The question is: when you are going to be out for an extended time, let’s define it as more than two weeks, how much luggage do you need to bring? Here is a quick breakdown for me on a “normal” trip.
Clothing: I typically don’t bring more than 10 days’ worth of clothes. My rationale is that after 10 days, it’s easier to do a load of laundry than to commit more space, and it’s really annoying when it becomes necessary to do more than one load of laundry while traveling. In my experience, the laundry machines in self-service places are usually smaller anyway.
Shoes: One pair, unless absolutely necessary.
Equipment:
- Camera: Usually just one lens, unless going to some place really nice.
- Computing: An iPad is usually enough.
- Some sort of mobile console: Steam Deck or Switch.
- Assorted wires and plugs as necessary.
And that’s usually it. Typically, I can go without check-in bags, and I would cut out a few things to avoid checking them in and, more importantly, needing to wait to pick up my luggage.
Clearly, this trip will go way beyond my typical traveling parameters. In addition to multi-months’ worth of things for myself, there are family obligations I have to fulfill, and 100 lbs of total luggage is a fixed limit that’s hard to overcome. After endless measurements and Tetris-like stacking, I managed to fit almost everything within the allocated space and weight limit.
Double-checking the checklist, then checking it again. Making sure all the documents are ready, the boarding pass is printed, all the essentials are packed, the time is finally here. It’s finally time to head out.
A quick note about what’s coming up here are a couple of ideas
– Some sort of “What’s in your backpack” post
– Some sort of “Contact me” post
I am tagging all my travel posts accordingly (and this is the first one) – so if you just want to follow my trip and skip out on the other stuff – just filter by category.