Summary

The website content provides practical advice on maximizing space and efficiency when packing a travel backpack, emphasizing the importance of organization and the philosophy of traveling with only what one can carry.

Abstract

The article "How to Maximize Space and Efficiency in Your Travel Backpack" acknowledges the prevalence of advice on the topic but aims to offer a fresh perspective. It begins with a celebration of backpacks as essential travel gear, contrasting them with suitcases and highlighting the authenticity of wheel-less travel. The author shares specific packing techniques, such as rolling clothes length-wise and categorizing items into thematic bags for better organization. Categories include clothes, medicine, toiletries, electronics, and documents. The author also suggests that the backpack should be considered an extension of oneself, with heavier items like shoes placed at the bottom and quick-access items in side pockets. A personal anecdote about the author's own backpack, which has traveled extensively, adds a narrative touch to the practical advice provided.

Opinions

Backpacks are praised as more honest and authentic for travel compared to suitcases.
The author believes that real travel involves carrying the weight of your belongings on your shoulders.
Rolling clothes is recommended over folding to save space.
Loose items should be categorized thematically and placed in bags within the backpack.
The author has a

How to Maximize Space and Efficiency in Your Travel Backpack

It really is an extension of yourself

Pictured: neither me nor my actual backpack, both of whom are camera-shy. Photo by S Migaj on Unsplash

Hi.

I get it. You’ve seen those YouTube videos. You’ve read those articles. You’ve probably even had a friend come over and show you.

So, you’d be forgiven for thinking, “Another post on this worn topic?”

But hear me out. First, can we have a quick acknowledgment of how great backpacks are? Sure, some backpackers give the rest of us a bad rep with the way they conduct themselves, but the backpacks themselves are innocent. They are also much more honest than suitcases, which almost always have wheels.

Real travel doesn’t come with wheels. You carry the real weight with your own shoulders.

Thank you for the dramatic drum roll or cymbal clanging.

Some concrete tips followed by a holistic philosophy:

Roll your clothes, don’t fold them

Also, put them in length-wise, not width-wise. In other words, pretend you’re stabbing the inside of your backpack. Just think about how they pack underwear in department stores.

Separate loose items thematically and stuff them in a bag

I have to confess: All my bags are makeshift. They’re all categorized and have been so for the past decade or so, but the actual containers I just picked up along the way. I wish I could say (do I, really, though?) that I have a complete set of thematic containers for toiletries, medicine, etc.

Categorize all items

This is how I’ve done it for over a decade now. Of course, you don’t have to use these categories, but feel free to borrow them if you feel they might work for you.

Clothes (these take up way more space than they should)
Medicine (we’re only human)
Toiletries (we’re modern humans)
Electronics (we’re definitely modern humans)
Documents (civilization, right?)

Okay, try me. Anything you can think of that doesn’t fall under one of these five categories? I consider paper money and coins as documents. Medicine, whether oral or topical, is… medicine. (Yes, I do have separate bags for oral and topical.)

What else do we have? Sure, socks and underwear, being probably the loosest of all garments, should be bagged. Yes, jewelry is also clothes. But, really, it should go in your carry-on.

I understand that “electronics” get many of its own subcategories, but I refuse to give them this honor.

Your backpack is really an extension of you

In more practical terms, this means your shoes and socks should go in the bottom. I’ve seen too many backpackers with their dirty sneakers tied at the top. Don’t they ever get smacked in the face by their own footwear? And, plus, the smell.

This is only feasible if your backpack has a bottom compartment, a top compartment, a bulky middle, and side pockets.

Things like towels and scarves, of course, should go on top. Things that you imagine holding with your hands should go in the side pockets. Things you need quick access to can go in either.

Personal Note

I’m quite attached to my backpack. I lent him to a friend for her Trans-Siberian journey before I took him on my own, so he’s been across Russia four times!

It might not be an exaggeration to say he has seen more of the world than many Americans, since many of us don’t even have passports.

May your backpack see many new lands.

Dash Ip did a fair bit of global traveling in his late teens but didn’t embark on what some might call his first traditional backpacking trip till his mid-20’s. There’s time.