volume one hundred and fifty-eight

nearly a year of living out of a suitcase

📍Written from a familiar hotel, by the ocean, on Darkinjung Country (otherwise known as Umina Beach) while Bin Chickens enjoyed early morning leftovers from the day before’s activities in the beer garden outside my window.

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Friends, it’s a full week of travel this week. It is vital to me that I still get a Substack out. Not just because you’re expecting it, I do happen to know the world won’t end if I miss a week. But vital for myself.

My writing practice is important to me.

While I have various other projects on the go at any given time, my Substack is my playground and I want to play every week. So this week, I have decided on something simpler for me to write: a list. I love lists. 

I am closing in on a year of living out of a suitcase. Wild. I have no plans to stop any time soon. In fact, I am getting better and better at it, and intend to keep improving this skill. Here are some things I have learned along the way.

kindred spirits

1. A travel yoga mat is good in theory. But there will come a time when that 1kg of space in your suitcase will be so valuable. You’ll realise most homes have yoga mats, or at the very least, soft carpet.

2. The winter season means heavier clothes. This feels like a no-brainer, but it is wild how much I underestimated this. I have stocked up on thrifted long-sleeved undershirts and non-thrifted stockings and socks. Layering is important for someone who feels the cold like I do. I will wear stockings under jeans. Finding multi-purpose uses for the things taking up space is essential. Likewise, when you decide this will be your last winter, and you are recommitting to Endless Summer Vacation, you know you’ll free up space very soon being taken up by those long sleeves, track pants, slippers and extra jumpers. The idea is to always have a kilogram to play with should you find a gift or something you might need to carry for a while.

3. Pack your incense. Every place has its own smell. It doesn’t make it a bad smell, but  that smell will not be your home. I travel with two types of incense sticks in my bag. They don’t take up much room and you don’t need a burner to use them. Lighting them and wedging them in the gaps of the kitchen drain makes for a great makeshift, burn-proof stand that will allow the scent to transform your temporary space into a familiar one.

4. Being a multi-passionate creative means most of the weight in your suitcase is not clothes. Less than half of the contents is clothes. The rest are the items that feed these passions. You cannot downsize your suitcase based on your wardrobe.

5. Bold is best. I have slowly phased out anything that would have been deemed an essential staple when I had a full closet, and have opted for prints, logos, colours and flare. When your wardrobe is limited, you make it count. I have never leaned more into myself with my clothes than I do now. There is no space for “safe”. There is no space for me to “people please” with my clothing choice. The only people I’m pleasin? This guy right here. And of course, anyone with good taste who appreciates this guy.

6. Don’t leave the tea behind. Often I will leave things at the housesit for the owner to use when they return. This might be a third of a bottle of olive oil, or a cup or two of rice, or a few eggs. I tend not to over-buy, but I absolutely never waste food when I can avoid it. At the start of my travels, I also would leave my teabags. I have since learned that they do not weigh much and should I arrive somewhere late and unable to grocery shop until the next day, or feel deflated after a long day of travel, or need a sleepy time companion, I will always have it on hand. They also come in handy on short hotel stays between housesits, knowing I have more than English Breakfast to keep me going.

7. Have a to-find list. I have my essential checklist that I work on, on day one in my new location. There are all sorts of things on there that get me excited like finding an ice cream shop with good dairy-free options, the local libraries, markets that are on while I am there, queer venues, places for artist dates like museums and galleries and, of course, comedy shows. What excites you? You should find it right away, and make time for it in your calendar before it fills up. 

8. Your microphone looks dangerous. After so many attempts to go through security at the airport smoothly, and always having my backpack flagged, I eventually discovered my microphone resembled something else in my bag. A vape. I have since restructured the Tetris of my backpack so the microphone is on top. Before I put everything through, I pull the microphone out and put it next to the bag. I cannot tell you how many seconds this has saved me. Yes, seconds. But those seconds cut into my “find a doughnut at the airport” time. So very important!

9. A crocheted water bottle holder will save you. I have seen them on every cool person by the beach for the last year. I got my own at The Fremantle Market at the end of 2023 and it’s a game changer. When my bag is full, my bottle can hang off me on its own. When I am catching a flight that wants to weigh my carry-on, I take this out and hang it on my shoulder and lose 2kg. I also look very cool and cool women want to talk to me about it all the time, so that’s wonderful.

10. You do not need a travel pillow. I spent good money on a highly recommended travel pillow when I left Canada. It made the long flight back to Australia so comfortable. I have not used it since. Despite bus, train and plane rides galore, the pillow has remained clipped to my backpack every time. I ditched it recently and lost 1kg and one less thing to keep an eye on when wheeling myself around.

11. People love postcards! I love sending them. I send postcards from every single destination I visit. I have filled people’s fridges, scrapbooks, drawers and more. I love sending little thoughts that I am thinking of them, and that they are with me on my travels. I especially love writing these from the beach or a nice cafe with a view of the beach. Want a postcard from me? Let me know!

12. Journal purges are purification. Before I embarked on a life of full-time travel, I purged over a decade of journals. I mined for gold and tore up the rest. I shredded them by hand and filled a garbage bag. There was a fire ban where I was and I had to accept that the ceremony I had to say goodbye was me saying “Thank you” before throwing them in the recycling bin. This is what I do every time I fill a notebook now. I mine for gold, shred it up, say thank you and feed the yellow bin. I feel lighter. I feel grateful for what has happened since I started that book. I feel proud of how far I have come reflecting back.

13. Always have fruit with you. It’s hard to snack when you have dietary requirements or want to live within a budget, and travel days alone can really mess with your tum tum. I like to make sure my travel day is set up with a few pieces of fruit to get me through and I have never regretted it.

14. Unpack. It’s easy to live out of a suitcase, and when it comes to my clothes, I generally do. But I have gotten so good at making any place a home. The hotel room I am writing this from became my home within twenty minutes of arriving. I have my books on the desk, I have my coats and hat hung, I have tarot cards pulled under a coffee mug holding my pens, I have my alarm clock and journal on the side table, I have my toiletries on the sink like I live here and my shoes are lined near the door. The housesit or hotel might not be your forever home, but make it home for now.

15. Baristas are the new bartenders. I have met so many wonderful humans while ordering a coffee, that I make a point in my budget for coffee throughout the week. While they’re preparing my oat latte, we are chatting about my t-shirt, or the weather, or their weekend, or the yummy pastry I selected. I like to become a regular, even if temporary.

16. Street libraries are marvellous. So is a stranger’s bookshelf. I really wondered if I should get a digital book reader for my travels, but I was hesitant as I love the feel of a real book, and I hate more screen time than I need. I have always had something to read when I have browsed the bookshelf of my housesit, or the $1 bins of an op-shop, or walked by a street library. If I finish a book I purchased, I can donate it back or donate it to the street library. I am currently reading A Walk To Remember for the first time. I would not have picked this out in a bookshop if someone said “Go pick whatever you want!” I love that picking books this way has allowed me to explore other genres and stories I might have otherwise ignored.

17. One good jacket is all you need. And is a conversation starter. I have my denim jacket covered in band patches and I have had long conversations with seventy-year-old taxi drivers as much as twenty-year-old shop clerks. A good jacket will go with everything you own and save you space. A great jacket — that you can tell people is a constant work in progress put together by you, your Dad and your grandmother — can mean brand new friends or more fun commutes.

18. A cheeky dog might do you a favour. When you’re taking care of a dog who doesn’t know the word “no” she might act out when you dare to pause pats to take a shower. You might exit from the shower to find some of the contents of your desk in tiny pieces on the carpet and her nowhere to be found. You might be really mad at first, until you realise that while it sucks, it was nothing essential. She dodged the microphone, the laptop, the camera, the tarot cards… she went for the things you realise you barely use. She did you a favour freeing up the space and when it comes time to pack down you’ll silently thank her for the extra room in your bag.

19. Get out of the house. I have a knack for feeling the effects of seasonal shifts. AKA when it gets cold and grey, I get sad girl vibes. I have been making myself leave the house every day, even if for a walk around the block. If I can run an errand or get to a library, or a venue where I get to be around wonderful people, my energy levels rise again. It can be very easy for me to forget this and spend days on end only talking to animals (very good listeners by the way!) but sometimes you need to hear a voice other than your own and hear thoughts outside your own head. Planning outfits the day before and collecting a photo a day of the outside world has kept me on top of this. And now it has created a habit that if I don't leave the house, that feels like the weird part.

20. BE GRATEFUL! I am living the life of my dreams! The life of Little Loz’s dreams! The life of a lot of people’s dreams who are too afraid or stuck or tied down to do it! I am so lucky! I try not to let the natural course of life — which can sometimes be inconvenient to the plans I had in mind — get to me. Because I get to see the world, meet and fall in love with new pets, chat with cool and interesting people, send snail mail, work for clients who I love and who support this lifestyle, chase the sun and the stage and the sand, and do it all on my terms. I honestly couldn’t want for more. I pause to say “Thank you” to my Higher Power throughout the day and always before I fall asleep. I also send three gratitudes to a friend every day and she sends me hers. There is so much to be thankful for.

tour guide wisdom

Lovely reader, head into the comments and tell me would you ever consider a life of full-time travel? Why or why not?

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here are three things i struggled with this week:

🐾  When the doggo gets sick right as you leave them and you keep checking your phone for updates.

✌️ I am waiting to feel overwhelmed again and yet I haven’t for a very long time. The struggle is acceptance.

🧦 No Washing Machine For a Week Challenge, let’s go.

here are three blessings from this week:

🌅 Walks along the ocean for an hour, more than once.

🦋 Track work on travel day meant taking twice as long to reach my destination, and having to overshoot my destination just to loop back. And somehow, all I did was laugh and accept this was a plan out of my hands.

🍿 Stocking up on Aldi snacks in the hotel room.

here are three goals for the coming week:

🧳 Travel safely and calmly throughout my many stops along the way.

🎤 Sneak onto an Open Mic while passing through a certain city.

🎠 Continue to lean in on it all. 

pics or it didn’t happen:

published in vancouver pride mag, did you see?

I love you and I appreciate you reading my letters because I really enjoy writing them to you.

🧡, LD (lauren deborah | she/they)