My 44 Possessions: Everything I Own Fits in My Backpack | Minimalism

Hey everybody! Rob Greenfield, here, and

this is everything I own. Everything I

own is sitting on this table right here.

And fits into this 1 backpack.

Today I am going to show you what I

own and share why I own these things and

some lessons to go along with them.

Now, when I say this is everything I own,

I truly mean it. It means there is

nothing stored in other places.

Nothing stored at family or friends.

And I don't even actually have a bank

account, a credit card... many other

things. All of my money is also right

here on this table.

This is literally everything I own

and it's about 43 possessions.

My net worth, right now, is about $5 500

to $6 000.

There's $5 000 in this envelope and

everything, here, is worth substantially

less than $1 000.

This is it and I'm going to show you

the different things.

I'm going to go ahead and start with

my clothes. First, I'm wearing 2

articles of clothing. I have my shorts

and I have my shirt on.

Along with that I have 4 more shirts.

All the same, except one of them is long

sleeved. The other 4 are short

sleeved. These are bamboo cotton blend.

One of my goals is to be basically

biodegradable. My goal is that when I die

hopefully if I can be in the woods or out

on the ocean and if I fall into the ocean

or I die in the woods, I just simply

return to the earth rather than

littering, as I die, by wearing plastic
clothing.

One of my goals is for

almost everything I own to be

biodegradable. To be a single, or

multiple, like a few simple ingredients

straight from the earth.

Bamboo and cotton is one example of
that.

My sweater is a wool sweater.

Thrift store, I think $10 or $11.

That's my main source of warmth.

I have 2 pairs of underwear which are

plastic, not natural fibres.

A second pair of shorts, also plastic.

I have a pair of socks and these socks are

actually my boy scout socks from when I

was in high school or middle school.

So these are 20 years old? Possibly?

No, 15 years old?

My clothes fit into this little cotton

bag. This is my clothes bag. I don't think

the sweater would fit in here, but

everything else fits into there.

And, that's it for clothes!

One thing to point out. I'm in a warm

climate right now. I lived in Florida

before, while I was doing my year of

growing and foraging all of my food, so

I designed my life to be where I am.

I don't design my life to be in a cold

climate because I am not in a cold
climate.

Wherever you are, you have to do things

that make sense. Apply common sense,

critical thinking, problem solving to

wherever you are.

For example, a month from now I will

be in western Europe. I'll be in Germany

where it's going to be cold. I'm

going to have to get some warm clothes.

Right now, I own 43 possessions but

that will fluctuate. My goal is,

one day, to have no possessions. So, 43

less possessions and at times I'm going to

have more possessions. When I'm on tour

in Europe speaking, maybe it will be

double to 80 possessions. We will see.

But the point is that wherever you are,

whatever climate you are in, you have

to adapt to that climate.

My other item of clothing, you could

say, is my sandals. Very simple.

I'm mostly barefoot. I try to be barefoot

as much as I possibly can, which is a vast

majority of the time. And these provide

very simple cover to my feet.

These are the soles but our feet

naturally have soles. They're called

callouses and I won't go too deep into

that, but to sum it up, I believe that

the human body was designed over

10's of 1000's... 100's of 1,000's

of years to really work. So, all I do is

I believe that my feet work.

It's actually not that crazy.

Let's see, what do I want to show
next?

Okay, so I have a little towel. If I have

a cold, this works as a towel for that, a

handkerchief. I use this for washing

dishes and things like that, so multi-
purposed.

One of the keys is for things to be

usable for many functions. A lot of the

things that I have, maybe it's one

possession, but I can use it in many

different ways.

This is probably one of the great

possessions that I have, and this is my

pot, and it's my bowl, and it's my 'to go'

container. It's what I can put my

leftovers in. A lot of people who

are striving for zero waste, they'll carry

a reusable bowl. This is basically that

except it is also a pot so that when I

am travelling and I am somewhere where

there is no pot or pan I can cook.

And I can also cook over a fire with it.

I washed this with steel wool so it keeps

it really shiny, but I've been using this

for...I'm not sure how long, but probably

5 to 10 years. It's one of my oldest

possessions right now. So this is a

really important possession in my life.

And when I say important, not a single

thing here is irreplaceable.

I actually don't own a single thing that

is sentimental. Every single thing, here,

has a purpose and has value to me in the

sense that it allows me to live out things

that I am trying to do, but there is

actually not a single item, here, that is

sentimental. If I lost all of this

tomorrow there'd be some issues I'd have

to deal with but it would have no

sentimental aspect to it.

Another thing that I have is,

rather than disposable bottles,

I carry this. A reusable water bottle.

It is also a thermos so I can carry hot

beverages or soup. This is my cup

wherever I go. One important possession.

I often just have a simple glass jar, too.

Which is better, but actually...well,

I got this because someone lost it and I

found it and there was no owner to claim

it, so that's why I have this, but usually

I just have a jar. A mason jar.

Another eating utensil. A spoon.

Sometimes I have a spoon and a fork.

You don't need awesome bamboo forks and

spoons, they're cool, but go to a thrift

store. 25 cents. Or open your drawer.

You have spoons and forks to travel with

already. Normally, one of my possessions

is a leatherman, a multi-tool, but I don't

have that because this year I am

travelling, using planes, and everything

is carry on so I can't carry a knife.

Otherwise, that would absolutely be one of

my key possessions.

Next, I will show...this is a reusable

bag as well. I keep using the word

reusable. Of course it is reusable, but

what I mean is, for a lot of people who

are getting plastic bags at the store,

you can use a reusable shopping bag.

Now, this can be used for grocery

shopping, This is basically like

my day pack. So, that I don't have to

take everything out of here, I have this

small pack that I can carry as well.

Both of these backpacks were given to me

by a friend who gets backpacks that are

going to be thrown away and he repurposes

them and makes things out of them

instead. I actually took these because

they are still good.

I have my computer. And computers can

be expensive. This would be my most

expensive item but I buy them used on

Craigslist. This was, I think, about

$300. It's a 2014, so it is 6

years old. And so, if I break this, or it

gets stolen, then I just need about $300

to get another used 1 of these.

There's the charger to go with that.

I am counting the charger and the computer

as 1 possession at the advisement of

many of my friends who say that is 1

possession. But if you want to call it

2, you know, the 43 is a little bit

subjective. You can decide what you want.

I am going to show you 1 possession, my

earplugs, to help me with sleeping. There

are 6 pairs in there. I am going to

call it 1. Part of me wants to call it

6, so, you could say I have anywhere

between...depending on how you do it,

you could say I have between 30 and 70

possessions, just depending on how you

want to count it.

And then my headphones, so this is, at

this moment, literally, the only

electronic items that I own. This is it.

I usually have a headlamp as well but

right now I'm not carrying a headlamp

because I am really enjoying the

simplicity of this being the only

electronic items that I own.

This is a little cotton bag that I put my

headphones and the charger in.

That is another possession.

I've got my notebook, which is an

important possession for me.

I do a lot of writing and I try to

minimize my time on technology, on

my computer, so this notebook is a great

tool for me to be able to write by hand

rather than on the computer.

My goal is to move away from technology

as much as I possibly can.

Lots in here, I have my 'to do' lists

and things like that in there. I got this

at a thrift store. I think it was

$1.10 which is a little expensive

for a notebook, actually.
(laughs)

Let's see, reading. My goal is to

generally be carrying 1 book at a time.

Right now I am reading the Omnivore's

Dilemma by Michael Pollan. One of my

favorite authors, one of my favorite

books. I am reading it again.

You can see, in here, just all these

earmarks. There's just so much I'm

learning from here. So much important

information.

And then I have my bookmark. This is a

postcard of Gandhi that I got at the

Martin Luther King centre in Atlanta 4

years ago. And I keep this with me. Just

nice remembrance of someone that I love

very much. Oh! One thing I didn't count

as a possession, is on my computer.

I always forget about this possession.

It's a bumper sticker that says "We must

be the change we wish to see in the
world."

And, technically, that's a possession.

So, I guess I'm up to 44. I always forget

about that one! 44, actually, that's a

great number! Thanks Gandhi!

Okay, a couple other things.

Let's see, I am going to go into my

hygiene now. I practice a very simple

hygiene. I think that this body functions.

Just like I think my feet function,

I think my body functions. I don't

believe... Old Spice, I don't believe

that I am better off because of it.

And I don't believe that I need it in

order to be an important member of
society.

I haven't used deodorant for about 8

years now and I hug 1 000s of people

a year and sometimes I smell a little

bit but I also think a little bit of

smell is just fine. I won't go super

deep into that, but all of my personal

hygiene items are on this table.

I very much simplified it. Again,

as a man with very little hair it is

different than as a woman, or a man, with

long, flowing, beautiful hair.

So, everybody is different.

But the point is, is that there are so

many ways we can reduce. Do we need

suave in order to be contributing members

of society? I don't think so, whether we

have long hair or short hair.

And there are plenty of women out there

who are examples of that who have said

"I don't need that system. I can stand

outside of it, as well."

So, we will start with hair, actually.

How do I cut. my hair? As I said,

I try to use as few electronic items as

possible. So, I've got this old school,

vintage, hand-held buzzer. How it

works is I squeeze it and then there are

blades, here, and then it cuts my hair.

I can do it as super short, but I

actually took a plastic piece from a new

one and that's how it works. It just

squeezes. Just like that.

And I will have a video on my channel

about that. The off the grid zero waste

haircut. So, that is a pretty sweet

thing. I think this is about 50 years

old. I don't think they are

made anymore. You can only get

vintage ones and I got this online.

Oh, and that goes inside of this bag.

So, that's another possession, the bag.

Which is hemp, I believe.

I also have these little scissors. These

have come in handy so much, since I don't

have my multi-tool anymore.

These are probably one of my most commonly

used possessions. I use it for trimming

the beard, the ears, the hairline.

But I use it for so many different

things. When I'm repairing

things, repairing my clothes, things like

that. So, really great.

I also grabbed this from my mom's house.

She had 3 or 4 of them so I asked

if I could have one of these pairs of

scissors. A nice little memory of my mom.

Hi mom, I love you.

One of the ways that I use this is for

my dental floss. My dental floss

does not have a plastic container

surrounding it. Instead, it's just this

little roll and then I just cut it with

the scissors. And what's really

great about this dental floss is this is

made out of silk so this is not plastic.

And this goes right into the compost pile

as well. So, there are very few ways that

I create trash. I minimize them, the ways

that I create trash. And you'll see that

is a big part of the possessions that I
own.

(skip in audio)...alternative to it but

for now I'm sticking to this plastic.

To be honest, I don't feel bad about that.

I'm not trying to be perfect. I'm just

trying to do a really good job and I

think I'm doing pretty good, so I'm happy.

So, that's the toothbrush.

For toothpaste, I also buy my toothpaste.

I buy a brand called Jason Power
Smile.

Not because I have any connection

to them, just because I've been using it

for 5 years and I really love it.

(smells it) Oh, it's great. I love it.

And what I do, is I take it out and I

put it into a glass jar for multiple

reasons. I buy it in 6 ounces. I am

travelling right now and you can't carry

a 6 oz thing. And also because

plastic, when it heats and cools , can

release the plastic and this way it's in

glass for it's life. So, this is another

one of those luxuries of life that I am

sticking to. I can definitely make my own

toothpaste. A lot of people do it and

they like it. I have made it but it

didn't beat this for me.

I have my essential oil. This is

something that I buy and I generally have

lavender or a blend that is very soothing.

And that's what this is. I use this

to help myself relax, often before

sleep, but throughout the day. Especially

if I'm in stressful scenarios. Just being

able to smell this, really is so helpful.

This is a very important natural medicine

for me. And the other essential oil that

I am often carrying is tea tree, which is

an antimicrobial that I use as a

disinfectant and that's the other one that

I'm usually carrying, but for now, I'm

keeping life the simplest I've ever had

it at 44 possessions. And so I just have

the one essential oil.

I have a moisturizer. Basically you'd call

it a body butter. This is also store

bought. I have friends who make

this but right now I have

a store bought one for

moisturizing, keeping myself young, taking

care of the skin. And that's all natural,

biodegradable. And speaking of

biodegradable, my soap. Most people

that I...a lot of the people that I visit

use toxic soap. Toxic cleaning products.

So, I like to carry my own soap.

This is pretty much just for washing my

hands and my dishes. I actually

rarely use soap on my body because

our body has a naturally functioning

system with trillions of bacteria that are

living in harmony with our skin. And a

lot of our soaps and our products

actually destroy that and make us

dependent on that, but my body really

functions without that. I've been living

without soap on my body for, again, about

8 years...7 years-ish. But I do use it

for dishes, and for the hands and it's

biodegradable and plant based, so this is

grey water friendly. This can go onto

the plants rather than going to a waste

water treatment plant.

I have earplugs, which I use for sleeping

or when I'm travelling. For leaf blowers

and lawn mowers and things like that.

Those actually really improve my

quality of life. It helps me get good

sleep. I would love to exist completely

without these but It's a tricky one,

I get much better sleep with these.

I have my fingernail clippers and

that is it for natural hygiene.

This little bit, right here. And it all

fits into this natural fibre bag.

So, natural hygiene is mostly from the

sun, from the water, from the elements of

the earth, from eating good food.

Speaking of food, I carry tea with me.

I like to have tea every morning and every

night. A nice morning tea and an evening

tea. This is chamomile. I really like to

have that to just relax me at night.

And this was a tea ball but I

lost half, so I just strain it. I make

the tea in a pot and then I just pour it

through this to get the tea without the

chunks in it. Some people, like my friend

Kathy, they just love the chunks in their

tea. I like a nice smooth tea with no
chunks.

Last, but not least, I have my

identification. I have my passport.

I still travel internationally so

this is a very important possession for

me. I don't have a driver's license.

I don't have a social security card.

I do have a birth certificate. So these

are my only two forms of identification.

That means I don't need a wallet.

I don't have all these bonus cards and

things like that. If I had a wallet

that had 100 different cards in

it, that would be 100 different

possessions but I don't have a wallet.

I don't have any of those things. I got

rid of all those things over the years.

So, these are my 2 forms of I.D.

The reason that I have these is because,

with these 2 forms of I.D., I can get

other ones if I decide to. I got rid of

all the other ones about 5 years ago-ish,

so my 2 forms of I.D. My dream is to one

day, again, have nothing, including this.

Which would mean no longer being able to

legally leave the country. There are ways

around that, maybe, I have no experience

with it, but I know there is.

I believe that we are all human beings of

this earth first and foremost.

The borders come second to that.

Lastly, my most valuable possession is my

money. Although, I don't actually own

this. Technically, the government owns

the money. It's not my property.

(Reading:) "This note is legal tender for

all debts public and private." So, that

wasn't the exact words I was looking for

but I don't actually, technically, own

this. But I do own this envelope, which I

took out of the garbage can, so I'm

counting this as 1 possession.

I have about $5 000 and I make

the little bit of money that I make

from public speaking. For all of 2020

I am actually not making any money. This

is going to get me through the entire
year.

100 % of my speaking honorariums for

2020 are donated to indigenous and women

led environmental non-profits.

So, I literally mean this is all of my

money. I have no bank account.

No credit card. I have no savings account.

I have no retirements fund. No Roth IRA's

mutual funds. I have no debt that I owe

to anyone else and no debt is owed to me.

This is my financial life, right here.

And, it's not a lot of money, but for me,

this is actually a substantial amount of

money and I am very comfortable with this.

Now, you can look at this and say, okay,

well what this really is is, he's just

dependent on other people.

Dependent upon humanity.

And, yes, I am dependent on other people.

I am dependent on humanity.

Money makes it appear that we're not

dependent on other people, but I believe

that is just one big illusion.

Every time you spend money there's someone

behind that. There are other creatures

behind that. There's our world behind

that but we're able to remove ourselves

from that and consider ourselves

independent. But the reality is, is we're

not independent. We are completely

dependent on our global humanity and

that is what I've chosen to embrace

through this way of life. I want to stand

out against this idea of radical

independence and stand for radical

connection to humanity.

That's what I'm trying to show here,

actually, is that we are dependent upon

each other and we absolutely do need

to work together.

At the same time I think that it is

important, as individuals, that we have

skills. That we are resourceful. That we

have common sense. That we critically

think. And those are all things that

I have established in myself.

I know how to take care of my body.

I'm not asking other people to do that.

I've learned how to be able to take care

of a lot of my own needs, so there is that

form of independence, but only with the

complete embracement, of

the reality that I'm completely

dependent among humanity and so are

every single one of you. Even if you have

your own wifi that you pay for and your

own cell phone that you pay for and your

own house. All of those things are all

dependent on global humanity working

together and all of the creatures that we

depend on in the environment, the earth

that we depend on. That's really,

you know... I'm trying to shake things up

a little bit, here. I am extreme. There is

no question about that. The way that I

do things is extreme but I think that our

current way of living...United States has

5 % of the worlds' population but

uses 25 % of the world's resources.

That is extreme. So, what I am, is I am

a counterbalance to that extreme way of

life. I only have to go this far because

society has gone so far in the other

direction and that is why I am extreme.

So that I can stand out and get people

thinking and get people questioning their

own lives. I am extreme but I also

wasn't always this way.

I used to be really focused on material

possessions and financial wealth. My goal

was to be a millionaire by the time I was
30.

I wonder what the 23 year old me, now,

would say to a guy who actually only has

less than $6 000 as his full

financial net worth. So, I wasn't

always this way. It was a

transition. In 2011, that's when I woke

up. I lived in a 3 bedroom apartment

at the time. I lived in the biggest

bedroom because I had a lot of stuff.

I moved to the smallest bedroom as I

started to wake up and reduce the amount

of stuff. I went from the smallest

bedroom to living in a 6 by 6 closet

of my home as well as having my

friend park his camper in the driveway

and I stayed in the camper, as well.

After that I was simplifying my life,

simplifying my life, simplifying my

life. I eventually got rid of that

apartment and I moved into a tiny house.

A 50 square foot tiny house in San Diego.

At that time, when I moved in there, I was

able to bike over with everything that I

owned on a bike trailer and the bike

pannier. That was a big step for me.

Then I lived for a year in a 50 square

foot tiny house, off the grid, in San

Diego. At that time, I think I had

around 1 000 possessions. After that,

I downsized to having just 111 possessions

that all fit into my backpack, which I

travelled with for about 2 years.

So, that was a bigger backpack then this.

Substantially bigger, about twice as big,

111 possessions. And then I moved to

Orlando and that's where I decided I was

going to grow and forage 100 % of my

food for a year. That meant drastically

increasing my possessions to be able to

be self sufficient food wise. I had a

lot of possessions. You know, just the

shovels and the rakes, and I built a 10 by

10 tiny house. So much bigger than the

last one, and I filled it with a lot of

stuff. Mostly useful stuff. Things that

I could use for sustainability, for

gardening and such. And then I left

Orlando, after 2 years there. I gave

away the tiny house, I gave away most of

my possessions, sold some of them, and

then it took me month to downsize my life

again. I left Orlando with a huge duffle

bag! It was so heavy, it hurt my back.

Eventually got that down to 80 possessions

and then, a few weeks ago in Montreal,

I was at a school, speaking, and I turned

that 80 possessions into 40 possessions.

I gave away half of the things I owned

that day, to kids. I was leaving Montreal

and coming to Costa Rica, where I didn't

need my jacket and my pants, and I wanted

to get rid of those things as I'm going

to be shifting only to natural fibres

instead. So, from 80 down, to now 44.

You can see there was a long transition.

to get to this point.

The most minimalist I've been took from

2011. So, nine years. It was a long

transition process and I know a lot of

you might be overwhelmed with the idea

of where you are today. Maybe you

have a lot of stuff. Maybe you have a

5 bedroom house full of stuff.

But just remember, that I was there in a

similar situation 11 years ago, and it was

a transition. Again, the way that

I've done things is extreme but you don't

have to go that far. And I know a lot of

you probably would like to. You

might be inspired. You might want to

reduce the number of possessions you have.

You might want to shrink the size of your

house. You might want to live in a tiny

house. You might want everything you own

to fit in a backpack. So I've actually

created another video for that.

Tips on how to downsize your life that

goes into that and shares my transition

and gives you a lot of the tools and the

guides on how to be able to do that.

But, just keep in mind, it's a process and

you don't have to go to this extreme, by

any means, to drastically increase

happiness and healthiness and be living in

a way that is, indeed, more harmonious

with the earth. And, another thing, for

me, is this is life. Life is complicated.

And I can't possibly go into all of the

reasons behind this, but it's all based on

a deeply thought out way of trying to

live an examined life. Live with my

actions being in alignment with my

beliefs. So, for me, this is a practice

of non ownership and, instead, sharing

and being a part of humanity. It's a

practice of non-materialism. Not focusing

my life on what other people think about

me based on material possessions or

getting my happiness from possessions.

It is a practice of my impermanence.

Embracing that I am an impermanent

person. Here for just a very short period

of time and understanding that's okay.

The less that I have, the more okay I am

with the fact that I am just one human

among over 7 billion. And that's

just one species among millions of

species. And just embracing that I'm just

here for a very short period of time, and

I'll be gone. And being okay with that.

Non-materialism, non-attachment,

non-ownership, and embracing my

impermanence. if you got a lot out

of this video and you're inspired, then I

would encourage you to subscribe, if you

aren't already, if this is your first time

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Comment and like this.

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share it. Share it with friends and

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Share this as some information and some

practical information.

I love you all very much and I hope to see

you in real life one of these days and

get a big hug!

(acoustic guitar music)