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Leaving your Baggage Behind
So, you’re a seasoned traveler. You’ve learned the hard way that long-term travel requires light luggage to reduce travel fatigue. But there is a deeper secret: when you remove the physical burden weighing you down, the mental and spiritual burdens become easier to bear, too.
Efficient travel packing isn't just a logistical hack. It is liberating. It increases self-reliance. It teaches you who you are showing you what you can live without and what you cannot compromise over. It frees the spirit from being overly self-conscious about how you look or what you're wearing. We live in a culture that tells us we need a different outfit for every day, makeup at the beach, a hair straightener after a shower, and a suitcase full of "just in case" items.
Instead, bringing just a few versatile items and dressing in layers is a rebellion. It makes you feel like you are on an actual exploration.
Granted, by day 30, you will hate that one shirt. You will despise those pants with all your heart. When you get home you will overdress for a simple trip to the grocery store. Just because you will have sooo many options that are greater than 2. But during your travel? You will be as light as a bird.
Below you will find some suggestions to optimize your bags even further. For each section I will state the "rule", some "pro tips" and what I personally bring. Take what you want from these tips. Some of these might seem exaggerated, some also unimpactful and just for the sake of it, some maybe even maniacal...which they probably are.
Table of Contents
My “credentials”. AKA The Mind of a Packing Zealot
Over the recent years, I have traveled for extended periods of time ranging from 3 to 9 months (often hitting exactly 100 days for some reason).
I have scoured the r/onebag subreddit communities. I have bought WAAAY too many suitcases and backpacks. I have something like 20 different sizes and types of packing cubes, and tested what feels like all the possible combinations and orientation permutations in the universe. I have also gone completely mental: counting pills, buying toiletry pouches because they are 1cm shorter, and of course cutting the covers and margins off books to save weight, which is criminal, but everybody does that right...right?
So yeah, I am a zealot of ultralight packing. Like travelers who are foodies and plan every day beforehand to know exactly all the restaurants they want to try. I instead make the bag, then plan my travels, update the bag, jot down the itinerary...update the bag, and so on and so forth.
For me, waiting at baggage claim for my checked in bag has become unthinkable now. My bag is always under 9kg, usually hovering between 7–8kg. And considering that my laptop, camera, and toiletries account for 4kg, everything else in my life for months fits in 4000 grams, which I find veeery satisfying 😌
The Golden Rule of Compromise
Before getting dogmatic, remember that lightweight packing is about satisfaction, not suffering. It's about both optimizing and compromising. If bringing an incomprehensibly massive hat makes you truly happy, bring it. I heard one person that brings their pillow cover. For hygiene but also to feel in their own bed. But I say that you must sacrifice space elsewhere to account for it. This trade-off forces you to ask: Does this item actually bring me joy, or is it frivolous distraction? You will learn a lot about yourself this way.
For me? The item that brings me joy is a pair of silk slippers from Thailand. They are redundant. I have flip flops and anyways in hotels there are always slippers. But they are my ultimate comfort item. Maybe even and emotional safety blanket. Putting them on after a 20km walk through a new city tells my brain: the hard day is over, you are home.
By choosing that these slippers are more important than the need to have the “perfect bag”, they have become an inseparable travel companion. They have been with me to Mexico, Canada, Japan, Australia, Morocco, Greece, United States, Germany, Cambodia, Turkey, Vietnam, Tanzania, Indonesia, New Zealand, Jordan, Fiji, India, Israel, China, Spain, and probably somewhere else I forget.
The Packing Manifesto
Laundry and the Two-Day Rotation
Long term travel (which actually doesn't have to be months, it can even be anything longer than a week) means that you can't bring 26 pairs of socks. So you are doing laundry. Period.
You need a maximum of 2 (maybe 3 if you want the “luxury”) pairs of socks and underwear. One you wear, one you wash at night. Same goes for anything else for that matter. As a rule of thumb, if you go two days and still haven't done laundry, you packed too much.
As for the Laundry Toolkit, bring dry laundry detergent sheets (no liquids!), and a universal sink stopper or a lightweight wash bucket (which is more hygienic). Or you can also avoid all these “unnecessary gadgets” and bring a multi-use solid soap. It washes your body, hair and clothes. Or you can also push it and go God mode: simply jumping in the shower fully dressed and start by washing your clothes on you first and end washing yourself.
Whatever you do remember that dirty laundry should never sit inside your bag.
Pro Tip
Use the Towel Drying method: Lay your washed clothes flat on a bath towel, roll the towel up into a tight tube, and stomp on it with your full body weight. This way the towel will absorb as much moisture as it can, dramatically cutting your air-drying time.
Items I Bring:
- Travel soap dry laundry sheets
- A Scrubba portable wash bag
- Two strong clothes pegs (doubles also for closing plastic bags or snacks)
- Plastic wire string for drying (doubles for...anything really...string is always useful).
Clothes
This is the easy part.
The Main Attire: Running/athletic wear. It’s stretchy, breathes well, dries incredibly fast, and layers easily. In today's world, urban athletic wear doesn't look out of place, meaning you don't look like an obvious tourist target, which also increases safety (plus, athletic wear usually have zippered pockets which keep pickpockets out).
Then, the key is layers, layers, layers.
Also, try to follow a "One-In, One-Out Rule": If you buy a souvenir t-shirt, the old one gets donated or thrown away.
Items I Bring:
- 1 very lightweight sweater, just an underarmor for that "middle" spring temperature. Alternatively, a heavy button shirt overall to put over my under shirt
- 1 heavier sweater
- 1 packable "heavy" jacket (and by heavy I mean not heavy at all)
- 1 long sleeve shirt. Not so much for the temperature but rather for those long road trip stretches on a straight road where the Sun beats on your arm for hours (I'm looking at you Australia)
- 1 Camping cap, meaning those made entirely of cloth and inner plastic. Easy to wash, easy to dry, no added space from their curvature and shape
- 3,4 main shirts
- Sometimes shorts, sometimes pajamas (still figuring that one out)
- 1 bathing suit
- Another pair of "house socks", super comfortable and thick, useful also for long freezing flights
Pro Tip
Throw in a couple of scented wardrobe sheets because no matter what, in the long run your bag will start to smell..like ”bag”. Just remember to put these sheets/powder/Potpourri in a small breathable mesh bag, so not to stain your clothes and keep it aerated.
Folding Clothes
Depending on the shape of your bag/how you will pack things, you can either fold once, so in rectangles, or twice to make your clothes more squared. You can also army roll your clothes. This is the most compact way but takes longer to pack and all these tubes of clothes might actually fill your bag more. Sweaters and jackets especially can be folded in self contained cubes (watch tutorial videos on this, you basically create a pocket at the base and fold the clothing item into itself).
Shoes
The perfect amount of shoes to bring is: 1 pair. Packing an additional pair of shoes is guaranteed to create check-in luggage.
What I Bring
- Like the rest of the main attire, running shoes. Unless you are going hiking they are great for every situation like urban exploration or driving. I usually depart with my old pair of the previous long journey and buy a fresh new pair locally.
- Flip flops/sandals. These are thin and don't use much space (and they can be used as a sort of structural "dam"on the bottom of the bag to keep it standing straight). For camping road trips they are necessary for taking showers in the public bathrooms. For beach destinations and tropical destinations it's a no brainer. And they can be used as backup for the day that you will wash your toxic shoes after weeks of walking tens of kilometers in them.
Electronics & Devices
This is where my weight budget gets smashed. I always have a "travel" laptop, 2 smartphones, a camera with lens, sometimes a GoPro, sometimes a mini drone. Add to that any external batteries or powerbank, power supply, travel adaptor, cables, earphones, and yeah, half of my bag is just electronics.
But all of my smaller devices fit in a small pochette. Here is how to keep the tech minimalist:
- Bring only one charger. Buy one high-quality, multi-port (2x usb C + usb A) charger with at least 60W to be able to charge multiple devices (90W or above is better, however the increase in weight and size will be substantial.)
- Use short, durable cables
- I find it better to bring 2 smaller/lower quality powerbanks rather than the "beast". Several countries have restrictions on the maximum power of powerbanks allowed to be taken on flights.
Pro Tip: The Decoy and "Battle" Phone
With todays reliance on smartphones when traveling, having its battery run out or losing it can make you totally useless as a person.
Always travel with a spare, cheap smartphone. That one will actually be your important phone to keep safe and which has your passwords, bank accounts, authenticators etc. Your main phone (which is probably larger and nicer), will be the photos phone for taking pictures and the one you will reach to more often (and so easier to lose or have stolen by pickpockets). This is great digital security. The important phone is also good as a backup e-sim in case you consume all your data instead of wandering aimlessly looking for wifi. Unfortunately, the less important "photo" phone is often the more expensive one.
What I Bring:
- 2 smartphones
- 1 90W multiport charger
- 2 small powerbanks
- small earphones
- 2 small backup hard drives (just because I have issues with cloud storage)
- 1 small (14-15'') laptop
Toiletries
Much like electronics, this can be the largest and heaviest item depending on your needs, but it is also one where you can make massive improvements.
I once travelled with only a toothbrush, deodorant, and a small comb. Granted, I knew I was going to a paradisiac island where I would spend most of the day on the beach, but still.
Here the general rule is to go mini and buy travel-sized everything. Toothbrush and toothpaste set, deodorant, comb, shaving cream, lotion, hair gel, etc. .
Buy transparent travel vials and decant your liquids. Not only can large bottles be potentially confiscated by airport security if they are over 100ml, but it also makes no sense to carry so much bug spray or sunscreen.
Electric tools are out of the question and if you bring hair straighteners, or blow dryers, you are reading the wrong article. But also electric toothbrushes or electric razors. If you are a man, embrace the beard.
Like for clothes, minimize any redundancy. If you have two items that do the same thing, you have one item too many. So no need to bring different lotions and creams, different makeup, multiple facial cleansing soaps. I would argue no need to bring any at all.
First Aid
In my travels I've had broken bones, massive flus, bad cuts, sprains, covid, sunburns, and stomach aches from badly cooked food.
I know it's easy to exaggerate with first aid if you think of every possible issue that could happen. But keep in mind that first-aid is by definition for the initial emergency. You shouldn't need more than a couple of each of the most common medications.
The rule here is not packing for an apocalypse but just enough to get you to a local pharmacy in case of illness or accident.
My recommendation is 2,3 of each: paracetamol for strong fever symptoms, nose bleed tampons, anti diarrhea and re-hydration medication, ibuprofen or analgesics, motion sickness tablets if you are prone it, and any mandatory medication you need of course, or prophylaxis that is prescribed for your travel (e.g. antimalaria tablets).
Also stating the obvious here: ditch the boxes and take only the pills blisters instead (cut to size).
What I Bring:
- 2 aspirin, 2 paracetamol, 2 anti-diarrhea pills, 4-6 ibuprofen for headaches and general body aches which I'm more prone to. 1 roll of medical tape (which doubles as regular tape and replaces bulky band-aids). 1 condom (to play water balloons obviously)
Pro Tip: Do a "Fear" Audit
"When you look at an item and think, 'But what if...?' stop right there. That is your anxiety talking, not your logic. Packing a massive first-aid kit means you fear getting sick alone; packing three dressy shirts means you fear looking out of place. Trust that the country you are visiting has shops, pharmacies, and solutions. Don't be reckelss but pack for the best-case scenario, and buy your way out of the worst-case scenario.
Bag Architecture
This is where the fun begins. How to make all these things fit perfectly together in that satisfying way where everything is grouped logically and is accessible 😌.
The Bag
You should aim for something between 35L - 45L capacity. Often this means between 45 - 55cm height (55 is usually the maximum dimension for a carry-on). With 35L you will fit two small packing cubes (+ toiletries ). With 45L you will fit 4 small packing cubes. Clearly a 35L is a more comfortable bag which can double as daypack, while the 45L is the equivalent of a suitcase. 40L is perfect in my opinion.
Also, a good rule of thumb is to aim to keep 20% of your bag empty (when it is perfectly packed): It should allow some wiggle room, unless you want to spend a long time at airport security repacking your bag in case of a check, or lose a flight in the early morning because you had to perfectly fold or vacuum your backpack.
Some of the most popular backpacks are the Tortuga Travel Backpack Pro (40L), the Cotopaxi Allpa (35L), the Osprey Fairpoint/Fairview (men/women series - 40L), and the Peak Design Travel Backpack (45L) for a larger capacity. These are consistently considered the best, and you will have communities swearing by one or other other (arguments can get quite heated as for any online discourse).
Personally I am not a fan of bags which are filled with too many internal pockets. They force you to pack in a very specific way, where toiletries must be in a certain place, have a specific sleeve for the pen, sunglasses pocket, etc etc. In my opinion it's much better to manage the major organization with packing cubes.
Keeping this in mind, the Tortuga is widely considered the best exactly because it does exactly this: give you a large cavernous container without forcing arbitrary pockets on you. But it is expensive. An equivalent Amazon Basics is a (very basic) similar version.
What I Bring:
- Most of my long term travels have been done with a simple Amazon Basics 40L. It's like the Tortuga except muuuch cheaper (but clearly lesser quality). There are no bells and whistles, just a sleeve in the back for laptop and no "advance" pouches. What it adds that are not found in the expensive, popular model, are shoulder straps that can be folded away making it almost like a duffel bag. It is basically just a box which is great for allowing you to pack however you want without any limitations on the shape or pre-determined compartments (downside is that it is not waterproof).
Pro Tip: Packable Daypack
Don't tell anyone on the r/onebag community, but you should bring an additional small bag/personal item. It's clearly useful on flights, but also for exploring cities, walking trails and your general day by day exploration.
You can either bring a full small backpack, or shoulder bag, or a paper-thin, foldable nylon backpack which takes up zero space.
The One-Bag Security Advantage
"One-bagging" brings also a big security advantage that people rarely talk about: mobility equals security. If you find yourself in a sketchy situation, navigating a chaotic train station, or dodging aggressive scammers at a bus terminal, you are completely agile. Even for smaller annoyances like insistent street vendors or tourist trappers, you aren't a target struggling with a rolling suitcase; you are moving at full speed.
Organization
A bag is not a trolley suitcase where you lay your clothes in the two compartments of the shell. You need to pack things inside the bag (unless you're army rolling clothes and using a duffel bag). This is where packing cubes shine.
Normal packing cubes don't actually reduce space, but they're excellent for organization and for stacking or lining side by side. My suggestion is to get them as small as possible, aiming for literal cubes.
There are also compression cubes with an additional zipper that squishes the air out. Here I suggest instead to get them larger/as tall as the bag, so you can put bulky items like jackets and sweaters, and just layer the thinned out cube on top of everything.
For the ultimate space saving solution you can use vacuum bags (or even vacuum backpacks). They are incredibly satisfying but ultimately not that useful in my opinion. A vacuum bag means you have to carry the small air pump (which adds weight) and it wrinkles everything. You are also encouraged to overpack and while it might fit dimension-wise, the added weight may make the bag too heavy which goes against the whole point of light packing. Also, if you follow the advice mentioned earlier of bringing some scented wardrobe sheets, you actually need some air flow in the bag which the vacuum bag eliminates.
What I Bring:
- 2,3 packing cubes for shirts, underwear, and other heavier clothes/top layers/towels/bathing suit etc.
- 2 toiletries bags, one which I actually use for large electronics.
- A small (10L) dry bag.
Tips for Accessories
Here is just a dump of some potentially useful accessories which go beyond the previous categories and that I have tried out or seen mentioned when arguing about "mandatory" items. This is also where your bag will become truly yours, highlighting your specific idiosyncrasies.
- Empty neck pillows that don't have foam or the actually pillow inside. They are just velvety bags which you can stuff with sweaters or jackets. Good for having an added "secret" bag since many airlines usually don't consider it a personal item, effectively giving you an additional small bag to bring on board. Of course I have one, but never used it, so can't advocate for it.
- Reusable water bottle. I don't bring it but apparently everybody has a durable metal thermos that they clip to the carabiner (oh yes, carabiner is also a must-have. 99% of the time you will not use it but a backpack without a carabiner is just lame 😄)
- Coins purse. Despite many countries being mostly cashless societies nowadays, a small purse to put coins in always helps to keep things organized and easy to access.
- Raincoat or poncho or umbrella. Another thing I don't bring, opting instead for the athletic-wear nylon jacket mentioned above in case of rain, but it clearly helps.
What I Bring
- A portable travel scale. Useful for those airlines that have very stringent weight requirements for carry-on (e.g. <5 or 7kg) so you can balance the items between your main bag and the foldable daypack.
- A "Raja" towel or Sarong. Doubles as beach towel, wind protection, scarf, towel in general
- Eye mask and ear plugs. Never used them except in Iceland camping during the Midnight Sun but they can clearly be useful and take up no space .
- A couple of small plastic bags. Like string you never have enough.
- A 12V car adapter plug. After all, this is a road trips blog.
Closing Thoughts: The Weight We Leave Behind
At the end of the day, ultra-light packing isn't a competitive sport, nor is it a strict religion, even if people like me make it sound like one. It is simply an exercise in self-trust.
Every item you choose to leave behind is a quiet admission that you don't need a material safety blanket to navigate the world. When you strip away the excess, you are left with the bare essentials: your resourcefulness, your adaptability, and your presence.
You quickly realize that you don't need a massive wardrobe to fit in, and you don't need a suitcase full of "just-in-case" items to feel safe. You are perfectly capable of washing a shirt in a sink, handling an unexpected rainstorm, and wearing running shoes to a nice dinner.
So, pack your bag, weigh it, bask in the hubris of your perfect packing, and then dare yourself to take out one more thing. Trust me, you already have everything you need.
Ready to Build Your Ultimate Lightweight Bag?
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As always, happy travels 🌍
