I sold all my stuff to live off Airbnbs (again)

About two weeks ago, I donated, sold and threw away most of my stuff to live off Airbnbs. This is not the first time I am doing this.

About two weeks ago I donated, sold and threw away most of my stuff to live off Airbnbs. This is not the first time I am doing this. Right before COVID-19 happened (December 2019) my house contract in London was coming to an end. I really did not want to go through the pain of finding a place to rent.

The effort required in finding a place in London is not worth it. There is a huge drain of resources and energy in finding a single apartment. You first need to scan various flat sharing and renting websites in order to find the ones matching your criteria and budget. You quickly realize that the majority are either overpriced or in poor condition. For the remaining ones that look decent enough, you need to decrypt how edited the photo might be or whether they used a fish-eyed lense to make the place look bigger than it really is. Finally, you need to arrange a flat viewing and if ultimately you like the place, need to be fast and lucky enough to book it.

Contracts are usually at least one year long. This is too short if you really like the place and have to go through the process again the year after. Then again this is too long if there is some unexpected issue with the place that you couldn't see during the viewing (such as neighbour issues or noise polution).

I decided to give longer stay Airbnbs a shot to see if that would be a viable way of living instead of renting. It just made sense to me.

Finding a place to stay on Airbnb vs any rental websites is way more streamlined. I know that when I go to the Airbnb website, the quality of the places seem higher, they will have the amentities and furniture I need. I don't need to worry about setting up and paying bills as they are all included in the price. If I am not sure the place has everything I need, I can message the friendly host and they reply almost immediately. Good luck talking to an agent or landlord in London and receiving an answer in that manner. Best part is I do not need to be worried about the length of stay as I can adjust it according to my needs.

The first time time I attempted this was for a period of 2 months. I booked a first month longth stay, then had a short trip to Denmark and Switzerland. On my way back to London, I headed off to the next one month stay. Right after that COVID happened which made me consider renting for a year long contract as it did not look like the best time to be moving around often.

Two years later I decided to give this an other shot. At the current stage of my life I have been working towards making a living off my own digital products and what is important to me is increasing my runaway money as much as possible by reducing the cost of living. At the same time I am not willing to sacrifise the quality of living to achieve this. I have considered various countries for the next months both in Europe and Asia. As always this will probably make more sense the more I do and explore this.

I have only kept the things that are the most important to achieve my goals. This is my laptop and phone, some basic clothes and underwear. I really do not want to have to move unnecessary baggage while moving, let alone across countries.