The truth <?> about ‘minimalist packing guides’
(Back in March I post this story to Medium. Sandra just now got around to reading it as said “oh we need to put that in the site” so yea, if you follow me on Medium these words might look familiar)
I just read another article extolling the joy of travelling with only carry-on luggage. Truth be told, it is the best way to go. Truth also be told, I am super suspicious of most of the packing guides I read.
“How I fit 3 weeks worth of stuff into a single carry-on bag” “Secrets of packing ultra light” “Travel secrets to carry-on only” You know. You’ve seen them, too.
A list of clothes and gear is always included but you know what we usually DON’T get? A picture of the bag that all their crap supposedly fit into. Here is my 40L and 19L ready to get on a bus. I’ll tell you below what’s in them and it isn’t even really that much.
It seems that most of the folks writing these guides are carrying 3 or more pair of shoes and at least one pair of jeans. Do you know how hard it is to compress a pair of jeans? A lot of them are also carrying a 35MM DSLR and at least one extra lens. Those don’t fold, bend or compress and they are bulky.
I am suspicious because I know what bags we are carrying and exactly what’s in them. We are travelling internationally for an extended period. We left the US November 15th and plan to return for a few weeks visit in September, so, 11 months of continuous travel.
We worked to minimize our clothing and gear with a goal of getting down to a backpack and a daypack each. One in the overhead, one under the seat, just what the airlines dream of.
In the end, we wound up adding a small roller bag that gets checked because we just couldn’t be sure what we couldn’t live without. So we overpacked and we’ve been okay with it. We’re only on our third country but we’ve flown internationally twice now. Portland, OR to Panama to get started and then last month from Costa Rica to Portugal.
We’ve schlepped our gear on and off of trains and shuttle buses to move between cities and I really want to get rid of one of these bags. My wife is leaning towards keeping the roller and getting rid of her 40L backpack. I’m perfectly happy with my 40L backpack and 19L daypack.
Many of the packing article peeps talk about their 3 pair of shoes. They have a casual shoe, a hiking/running shoe and a sandal. I have a pair of Skechers that are decent walking shoes and I also wear them on travel days because the Teva-style sandals take up less space in my pack. That’s my shoes, though. I can’t imagine also having a pair of hiking shoes or dress shoes. I’d need another bag.
As far as clothing goes, I did try to cut my wardrobe back to the essentials. Balancing that with a desire for some variety since we are staying multiple weeks in most places. I don’t mind repeating every few days but my comfort level is about a week.
We also had to account for a variety of climates as we were starting in Panama (hot and humid) and headed to Europe at the end of winter (very NOT hot and humid). It’s presently in the low-50’s and windy here in Portugal so long pants and a puffy coat are a decent call.
I left home with:
- 1 light puffy coat — the sort that’s okay basically down to freezing
- 2 pair of lightweight daily wear trousers
- 1 pair nylon convertible pants
- 4 Aloha shirts (kind of my trademark)
- 5 T-shirts — 2 regular cotton ones and 3 synthetic blend performance wear type
- 1 long sleeve performance wear style t-shirt
- 1 heavier cotton long sleeve pullover
- 2 pair of ‘casually dressy’ cargo shorts. Think Dockers, basically
- 1 pair of dressy shorts
- 6 pair ankle height socks
- 4 pair regular socks
- 8 boxer briefs
- 1 super light swim trunks
- 1 light cotton pajama pants
- 1 Pillowcase — in a pinch I can stuff it full of clothes and have an extra pillow
- 1 Turkish towel
The shower shoes stuffed into the outside pocket were $3 and probably will get ditched before we fly again. They’re fine like that on a bus or train.
I use compression bags to smush everything down as small as possible and roll them as tight as they will go and I simply cannot fit all of my clothes into my 40L backpack. I end up with essentially a full outfit of clothes in my daypack.
This actually worked out fine. My daypack also carries my laptop, prescription meds, limited toiletries (bar of soap, travel size toothpaste, toothbrush, nail clippers, etc.), charging cables, battery pack, mini umbrella, GoPro and short selfie stick.
The idea I ended up with was to pack in such a way that if I was forced to check my big backpack, and the airline lost it, I’d have to replace clothes and a pair of sandals but nothing that would cause a delay in our travels.
My wife has a similar quantity of clothes to me but since she is only 5 feet tall they take up less space. Oddly, she needs more luggage than I do. Probably because she doesn’t use the compression bags as aggressively as I do.
But, circling back to my original point — I compare the lists I see in these articles to our list. Then I’m left wondering how they fit all that stuff into a single carry-on bag when it’s MORE than I have and I needed to add a daypack for all the non-clothing stuff. Maybe that’s why there is no picture of their bag……?
