessions I manage to save 30-40% space. A good question to ask yourself; do I really need this item for the next 3-4 month ? Most of the stuff is nice to have …
Connectivity …
A Digital Nomad lifestyle requires one crucial part; internet access. Most AirBnb hosts provide Internet Access, but usually are mobile Broadband with limited download. So you better have a plan for a high speed internet connection.
My italian adventure started with a simple antenna based internet connection of 4 mbps. Couldn’t even maintain an audio only Teams meeting… I upgraded to a flat-rate mobile internet connection on 4G. Worked pretty good, but it dropped the Teams meetings when the mobile modem had to switch channels… I ended up with StarLink, which worked perfectly. 240mbps downstream and 40mbps upstream and no signal drops, unless we had a thunderstorm.
Also consider your cellular phone connectivity. When having a coffee at the bar, you still want to update Instagram with snaps of your beautiful lifestyle. I’m danish and our mobile service provide 30GB/month in EU. I believe that’s enough, but another option is to bring an extra phone and purchase a national SIM card. We did that in Italy and you normally get flat-rate for €20 a month.
Preparations done …
I have handed over the keys for my apartment, the storage room is packed to the limit, and within few days I’ll start the 2200km journey to southern France. Stay tuned ….