How to Start Being a Corporate Nomad

The first few steps for planning your new adventure.

Embarking on the journey of becoming a corporate nomad signifies a significant lifestyle change. It involves bidding farewell to a permanent residence, parting with possessions, stowing away belongings, and making crucial decisions such as choosing a storage location for retained items. The initial steps also include selecting the first destination, renting the chosen space, packing up belongings, and saying heartfelt goodbyes to friends and family. This process can be overwhelming, but here are some planning tips to streamline the transition.

Create a List of Potential Locations and Narrow Down Options

There are many exciting places to explore, so for a recommended first step, ask yourself what you want out of the adventure, or what lifestyle are you trying to explore. Start by compiling a list of locations that pique your interest. Utilize tools like Google Maps to visually map out places you want to explore, areas with activities you enjoy, and those you'd prefer to avoid. This visual representation helps identify key areas suitable for living. Aligning these choices with preferred seasons, for example, avoiding winter in certain locations, provides a foundation for planning your first few stops.

For example, some key deciding factors for us were where do we see ourselves living together, where do we want to explore, and what places did we definitely not want to go to. We organized these on a map and then decided the first stop would be one of these locations that was easy for us both to get to coming from opposite ends of the country. From there, we made decisions such as avoiding the winter, avoiding fire season or leaning into a winter we knew would be a fun snowy wonderland.

Since I agreed with my company to continue to work east coast hours, we also decided to never move more than one time zone at a time so my schedule could ease into 5am start times as opposed to an abrupt change.

Set a Realistic Timeline

Establishing a concrete timeline for initiating your nomadic adventure is crucial. Without a fixed start date, it becomes easier to procrastinate. Flexibility is essential, considering rental availability, but having a semi-loose timeline fosters accountability. For instance, we initially aimed to be in our first location by May 20, 2022, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we adjusted our timeline to June 2, accommodating the rental availability that met our criteria.

While we go into leases with landlords for four months on average, we establish flexibility upfront in the discovery calls so we have options to extend of a couple weeks if we need to or an extra month or two if we really like the area.

Find Your New Home

Explore various platforms such as Furnished Finder, Facebook Marketplace, Airbnb, Hello Landing, Zillow, and Apartments.com to discover options at different price points with various amenities. Based on our experience, Furnished Finder yielded the most success, but we also found viable options on Facebook Marketplace and neighborhood groups. Stay tuned for upcoming insights on securing suitable places, but if you take anything away from this article, its to get potential landlords on the phone for a conversation. You can tell a lot about them and how they maintain the space and that comfort is huge when approaching places site unseen.

Pack It Up

Since our rentals were furnished by design, we could anticipate what items were unnecessary. This made the challenge finding a balance between comfort items and practical items like clothes for all seasons. Consider purging or storing items you wouldn't use for an extended period, as my aunt wisely advised: if you wouldn't buy it today, toss it.

For us, we limited ourselves to what could fit in our vehicles as to what we could take with us (car toppers included). The rest either went to storage, got lent out to friends and family or donated. When packing up my big items like furniture for storage, I hired movers to get it to the final destination. With extra time after the big lift, they taught me how to efficiently pack my car (and cartopper) and I packed it that same way every move utilizing each inch of space.

Check out our recommended packing and purging lists here: https://www.chiefnomadicofficer.com/packing

Plan Your Travel Route

As someone who maxes out of drive time at nine hours, this was essential to me. Efficiently planning your travel route is important, especially considering varying preferences in drive times. Determine your daily driving limits and agree on the best approach for each route (Sometimes its not the most direct depending on whether). We found breaking up long drives into a significant push followed by shorter day trips worked best for us. Our next location has always been within a two day drive, but any distance 10 hours or less, we do all in one day. Planning in advance for us, not only ensured cost-effectiveness but also made sure we were in places where we could safeguard your belongings.

When planning your route and drive times, keep in mind how much you’ll need to pack up in the morning before you head out and how much you want to unpack when you arrive and make sure you have the time and energy for it all.

As you embark on your nomad adventure, remember that flexibility and adaptability are your greatest allies. Embrace the opportunities that come but don’t be afraid to plan ahead and create some structure. Safe travels and may your nomadic lifestyle be filled with enriching experiences and newfound perspectives. Bon voyage!