Everyday things I'm grateful for after travelling for a year
We take a so many things for granted when living in our own homes in the big cities. Not even take them for granted, we find so many ways to complain about them too. Nothing seems ever to be perfect and it bothers us. But now that I’ve been on the go and without a home of my own for more than a year, here are things I find that I appreciate the most when I do get to have them in a rental home.
1. A couch (+ points if it’s also comfortable)
Right now, I’m sitting on our surprisingly comfortable couch in Popoyo, Nicaragua. This is the couch that inspired me to to write this. We don’t think of couches at all since they’re such standard items in a home. But it’s been very common for me to have no were to sit comfortably. Generally, there are dining table chairs or a bed. Just to have a comfortable couch I can be half sitting and half lounging always makes me happy.
2. Dishwasher
This is a bit of a no-brained and I know some people might not even have a dishwasher in their homes butI’ve always had one since I graduated university and without a dishwasher I always find myself washing dishes, pots and pans. They are not commonly found in holiday rental type of apartments so when I see them I’m happy beyond words.
3. Space
It’s a bit of a luxury to have your own empty space to walk around in. And when I say space, I mean a small floor area with nothing on it. Maybe one square meter or two. Most holiday rentals are designed to use the space as well as possible so you don’t get free roaming space; just enough for a bed and your bags. But only when you don’t have it for a long time, you realize how valuable it is to be able to stretch, do a little yoga or just exist in that little empty corner of the room.
4. A wardrobe
Doesn’t have to be fancy or doesn’t even have to have doors, a couple of shelves and maybe a hanger with (hopefully 🤞) more than 4 hangers makes a big difference. Having no storage space for clothes and some itsy bitsy things like toiletries dooms me to leave everything in my bags. And in places I stay for more than 10 days, living out of my luggage is the fastest path to chaos and feeling overwhelmed.
5. A clean sponge
How many times have I stood there with a dirty piece of cutlery in my hand, having realized my mistake of using an item in the kitchen, trying to hype myself up to touch that sponge that seems to have been in use for more than a decade? Probably two or three times. Now I know better. I check to see what the dish washing situation is before using anything in shared kitchens. No one wants to touch a wet cold piece of discolored bacteria mansion.
6. Pillows
Hotel and airbnb pillows are so hit and miss. In one stay I would get the best pillow I ever had and in the next one just a thin layer of cotton imporsenating as a pillow. Depending on the length of stay there could be solutions to this problem like buying a cheap pillow to use in the meantime or using the throw pillow from the couch. You learn to be adaptable while travelling. But having a nice consistent pillow experience every night is for now a thing of dreams.
There is probably plenty more.
I’d love to say “once I go back to living the city life I will be more aware of the everyday gifts I have and will not complain about small details” but I know that’s not true. Very likely I will forget to be grateful for the fact that I can get a new sponge out of the 5 pack of sponges to replace the old one or that my clothes are sitting nice and organized for me in my own wardrobe and complain how I’m missing just one more shelf and how this certain type of dish soap smells a bit too lemon-y. Maybe not… We’ll see.
