How to pack for a trip
On February 20th of 2025, I left New York City to travel indefinitely. I hope it will assuage my more metropolitan friend that "indefinitely" means that the end-point is undefined, not that I will be out of the city forever.
Why I pack so light
My initial obsession with packing light germinated in my neuroticism surrounding money, more specifically, my aversion to baggage fees. When flying to Pittsburgh from New York on a $70 Spirit flight, it feels icky to pay more for the baggage than the flight. Equipped with items deemed “personal”, I’ve gone cross-country, but I have yet to cross an international border without a proper carry-on item.
Though I can’t pretend that the relatively minor amortized cost of a couple baggage fees across a several-month South American journey don't bother me, the primary deterrent of bringing a large carry-on was the lack of mobility and its relatively minor trade-off of convenience.
Con of carry-on: Mobility. My plan being South America for ~3 months, I didn’t want to miss out on any experience because I had belongings holding me back. I hated that I stayed in my lovely but expensive Noho apartment for an extra year because I was tied down by my piano.
Pros of carry-on: Laundry. Perhaps for other people, there are some other pros that don’t affect me, like being able to carry a nice camera, medical equipment, cooking implements, physical books, or other things that don’t occur to me. However, I’m no photographer, I have no extenuating medical conditions, I’m not good enough at cooking to necessitate specialized equipments, and I don’t mind an e-reader. Beyond a laptop with chargers and a small dopp kit, the only things I needed to pack were clothes and miscellaneous non-essentials (which I’ll enumerate later). Seeing as I’m only wearing one of each article of clothing at a time, it felt silly to pack for any more than 5x redundancy. If you’re traveling for 7 days, it doesn’t make sense to pack for 5 days of clothes. However, since I’m traveling indefinitely, laundry must be done no matter how many clothes are packed.
On most trips, I only bring a personal item. While I wanted to do this for my multi-month journey, many discouraged me, even those who themselves had gone on similar journeys. I had done trips over a week with just a personal item, but I wondered if I was missing something that would prevent me from doing this. I was inspired by /r/onebag, Paul Erdős, a blogger Jeremy Maluf, and a couple whose first date was three weeks of European travel with nothing more than what fit in their pockets. I also thought this would be a good exercise in how little I could live with. Of course, I mostly stay in hostels where there are chairs, cups, beds, sheets, and other basic things that falsify the statement “my only belongings are those which fit in this single bag”. However, we all use running water, cellular towers, roads, and other infrastructure, so there's no avoiding the use of non-backpack items.
What I packed
I'm using a Fjallraven Kanken backpack that I acquired this in high school which were still chic in unstylish Western Pennsylvania. It has a capacity of just 16 liters, a mere 62% of the capacity of a standard JanSport backpack.
Everything I brought is in this photo.
Clothing
- 5 shirts
- 7 underwear
- 6 pairs socks (two merino, four cotton)
- 1 shorts
- 1 slacks
- 1 pair boots
- 1 pair shower sandals / running shoes
- 1 necklace
- 1 sweater
- 1 belt
Electronics
- Laptop
- Kindle e-reader
- Phone (not pictured, iPhone 16 Pro)
- GaN charger, international adapters, cables
- Airpods Pro
Toiletries
- Oral care (toothbrush, toothpaste, tongue scraper, floss)
- Tools (small scissors, nail clippers, shaving razor)
- Soaps (face wash, body soap)
- First Aid kit
- Creams (sunscreen, deodorant, moisturizer)
Personal Effects
- Wallet
- Passport
- Cash (for Argentina)
- Keychain with AirTag
- Glasses
- Watch
Miscellaneous
- Tin whistle
- Water bottle
- Locks (for hostel lockers)
- Travel microfiber towel (not pictured)
- Dry bag
- Carabiner (to hold sandals to bag)
- Comb
- Ear plugs
Items offloaded after Patagonia
After arriving in Buenos Aires after hiking in Patagonia, I had a couple friends from NYC who stopped in town to whom I was able to hand off some stuff for return and safekeeping back in the city:
- Outdoor jacket
- Alto Recorder
- Letters from friends (given a day before departure)
- $100 bill (torn, exchange places wouldn’t accept it)
- Fjallraven waterproofing wax
- (ironic) college T-shirt
- Propeller hat
Items to offload before Peru
There are still a couple things I have that I don't need or want that I'd like to offload as soon as possible:
- Thick hiking pants
- Tin whistle
- Water Bottle
- Sweater (after Machu Picchu)
In late May or early June, I plan to return to the US for a few weeks to see friends and recalibrate. After, I’m considering going to Europe for a few months. I’ve been fantasizing about bringing yet fewer things. The majority of both volume and weight come from clothing. Often times, if my schedule is too tight to head to a laundry place, I wash clothes in my dry bag at my lodging. So, in theory, two sets of clothes should suffice. I wear one during the day, and I come home to wash it at night (5 minutes), it dries overnight, and even if it’s wet in the morning, I can still wear my other clothes I washed two nights before. I believe that I could condense my belongings to under 6 liters if I only had the absolute necessities.
My hope in writing this is that you, too, can travel with just a personal item, and perhaps even less. While I’m not generally against excess, I think most people could have a better time traveling if they figured out how to do so with less. Much of the friction of travel comes from carrying stuff around, so it becomes much easier (and cheaper) with less.
