Since my tech takes up all of my carry-on allowance (and more), I always end up travelling with a suitcase of some sort. I’ll give a big shout out to Samsonite’s 4-wheeled “spinner” suitcases - easily the best check-inable baggage I’ve ever owned.

For the tech, I’m currently packing my MacBook Pro and camera gear into a LowePro CompuDaypack, which neatly combines the functions of laptop bag and camera case in one. Another excellent product.

This is great. For more, check out the gospel of packing light… www.onebag.com. That web site changed my life.

Merlin, the best site for packing light is www.onebag.com. The author makes packing an art. Of particular use is his method of packing clothes into a package of sorts. I used his method when I spent a month and a half in China last summer with one bag and I plan to do the same when I leave for France next month. Additionally, Tom Bihn www.tombihn.com sells a bag called the Aeronaught that looks perfect for this sort of thing.

My wife (who does all our packing) swears by the techniques in “Packing Light” by Anne McAlpin. There’s a really great technique that she uses to wrap clothes around a piece of cardboard and the whole thing removes as one piece! Actually, I realized last night that we somehow ended up with 2 copies of the McAlpin book, so if anyone is in the SF Bay Area and wants to buy one for say $5, shoot me an email.

[…] I reference this article for people in my life who(m?) I think need to see it (including myself). The last couple of trips I’ve been on, I unpacked to find that I hadn’t worn a few of the items of clothes I had brought. […]

I can’t believe you left out the most important tip - take double the money, half the clothes, and plan to wash them often. Also, bring a small, light daypack, so you can leave your main bag at the hotel (plus, more storage space for when you travel back with souvenirs)

The art of packing light…

The specific tips combine practical advice with inducing a basic change to how you think about what you’ll need - and really use.

……

If you’re only going to bring one pair of sneakers, remember a small container of baby powder! I did fine with my only pair of sneakers on my recent two weeks abroad, but I really regretted not bringing powder. And the flip-flops are a must if you’re staying in hostels, but even if you’re not they’d be good for walking around the hotel in when you need a break from those shoes.

I wish you would also run an article on the reader’s recommended best carry-on bag.

Regarding prescriptions. Please keep in mind that it is often illegal to carry prescription medication without having the actual prescription with you.

Thus if you were to put half the bottle in one container and the other half of the bottle in say an advil container, you could be arrested. This is especially true for anything that is DEA controlled like ritalin or vicadin. Since you often travel through security and are searched keeping medication outside it’s original container is not such a good idea.

I know if you actually took the prescription with you to court they would probably throw it out, but being arrested is still not very fun.

I can’t agree with this more… I learned the real benefit while travelling in Uyghur country in Western China… me and my buddy, we had the typical huge backpacks, like all the other Westerners. The Uyghurs travelled in the desert with a good suit, a decent pair of shoes, and a small duffel bag. I felt ridiculous carrying all this redudant crap. After that, I pared everything down to fit in one small bag. Leave it!

One of my favorite trick to packing light is to keep getting rid of things as you go. Take smaller containers of toiletries, and just pitch them when they’re empty. Make resale and thrift stores your friend, coming and going: Plan to purchase any large, bulky clothing from resale shops when you arrive (this saved me in Paris!) and then leave those things behind. Plus, pack stuff you would otherwise donate to charity, and then do so at the end of your trip, making room for souvenirs.

RE shoes: I’m not good with the one pair of shoes thing: sweaty shoes that aren’t allowed to dry out between wearings will not only stink, they won’t last as long. That one pair of shoes will never dry out. If you’re going to be doing a lot of walking, you’re more likely to get blisters if that same shoe is rubbing that same spot on your foot everyday (Sadly, also learned in Paris…the hard way.)

Oh, and just for girls: only pack matching solid color clothes, and try this: silk/polyester scarves & cotton sarongs pack really flat and change up your outfits with little effort, and can substitute for a blouse, dress, skirt, shawl, beach cover up, head covering or belt. (remember Units?) Happy travels!

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Styles of the superheroes helps out in these situations. When packing clothes, think about wearing an extra layer on top of your travelling clothes. I mean, if Clark Kent and Spider-Man are okay with two outfits (even if one is a sheer bodysuit), couldn’t hurt to wear shorts under your pants and a few shirts on top.

“Limit yourself to one pair of shoes, or, at most, one pair of shoes and one pair of sandals or flip-flops…”

PLEASE NO SANDALS OR FLIP-FLOPS!!! This is true as a rule for ALL men and most women.

Be kind to everyone around you who has to look at your gunky, hairy feet with their disgusting, unkempt toenails while we’re walking down the street or, even worse, trying to digest a meal.

Also, if you’re going somewhere for quite awhile and/or expect to be bringing a lot of purchases back, go to the thrift store before your trip. That way you can leave those clothes behind (give them to someone on the street) and pack whatever stupid trinket you bought in its place on the way home.

I just did this for the first time ever this weekend, on a trip to NYC. It works. I felt so light and free!

It’s all wonderful advice, except for the whole “one pair of shoes” bit.

I’m a runner, and if I’m going somewhere for more than a day or two, I’m gonna have to put on the stinky, muddy running shoes and pound the trails. Those stinky, putrid shoes are not the sort of things I can wear to, say, a business meeting. Or a dinner. Or anywhere in mixed company.

So, sadly, I’m always travelling with at least two pairs of shoes. I make up for it by wadding all my clothing into tiny little balls and shoving them into the cracks between things (shoving my running clothes, in fact, inside the filthy shoes).

a) Definitely remember that if you think,”I might need this,” it should stay. As the main article says, they probably sell it there. If you do without it, it’s not going to ruin your trip anyway.

b) Part of the fun of travelling is shopping for stupid souvenir clothing anyway. Forget duplicate shoes, etc., and pick up your “Budapest Pumas” or your “Gucci loafers from Rome” while you’re on your trip. You’ll pay less (even with the pathetic US dollar) and you’ll have a much better reminder than a dumb poster you’re too old to hang on the wall or a bad “PRAGUE GOLEM” Tshirt that has no local color.

c) If you’re travelling back and forth between the same place on business, stash the tailored clothes somewhere at the remote location. Most hotels (Ritz and Four Seasons definitely, the rest, you can always ask!) will give you enough space to store a week of clothing if you stay there each week, or even less frequently. If this doesn’t work — don’t carry dirty clothes home. Pay the $1.50 for a dry cleaner to wash and iron your shirt, put it on a hanger, and store it for you until you come back. They’ll usually keep items up to 30 days.

d) You don’t need that technology. Converge. Your Treo, a big SD card or two, and a headphone adapter is a suitable iPod replacement, and with Kinoma, you can put videos on there as well. This is important when trying to explain to Germans why Jackass is so funny.

e) When you shop, keep size in mind. That d70 is a sweet bloody camera, but the sd400 will fit in your pocket and you won’t even notice. And that SD card? Works in the Treo as well. The oft-discussed fisher bullet-style space pen is an excellent substitute.

f) Anything with a cord is a nightmare. If you travel frequently, expect them to break at least once a year, and budget accordingly. Those Shure E5cs, yup, they’ll break. Buy the E2cs or E3cs, because $100 or so a year is ok, but $500 just makes you feel stupid. Same with all those compelling usb phone chargers — they’re all made like junk, and when you extend and retract them a couple times a day every day, they’re going to break inside a year, too. Don’t spend more than you need to.

g) If you have to buy a roll-aboard, measure it in the store. Don’t take the salesperson’s word for it. I have a near-useless $800 Tumi bag that won’t fit in the overhead bin on any Boeing thanks to my gullibility and lack of prior research. It’s not even a great bag for checking, because it makes so many compromises as a “roll-aboard”. Check the pockets — it’s usually better to have fewer big pockets than more small pockets, because you can configure your big pockets the way you like with Eagle Creek accessories.

h) Learn to hand-wash some things. Ex-Officio makes this underwear that scares the hell out of my wife. It’s sold at REI (among other places, I’m sure) and the card states something like,”17 days, six countries, one pair of underwear.” They’re boxer briefs (essential for long trips involving walking) that are made of some sort of microfibre and treated with an antibacterial agent, for what that’s worth. What’s important is that you can take them off, wash them in the sink at 10pm, and when dried correctly (see i below), will be dry enough to wear by 8am.

i) When you hand-wash items, roll them in a towel, and then twist the towel as hard as you can, or as hard as you think the clothing can take without tearing or deforming.

j) Check the weather before hand. If it’s never going to get above 60 degrees, leave the shorts at home — they’ve just become a “might need”. For that matter, many other cultures frown on shorts as casual wear (especially on women, the savages) and you’ll do better with a couple pair of light khakis.

k) Hotels do laundry and dry-cleaning, and they return it nicely pressed the same day. You’re going to sweat, so make use of this and change (and shower) a couple times a day on your summer trips.

l) You don’t need a computer if you’re travelling for fun. You just don’t. Every place you’re going has a cyber cafe, and if it doesn’t, it can wait until you get back, because you’re someplace too cool to spoil by interacting with people back here on the Intardweeb anyway.

m) Find and pay whatever you have to for a Patagonia MLC and LBC. With one of each of these, you’re set for everything but long treks on pavement where a rolling bag would be better. These are the perfect two bags for travel. I lived for a month in France and Italy with my MLC.

n) Be stupid and buy whatever guide books strike your fancy before leaving. Better to spend too much up front than miss that The Last Supper is in Milan. Don’t plan on learning everything while there, but feel free to rip out the best pages from the various guidebooks and build your own. Mark things on maps, etc. These books are perishable — make them your own.

I have lots more that I should probably gather together and post on my own blog eventually, but these just came off the top of my head. Hence the mixed “vacation” and “work” habits. Sorry for eating up half the page.

Limiting yourself to a carry-on size bag and a daypack is good universal advice, but where the actual packing’s concerned, there’s no substitute for personal experience. If you lack experience, then self-knowledge, some research about where you’re traveling, and the size constraints of your bags will be better guides than the advice of others, IMO. The value in articles like this lies in, as Merlin says, “inducing a basic change to how you think about what you’ll need — and really use”. But the specifics of packing - nah.

Contrary to the advice of “experts”, I need two pairs of walking shoes (unless I’m in the tropics), wheels on my bag (sorry, Mr One Bag), I can’t wear synthetics, and I’ve never wished I had a Swiss Army knife with me. I never worry about wrinkles because any place where I need to look unwrinkled always offers access to an iron. And (sorry, Mr Flinn) I’ve been to more than one place where there’s not a chance in hell of buying toothpaste or a sweater.

I have found after a good bit of travelling that if you have to take some gadgets and a laptop make sure those gadgets can be charged up over USB. Hunt about eBay for USB chargers for your phone, pda and Music player of choice.

Doing so means that you carry just one power adaptor ( the one for the laptop ) and a handful of cables at most.

After having all my adaptors crushed at the one time by Iberia ( thanks guys ) I learned my lesson.

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[…] I read with interest this morning, Merlin Mann’s post about traveling light, The Art of Packing Light. It was especially intriguing to me since I am traveling today to Dallas for a quick business trip (I’ll be gone just a little over 24 hours) and also because I expect to be traveling often in the future on my motorcycle which will necessitate me traveling light. I had already intended to pack light, so the timing of the post was great. […]

[…] I'm going to Europe in a few weeks, so this advice was timely. It is incredible how much junk I can pack if I try. I give in to that urge to throw in the extra jumper and pair of pants, as well as taking about 8 books which I won't read but feel naked without. […]

[…] The Art of Packing Light | 43 Folders […]

Yesterday I got back from a week with the soon-to-be in-laws. While I was across the country, I wound up being given a ton of costumes and small props for a stage show. Since my fiance and I travelled with only carry ons, we wound up being able to simply buy four extra-large duffle bags from REI (nice, sturdy things), and carry almost everything back as luggage. It would have been many hundreds of dollars to ship everything across the country.

A great side benefit when you need it!

How about self-weighing luggage to help organize your clothes/weight before you get to the airport. Have a look:

http://advisor.triphub.com/2006/04/selfweighing_lu.html

[…] It seems that travel and packing has been on the minds of at least a couple of GTD gurus lately. […]

[…] Carrying off the art of one carry on [via 43 Folders] […]

That big fat travel book can be quite handy… but you don’t necessarily want to take it with you on your day trips if you have a digital camera.

Most digital cameras have zoom functions to view the detail of your photo after you’ve taken them… so take photos of the page(s) with the maps and/or info you’ll need for the next day(s)… and leave that fat book behind.