Traveler’s Rule #3: Only Bring What You Can Carry On
Bring less to travel more
Here are a couple of guesses.
Those who bring lots of luggage travel less.
Those who travel more bring less luggage.
Those who bring less luggage enjoy their travels more.
What do you think?
The more you travel, the more you realize that lugging around less stuff is:
- More liberating
- More convenient
- Much cheaper
Add to that all the airplane luggage issues of the last few months, and checking in luggage, unless you require special bulky things, just doesn’t make sense anymore.
When my husband and I were young, we traveled with just small backpacks and a couple of changes of clothing. We want to go it again someday.
Since having kids, things got more complicated — like bringing our own car seats and allowed food supplies to Iceland.
But once you no longer need car seats and strollers, you should be able to compress back to one carry-on per person.
After we no longer needed car seats, we’ve done several trips with four children without checking in a single piece of luggage, and there is not a thing I regretted not having.
On the pro side (apart from saving money):
- No stress about losing things or missing connections — ever tried to rebook a family with four children?
- No waiting for suitcases in a crowd with a kid that needs a bathroom badly after a long flight — right now.
- Being able to combine getting to your rental with a stroll in the city.
- Kids love their rolling cute suitcases and can even roll yours.
- Kids learn to pack efficiently and take care of their things.
- You don’t have to separate stuff if you stay in two hotel rooms (what a nightmare!) — everyone just takes their suitcase with them.
- Less time wasted thinking about what to wear.
How can you fit in a carry-on? Should I even add to the plenty of advice you can find online?
- Wear your bulkiest shoes on the plane.
- Be choosy with shoes.
- Choose clothes you can wear more than once and combine easily.
- Remember you can wash things or buy what you need at your destination
- Focus on experiences, not looking good in pictures — nobody will scrutinize what you are wearing except perhaps your mother-in-law, and so what?
- E-reader or tablet replaces many books.
- Leave board games at home — really. Instead, stroll around, browse a local bookstore, watch the birds, the boats, or the buskers.
After every trip, as you unpack, play this sorting game. Sort everything you’ve brought back into three piles:
- Yes, used, and yes, useful.
- Used because I had it, could do without.
- What was I thinking???
Now, take a picture of each pile with a label, for example:
Next time when you are packing, take a look at the pictures. Then take only what you need, take your carry-on, and travel liberated.
Oh, did I mention the money you will save on unnecessary purchases and souvenirs? It’s so much easier to ignore all that stuff if you can’t fit it into your carry-on.
