What We Couldn’t Do Without During Our Year of Living with Less.

This is the fifth post in the blog series One Year Without.  See all of the posts here.

On the last post in this series I focused on which items were the hardest to give up during our year of living with less.  Now I’m going one step further and listing the items that we purchased during that year because we felt like we could not go without them.  While some items represent momentary failures in our attempts at self-control and our goal of living with less, others are simply consequences of our lack of knowledge about what we really needed to pack for our year abroad.  We certainly purchased more items than we intended to, but we view these purchases more as lessons than failures because this experience taught us to make mindful purchases and strongly consider if we truly need something.  We gained an intentional mindset towards buying stuff that will benefit us for years to come and that is worth any mistakes we made along the way.

Perhaps this list can help others preparing for a similar situation plan for what they really need and what is less important.

What We Couldn’t Do Without During Our Year of Living with Less.

  
What we took to Germany (left) and what we brought back home (right).

Kitchen

blender x 3
food processor

We were unable to bring these two appliances with us because of the difference in electrical currents between the USA and Germany.  However, we could have saved money and time by purchasing a high quality blender at the beginning instead of going through poorly made blenders that broke rather quickly.  The food processor was a bit of a luxury purchase; we decided to buy it because of the constant pain and swelling in my fingers that makes it hard for me to chop or grind things manually.  We gave these items away before we left since they wouldn’t function in the USA.

large knife
knife sharpener
large Tupperware
can opener
cutting board
muffin tin
strainer
pie pan
mixing bowl
coffee cups x 3

All of the above items were things that we had in storage at home and could have brought with us if we had known that we’d need them – except for one Schweinfurt coffee cup that was more of a sentimental purchase than necessity.  Going without these items would have been possible but difficult.  The only item I regret purchasing was the muffin tin, because I only used it twice.

 

Bedroom

pillows x 2
blanket x 2
storage bins x 5

We were provided with pillows and blankets in our hotel but they were rather small and not really supportive enough for us.  The storage bins were necessary after discovering the lack of cabinet and closet storage in our rooms – another way that German homes are different from American ones.

Home

steel fan
travel fan
black fan x 4

Fans are another item that we couldn’t have brought along because of the electrical differences.  We purchased a lot of fans because we had an immensely difficult time adjusting to the heat of summer in the absence of air conditioning.  We gave away all of the fans except the small travel fan (which is USB powered) before we left.

router
laundry basket
drawer organizer
two window screens
reusable grocery bags x 8

The router was an excellent purchase because our hotel Wi-Fi system only supported four devices per room (we had seven devices) and would annoyingly prompt you to log in several times per day.  We could have done without the laundry basket and drawer organizer, but the window screens were an absolute necessity because we had to open the windows often (in the absence of air conditioning) and we wanted an insect free environment.

Entertainment

amplifier

Mr. Meena purchased a desktop headphone amplifier because he sorely missed his sound system from home.  We spent the entire year watching movies on our laptops or phones and the amplifier was a helpful substitute for the home entertainment system that we left behind.

Pet

heating pillow
wooden playground
toys

Our pet budgie, Koopa, also had to leave many things behind when he moved abroad with us.  We had to replace his heating pad from home with a heating pillow (the only heating appliance we could find in Germany without the 90 minute auto shut off feature) after we discovered that the radiator we were using to keep him warm would shut off in the middle of the night.  The wooden stand and various toys were impulse purchases to replace his large tree, cage, and box of toys that we left behind.  Koopa is probably the most spoiled member of our family.

   

Other purchases we made while abroad included normal clothing items, replacements for broken items, gifts, and a few souvenirs:

Christmas market houses x 3
Christmas ornaments x 2
Swiss army knife
polish pottery
wine glass
beer mug

   

I’m grateful that we learned more about practicing restraint in our purchases through our year of living with less – especially considering how many times we traveled to other cities or countries and saw something we wished to take home.  However, if I had to do it over again I would have packed more items from our kitchen since I ended up needing to buy many things that I already owned.  Minimalism appears to be hardest to achieve in the kitchen.

What could you do without for a year abroad?

Read the next post in the series here.

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