What To Pack When Traveling Light

When you’re going on an adventure and traveling from place to place, the best thing you can do in terms of your packing is to be as minimalist as possible. Traveling light isn’t just something that will save you time and money at the airport; as the Spanish proverb says, “On a long journey even a straw weighs heavy.” In essence, this means that the more you take with you, the more you have to worry about. Traveling light means you only have a few items to think about when you’re moving from one destination to the next, and you can relax a lot more, focusing on the place you’re visiting rather than your belongings. If you’re unsure what to pack when traveling light, here are some tips to help you.

Electronics

It might be that you want to go entirely off-grid when you’re traveling, and that’s fine. However, if you would prefer to have some connection with the outside world, you’re going to want to take some electronics with you. The likelihood is you’ll have some form of smartphone – statistics say there are over 3.5 billion smartphone users across the world – so this is something you are going to want to take with you, along with a charger.

Depending on what you are going to do when you’re traveling, you might want a laptop too. If you’re planning on working remotely to earn some extra cash, or you want to blog about your experience, a laptop can be a lot more user friendly than a phone. However, make sure you have the right cabling with you to ensure your electronics are going to work as they should. Having a wire manufacturer give you advice and show you what to use – or even create bespoke wiring for you – is going to be useful.

Anything more than this will be far too heavy to carry and will be more of a hindrance than something useful for your journey.

A Week’s Worth Of Clothes

No matter how long you’re going to be away for, taking more than a week’s worth of clothes is a waste of space and time. Most of the items are things you’re not going to wear, and you’ll just be carrying them around for no reason. Plus, the more clothing you take, the larger bag you’ll need, and if you’re switching accommodation every few days, this is going to become a literal drag.

Choosing articles of clothing that can be worn more than once without the need to wash them is a good idea. You can use dryer sheets in your bag to keep things smelling fresh, and once you get to a place with a laundromat you can clean all your clothes ready for the next leg of your journey.

Underwear is the exception to this handy rule, however. No one wants to wear underwear more than once, but because it is light and easy to pack, you can make sure you have enough to last you for more than a week if this is going to be necessary.

Personal Protection

We're not talking about contraception (though that’s not a bad idea to pack!) but we are talking about what you need in this pandemic we’re all in. While travel isn’t advised at the moment, you still may not have a choice and need to get on the road. In that case, you may be searching for alternatives to Lysol that you can carry in your bag on board the plane. Not only do you need antibacterial hand gel or wipes, you need to think about packing a mask. Most airlines are now asking passengers to ensure that they are wearing face masks that cover both the nose and mouth while on a plane. Certainly for short-haul flights, masks are a must. Personal protection like sanitizer and masks will ensure that you are kept safe on the plane, and it’ll mean moving through airports will give you a little more peace of mind! Social distancing is not easy in a busy airport, but at least you’re protected with your sanitizer on hand to help.

Toiletries

You might automatically start to think of all the things you use in your bathroom daily such as hair gel, perfume, makeup, moisturizer, conditioner, and so on. These are going to take up a lot of space in your bag, and they will be heavy. If they leak, you’re going to have a big mess on your hands too.

It’s far better to take the bare minimum, as you’ll usually be able to pick up what you need when you get to your destination. Just take a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, a hairbrush, and some shampoo and shower gel; this will be enough to help you stay fresh.