Embrace the Adventure: Making a Nomadic Lifestyle happen with the help of Self-Storage

A Life Less Ordinary

At first, when you hear the word Nomad, your mind might conjure up an image of a weathered hunter-gatherer type, moving their flock and family with the seasons to survive. To an extent, you’d be right. A quick google throws up the statistic that there are estimated to be currently 30-40 million nomads worldwide. 

However, a nomad in 2024 can also come under a different definition. Lifestyle nomads are a rapidly growing new type of tribe who, driven by a thirst for adventure and new experience, and unwilling to be tied down by the 9-5, make use of easier, cheaper travel and new technologies to work and live wherever they like, whenever they like.

Nomad? No bother. 

So who exactly are these new nomads, unchained from the desk and home, and embracing the open road? 

Life on the Move

Digital Nomads

Have laptop, will travel. Digital Nomads earn their living working online, often freelance, from anywhere in the world they choose. ‘The office’ is an internet cafe in Istanbul today, a co-working space in Calgary tomorrow. 

Semi Nomads

These digital nomads operate in a slightly more structured way, setting a travel pattern and returning to some sort of base or bases at particular times, for varying reasons like family ties, work obligations, seasonal hobbies or simply because they really like Paris in the spring. 

Seasonal Nomads

Seasonal work can enable you to travel and live in amazing places, depending on the time of year. Coaching snowboarders in Colorado in winter, teaching surfing in Sligo in summer – it’s about pursuing passions, having fun and seeing the world, all the while maintaining an income. 

Extended Travellers

This type of Nomad is all about travel. Some will work as they go, picking up casual jobs to fund the next stage of their odyssey; some will have saved to facilitate a set period of time to exclusively travel; others might be retirees, for example, hitting the open road in their campervan funded by a pension or life savings.

However and whenever they make it happen, today’s nomads are redefining work/life balance and embracing experience over material possessions. 

Travelling Light

Those possessions though … what to do about them? 

Everyone’s got stuff – from basic possessions like clothes to a life’s worth of precious and useful belongings, you can’t bring everything with you so it’s got to go somewhere. Relying on those you leave behind – plonking everything in mum’s shed, or your best mate’s spare room, for example, – could get pretty old pretty fast. 

Packing light is hard, and it’s all very well to spend time away from the stuff that weighs us down – just where do you put it all while you’re gone? 

Self storage, that’s where.

Utilising self-storage for a nomadic lifestyle can be the key that sets you free. So what sort of things are ideally suited for self-storage while you’re globetrotting?

• Some stuff is difficult, risky, or expensive to bring around like important documents including birth or marriage certificates, and valuables like jewellery. 
• For nomads with more than one base, or those who travel seasonally, different things might need to be kept at different locations like seasonal clothing or sports equipment like surfboards or golf clubs. 
• Some items are just
  • too important to risk losing or damaging as you go – sentimental items, heirlooms, etc. 
  • too big, incurring oversized luggage fees.
  • too much hassle – lugging your belongings, worrying about keeping them safe, physically conveying them, and just getting them from a to b can be a massive pain in the proverbials.

Store Up, Ship Out!

Here are just some of the benefits of self-storage for Nomads

Flexibility: No matter what you need to be stored, you’ll find a self storage unit that’s the perfect size, the perfect price and for as long as you need it. Fancy staying away longer, or just returning to home comforts sooner? No problem.

Cost Efficiency: It’s significantly cheaper to rent a self-storage unit than to continue to pay rent on a full-fledged home while you’re away and, while storing items does have a cost, it’s often a way more sensible financial option than paying additional travel fees, paying for repairs or buying replacements for lost or irreparable items. 

Security: If your stuff is safe – which it will be in a fully-monitored storage unit with controlled access – then you can relax and concentrate on getting the most out of your travels and all the wonderful experiences they bring.

Accessibility: With self-storage, you’re in control so you can get to your belongings whenever you want – a flying visit home? No problem – everything’s to hand, and can go back again once the wanderlust takes you. You can also give access details to someone you trust  to check on your things while you’re away or to find that all-important document that’s going to get you out of a fix at the airport!

Tips for Taking Off

If you’re planning on setting forth on your own epic voyage, here are a few tips to make things easier in terms of what you leave behind:

Prepare strategically. As well as taking care of passports, visas, documents, cloud backups etc., pay good attention to how you store what you’re leaving behind. Invest in good-quality packing materials, dust sheets, shelving – whatever it takes to leave your possessions stored well for your return. 

If you’re travelling with friends or family, why not split the costs and look into self-storage together? Every penny saved at home is a penny to spend on the road.

Allow access. Give someone you trust the key or codes to the storage unit while you’re gone. You never know when it will come in handy to call on someone to grab something for you or others in your absence. Make sure your unit is neat and easy to navigate too – have a think before you go, and if there’s anything you reckon might be needed, leave it near the front or on top. 

Home Sweet Home

The advantages of renting a unit extend well after you get home too. During your travels, you may well pick up some new treasured possessions – artefacts from far-flung places, antiques from a distant flea market or just memorabilia and souvenirs. Self-storage can be a place to keep all of these precious travel treasures in tip-top condition when you get back – or while you’re still gone. Send them home ahead of you so that they can be safely stashed, out of the way, until you’re back to figure out their forever home. 

Finding Freedom

Self Storage is an assurance – a thumbs-up as we set off in the taxi, board the plane or turn the key in the ignition telling us that everything is fine; to go ahead and embrace the adventure knowing that all of our cherished possessions – and the ones we have yet to find – are safe and sound while we’re away, leaving us free to immerse ourselves in new places, cultures and experiences. 

Safe travels!

Unlock the freedom of extra space. Get in touch with Storage World today or get a quote online.