The advantages of packing light aren't always obvious[1] until you experience them, so you can pretty much tell someone's level of travel experience by how small their luggage is. I've yet to meet someone who packs more and more stuff based on past experience.

As the article mentions, good fabrics (like merino wool) can go a long way.

(1) Reliability and flexibility being foremost. Not having to worry about lost luggage. Itinerary changes are much easier when all your stuff is with you and can fit on your lap or under your seat. Then comes the comfort and speed. Being able to take the stairs or not blinking an eye at walking an extra half mile go a long way towards making travel enjoyable.

I usually travel with one 19-22L bag (the same one Tynan, mentioned in the article uses… or used a decade ago). I ran across one of his videos when looking for a bag, and everyone was recommending the same Tom Bihn bag at the time.

I found traveling light requires understanding and accepting 2 things:

1. You will do laundry while on vacation, how much you pack determines how often laundry is done.

2. Unless going to an uninhabited area, people live their whole life where you’re going. If you forget something, you can probably buy it at the destination. I almost always buy toiletries locally to avoid dealing with liquids and TSA. I’ve bought stuff a couple times, but it’s rare. I find that with 19L, I still over pack and have stuff I bring and don’t use.

On an overnight trip, I only brought a plastic shopping bag with me. We were going by bus and would arrive late in the evening. The next day we’d be out and about all day, before meeting up at the bus in the evening to head home. I knew I didn’t want to be saddled with luggage, so I wore cloths that were on the verge of being thrown out, and brought a change of clothes and a phone charger in the grocery bag. The next day, the other people on the trip who brought multiple bags, laptops, coolers, etc for 1 night, were stuck sitting in one place watching their bags. I was able to roam free like a local. No regrets.

Unless I have to travel to a destination with a drastically different weather or I have to stay longer than ten days, it usually takes me no more than 15 to 20 minutes to get packed.

With my undiagnosed ADHD I usually start an hour or two before my airport cab.

My problem is not what to pack or that I pack too many things but to actually begin the process of packing.

> I had my worst-ever packing experience in the late nineties, when I was a teen-ager.

Is hyphenating a word like teenager a New Yorker idiosyncracy? Or is that a "soft" hyphen that crept into the final article copy?

On the topic of packing, my advice is to roll your clothes instead of folding them. Rolling avoids wrinkles and allows more space-filling options. That plus the general advice of packing just a few universally-appropriate items. If you really need something else you can always buy it locally and then discard it (or something else) when you pack for the return trip.

Used to travel for work 3 weeks a month and worked with a group of folks who took pride in traveling light. I learned to never pack for more than 6 days. After 5 days either do the laundry or use the hotel laundry service.

I really don't understand what people are putting in the 2-3 large suitcases I see them struggling to shove in overhead. For one, rolling luggage is usually a mistake for anyone who's not flight crew.

I bring a week's worth of thin clothes that layer. If I need more, I'm either washing by hand or using a service. Basic toiletries, an e-reader, phone, keys, charger bricks, a notebook/pens, daypack. It fits into an underseat backpack with room to spare.

This has scaled fine all the way up to multi-month scientific expeditions in remote locations. Sometimes I need to accommodate specialized equipment like formal clothes/shoes, camera bodies/lenses, excavation equipment, tent, water purification, sleeping pad/bag, etc, but that's solved through the magic of bringing a slightly larger bag.

Washing the days clothes as you shower is a game changer. Even Waring them into shower, soaping them while wearing, and rinsing out by hand.

Depends on climate, but if they dry in 2 days, you barely need anything

Pack what you will need, not what you might need. Anything you might need you can just buy.

For me, colder weather doesn't necessarily dictate warmer clothing, it dictates a faster pace or more inside activities.

Another thing is getting used to and being comfortable with being cold and hot. Enjoying time in saunas and cold plunges made me pack even lighter than I already did.

I have a simple list: money, medication, identification, underwear, bathing suit. Everything else you can figure out.

From personal experience when I was younger: Spending a month traveling on European trains with a backpack will teach you a whole lot about what you actually need to pack, and what you will want to just leave behind and purchase again locally if you really turn out to need a given item.

For me, the starting point that makes a lot of it way easier is to focus on layering. Anyone who lives in the Bay Area will instantly understand it: you don't build outfits for different weather, you build outfits for all weather that just depend on how many layers you've got on. For example, no cold-weather coats: instead you pack a feather-light and very foldable rain shell, layer it over thin sweaters for cold weather (multiple, if it's cold enough), and wear it directly over a light outfit for warm rainy weather.

interesting how much overlap onebagging has with ultralight backpacking

>For one, rolling luggage is usually a mistake for anyone who's not flight crew.

Rolling luggage is amazing, especially that that goes into the overhead compartment.

"I bring a week's worth of thin clothes that layer. If I need more, I'm either washing by hand or using a service. Basic toiletries, an e-reader, phone, keys, charger bricks, a notebook/pens, daypack. It fits into an underseat backpack with room to spare."

That's if you don't need to take more or heavier clothes, formal clothes, an extra pair of shoes, if you're packing gifts, or extra gear taken space elsewhere (e.g. camera and lenses in your backpack), and not taking stuff like souvenirs and such back.

>This has scaled fine all the way up to multi-month scientific expeditions in remote locations.

If you slob it like a 19 year old backpacker, sure.

I've had this conversation a lot with my wife, as we have divergent philosophies.

I'm an old Peace Corps hippie that then road warriored for a few years where I would do a 4 day work trip and limit myself to a bag I could fit under the seat on a plane. You have to be ruthless, rewear stuff that will be fine for multiple days, etc. You also learn what is non-negotiable to bring.

My wife is a planner, so she builds for redundancies and tries to pack for every scenario. She targets to fill a roller bag and the biggest personal item tote she has. But I will also admit there's much more social pressure on women than men in terms of what makes up an outfit.

Recently I visited my parents and had to pack cycling gear, backpacking gear, wedding suit, on top of my daily clothes. I had two pairs of shoes in my luggage which alone takes up like a quarter of a carry-on. I filled a carry-on and a big checked luggage. For a week trip without significant activities it would just be a light carry-on.

Also small rolling luggage is fine if you’ve got status with the airline. If you board in group 2 you will never be forced to gate check your bag. Just make sure it fits in the smaller RJ overheads and you’re good to go.

> For one, rolling luggage is usually a mistake for anyone who's not flight crew.

I used to travel with just a soft carry-on bag that converted into a backpack. It was great to just pick it up and go, and not have to worry about constantly extending and retracting the handle or bracing the bag so it wouldn't roll away on a hill.

But around the age of 50, my back informed me in no uncertain terms that those days were behind me. Now I let the wheels on my luggage carry the weight.

No major commercial airline allows a passenger to put 3 large suitcases in the overhead bins: it's one carry-on bag in the bin plus a small personal item. If I'm going scuba diving, especially technical diving in a cold environment, then I need to fill my carry-on and personal item with the expensive or fragile dive gear plus check two large bags for the bulky dive gear plus whatever else I need for the trip.

The heaviness of your layering will depend directly upon the environment you will be in. The above is adequate for most temperate climates.

If you plan on being at higher elevations during local fall/winter/spring, your base layer will likely be light (and moisture wicking, please do this), and your first layer will likely need to start heavier than a temperate climate base layer.

Having spent a considerable amount of time in the North Central US during those seasons, the layering strategy is appropriate, but the heavier outer layers are non-negotiable, especially as the average temperature drops below 15F.

I tried layering when I traveled somewhere cold, where the high was just above freezing. I felt foolish whenever I went indoors and had to peel off three or four layers in order to feel comfortable.

The next time I went, I brought a proper winter jacket. When I was indoors, I took off my jacket. It was simpler and more comfortable, both outdoors and indoors. You cannot replicate a winter jacket with a rain shell and a bunch of layers.

The Bay Area has a lot of microclimates but none of them are really cold nor hot or humid.

In late 1970s, I spent two months hitching and riding trains around Europe, just an external frame backpack and a sleeping bag. A few years ago, I spent 2.5 weeks in U.K. and Ireland, with an 18-liter backpack and a waist bag (a.k.a. fanny pack ), which made getting around a breeze especially at airports and on trains. It even allowed me to carry a notebook computer. As mentioned in TFA, merino wool and no cotton garments helps. The rain was a minor inconvenience, but I did have lodging where I could get things rinsed and dried out in my room. I did buy an umbrella but should have splurged on better quality, even if I would end up abandoning it.

Best packing advice I ever received: take half as many clothes, and twice as much money, as you think you'll need.

I live in the Bay Area and I don't understand that. Layering is a stupid hassle. I'll put on one jacket of appropriate thickness when I go outside and take it off when I come inside. Simple.

There are certainly circumstances where you need really warm clothes. And hiking (and requirements for dress clothing) complicate thingx as well. But if I'm visiting cities and towns in not surefrigid weather, I can generally handle carry-on with some washing out in sinks and so forth with the right low maintenance clothing.