Forty-two pounds

I did it.  I packed all of this into a 45 liter pack and a 19 liter day-pack. 

And I am under the 44 pound total luggage weight limit for international flights.   I am awesome!

BEFORE

AFTER

Fitting what I need into such a small bag with stringent weight limits has been a source of stress for a while, so I’m glad I now know it will all fit.

There were two big challenges:

1) the electronics (laptop, camera, chargers, etc.) which come in at about 17 pounds and

2) the medical supplies which take up a lot of space.

Here are some of the tricks I used to pack:

• Pack small random items (e.g. clothesline, safety pins, flat rubber sink stopper) and any liquids (e.g. travel size shampoo) inside Nalgene bottles.  The bottles are important to have while traveling, so take advantage and use them as containers to keep all the small stuff organized and prevent leaks.
• Use Ziploc bags to group together smaller clothing items such as underwear, socks, bathing suit.  When you squeeze the air out, it makes the items less bulky.  Plus, you can easily find the clothing items that tend to get lost in larger bags.
• Roll your clothing as tight as possible and stack it neatly in the bag.  I’ve been doing this for years when traveling, and it makes a big difference.  I tried using those compression bags.  It did not work as well as rolling the clothing.  The extra plastic of the bags just created more bulk.
• Use a compression sac (different from clothing compression bags) for your sleeping bag.  Although my sleeping bag is already quite small, the compression sac cut it down to half of its size.
• Keep reminding yourself that you can buy clothing items wherever you are if you really do need something.  It’s not a fashion show.  Get over it.

Check out the Gear page to see a complete list of what I’m bringing with me.

Less than half of what I am bringing is clothing.  I really had to pare down the clothing to be able to fit the electronics, medical supplies, and other standard travel gear.   There were a couple of questions on my last post that should now be answered on the Gear page.  No, John, I am not bringing a GPS.  An old-fashioned compass will have to do the trick. As an example of what ‘odd’ things I decided to bring – sterile syringes.  In some countries, they re-use them.  It is best to bring your own in case you need to get a shot, and you can get a prescription for these from your doctor.

I will be interested to see which of these items I find to be the most useful and which of these items I find to be unnecessary while I’m traveling. I’m sure there are things I will end up tossing and then items I realize I need to buy (just hoping they are things I can actually buy wherever I am).  I used the packing suggestions from the books in The Practical Nomad and  A Journey of One’s Own and the websites www.perpetualtravel.com/rtw/rtwpacking.html and www.onebag.com.

Special thanks to Lifestyle Family Fitness for letting me use their scale to weigh my packs – although I’m pretty sure I paid for that privilege with my membership dues over the last 5+ years.  And special thanks to Bosco and Shawn for letting me pile my things in the hallway for several hours… oh, and for letting me completely take over the spare bedroom, dining room, etc.