Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Logan Smith. Logan is my husband, best friend, and the secret force behind RowdyKittens. Enjoy the article peeps!

Note about the photograph: Logan does NOT smoke. He was picking up trash in the park.

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Recently I asked a friend about her moving experience. She replied that she was so sick of moving boxes that she considered downsizing to just a backpack. Her frustration about moving reminded me of our moving experiences prior to downsizing.

Minimizing our possessions is the method we used to pursue simpler living. However, my friend’s exclamation of “downsizing to just a backpack” inspired me to consider extreme minimalism. Could I minimize my needs to fit into a backpack? I realized having such a tool at hand could be extremely valuable for more than just travel and hiking recreation.

Miniaturizing your life into a backpack is useful.

Having a minimized copy of your life in a backpack could be very useful in an emergency requiring evacuation. Victims of natural disasters (e.g. fire, flood, etc.) commonly describe their experience as having only enough time to “grab their stuff and run.” Imagine yourself in this scenario and ask:

“Could I evacuate my home in 5 minutes or less and be prepared to have everything I need for at least 72 hours?”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) advises that people should be prepared to be “without assistance” for 72 hours or longer. After hurricane Katrina many experts advised people to be prepared for a much longer response time, ranging from 1 – 2 weeks. By having a backpack organized to meet minimum needs and comforts we can be more physically and emotionally prepared for an emergency situation. We consider our backpack kits essential emergency insurance.

Can I really fit everything I need into a backpack?

Yes. World travelers practice the simplicity of backpack living on a daily basis. Considering the hierarchy of needs, humans require relatively little to live. Our basic needs are shelter, water, food and companionship. To complement our needs acquiring stuff provides us with comfort.

Finding the appropriate balance between need and comfort is a journey all of us face on the path to simpler living. More comfort and stuff does not necessarily lead to more satisfaction or happiness. Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin describe this relationship as the “enough point” in their book Your Money or Your Life. What is your “enough point“? What is the minimum amount of stuff required to meet your needs and be adequately comfortable?

5 Tips to Get Started

In a backpack kit one’s “enough point” is going to be limited to portability (namely size and weight). If removed from our everyday environment you must make accommodations to meet your personal needs independently. Here are some suggestions for items to consider when building “the house on your back:”

1. Pack in consideration of your basic needs first and in order of survival priority: shelter, water and food.

2. Choose items in your kit that have a multipurpose use (single task items have less value per weight). In a future post I will detail the items we included in our emergency backpack kit.

3. Make digital back-ups of irreplaceable pictures and paper copies of important documents (e.g. Birth certificate, social security card, photo ID, etc).

4. Prepare personal skills such as map reading and first aid to complement your pack kit. As your skill level increases your “enough point” decreases. As bushcraft author and instructor Mors Kochanski says “the more you know the less you carry”.

5. Plan your actions for responding to different emergency scenarios that are likely for your area (e.g. earthquakes, fire, flood, hurricanes, etc.).

Many of the items you need to pack you probably already have around your home. All it takes is gathering them into one location. You may need to purchase a couple items such as first aid supplies but relative to other emergency insurance plans these items are very inexpensive.

What the hell does all of this mean?

Preparation of a backpack kit is useful not only as emergency preparedness but also as an exercise in minimalism and simpler living. Being aware of our “enough point” boundaries is very empowering. Upon personal reflection, simpler living has given me an almost indescribable sense of satiety, peace of mind and liberty.

Further Resources…

• Preparing an Emergency Kit in Plain English
• Ready.gov
• The Complete Walker

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Last week, I heard about Rep. Lipinski’s proposals to change carry-on bag sizes and thought the story was intriguing.

Tired of overhead bins stuffed to the point of bursting, some frequent fliers say they would welcome a strictly enforced limit on the size of carry-ons that is being proposed in Congress. Legislation proposed by Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., would set a federal standard for the maximum size of bags a passenger can carry on board — a decision currently left to each airline.

I don’t fly often, but it seems like the size of people’s carry-on bags are increasing. Personally, I find this trend annoying.

On a recent trip to Portland, I sat next to a man who refused to check his carry-on bag. He was sitting scrunched up in his seat, like a snail, because his bag was too big to fit under the seat in front of him. Luckily, a lovely flight attendant required him to check the stupid bag.

Checking bags can be a hassle because they might get lost or you might end up waiting forever at the baggage claim. But when your bag is so big it spills over into the next seat or you take up more than the allotted overhead bin space, you might want to reconsider your packing strategies.

I think this trend illustrates that Americans LOVE their stuff and don’t want to part with it for more than a few hours or days. I don’t think we need legislation to address this problem, but it would be nice if folks started checking their bags.

What do you think?

Check out this awesome video by Jessica! Her posts are always inspiring and every time I read her posts, I want to become a nomad. Although, I’m not sure how I could pack up my kittens.

Enjoy:

Packing! from Jessica Reeder on Vimeo.

If you have a chance, listen to this podcast about local-food back money. It’s a really interesting program…

This show of the Reality Report discusses household and community food security through local granaries and local currency. The guest is Cyndee Logan of Mendo Food Futures, a project funded by the California Endowment that includes the local, food-backed money called Mendo Credits. An article about this project is also available at The Oil Drum. Jason was also interviewed about this project on Ecoshock Radio.

Steph at Coming Unmoored pointed out an amazing blog last week, Uprooted: an eco-travel blog. I admire Jessica’s courage to pull up her roots and travel the world with a backpack. Maybe I’ll become a WWOOFer!

This is simple living at it’s best.

Tomorrow L is going to post an article on preparing to fit your life into a backpack.

Picture from Uprooted.