How to overcome the challenges of traveling only with a small bag: my 3 secrets

Traveling light has a lot of benefits and I do not see myself going back to dragging a heavy wheel bag across airports or in and out of public transportation.

I want the freedom that traveling light - with a small bag - brings. Especially, I want to be able to visit any place at anytime I want, without needing to think where I will leave my bag. 

Traveling with a small bag means I can come out of an airport or a bus stop and start visiting whatever places I have planned, saving me time and money.

However, to unlock all the benefits of traveling light, I do think we need a little bit of planning to overcome the challenges it brings.

In my view, the main challenges or traveling only with a small bag, such as a 20 liter backpack are the following:

• Not having a lot of outfit options.
• Having to wash my clothes if I travel for more than 4 or 5 days.
• Having to manage what you can take into the aircraft (e.g., shampoo, perfumes, etc. only up to 100ml; not being able to carry a pocket knife).
• Not being able to carry "just in case" items.

So, how do we overcome the challenges or traveling with a small bag?

The straight answer is: with planning.

Before we travel to our destination we should take the following steps:

• check the weather forecast in that region to determine which are the most appropriate clothes (i.e., cold? warm? wet?).
• determine the number of days we are staying and decide on how many outfits we will need.
• determine the objective of the trip and decide on the clothes style we need (i.e., for work? for leisure?)
• will my trip last 5 days or less? Depending on this we can decide whether to wash our clothes or just do laundry when we return.

 With the answers to the questions above I plan my trip. I usually take clothes with me for no more than 4 days (clothes that I wear plus 3 days of clothes changing). However, If my trip is for 5 days I just put one extra day worth of outfit change.

1. The first secret to travel lightweight is: Laundry.

I know it doesn't motivate anyone, and you may even be thinking to stop reading because you don't want to waste time washing your clothes while you are on vacation; and on vacation you don't work. But hear me out.

I never wanted to do laundry while I travel and what happened was that I was burdened with carrying my dirty clothes, which not only weight a lot but also put my clean clothes at risk of catching bad smell from the dirty ones.

I am as lazy as the next man, but what I noticed was that while traveling I showered every night, so I decided to take advantage of that. Firstly, before my shower, I put my clothes in the hotel sink with a little bit of soap at let them rest without me doing anything (you can buy proper soap, but, like I said, I'm as lazy as the next man, so I just use the body wash or shampoo that the hotels provide).

After a few minutes, I just go and take a showed and bring my wet clothes to rinse them properly while I shower. The manual input in this daily process takes no more than 5 minutes. Can we not spare 5 minutes every day to wash our clothes?

This simple process takes any bad smell that my clothes (and myself) may have gotten during the day and gives me a clean outfit for the following day.

Try this out. I promise it isn't as bad as you may think and it's not a lot of extra work. Like I said: 5 minutes.

Once you unlock the power of doing laundry, you start thinking: how many different outfits do I really need while I'm traveling?

Then you can decide on the number of clothes you want to bring, but I can guarantee that I never need more than 5 days worth of clothing.

 There are, however, some extra challenges if you are on a business trip. Washing more formal clothes in the hotel sink (like dress shirts) may not be the most appropriate answer since they will be all wrinkled. If you have an iron at your hotel, you can still wash your more formal clothes in the hotel sink and then iron it. If you don't have access to an iron, than my honest suggestion is to pay a little extra and have your clothes washed and pressed by the hotel. This is however, a last resort solution.

2. My second secret is: pick clothes in similar color palettes

Packing trousers, shorts, t-shirts, dress shirt, etc., within the same colors, allows us to pair every clothing piece with each other. For example, 1 pair of blue jeans and 1 pair of beige shorts, and 3 t-shirts (1 white, 1 black and 1 gray), gives us a total of 6 different outfits. Meaning, you will only repeat the same exact outfit in the 7th trip day.

Not enough options with 3 t-shirts?

No problem: take one extra dress shirt and some navy blue shorts and you'll get 12 different outfits, all able to be packing in a small 20 liter backpack or duffel bag.

Of course you won't have your entire wardrobe at your disposal, but you are on vacation, relax a little :)

3. My third secret is: adjust to the weather forecast

Check the weather forecast before you go and adjust your outfits to it.

If you're going to the Caribbean, short sleeved clothes are enough (t-shirts, polos, etc.,). Since don't take a lot of space, so it is easier to pack.

If the trip is to some place cold you need to start thinking about layers: 1 warm jacket (which you'll wear the entire time, so no need to be put inside the bag - no space taken), 1 or 2 external layers (sweaters, fleeces, wool v-neck knits, etc.,). You can wear these pieces with the t-shirt (maybe just consider long sleeved ones...). If it is really cold, you can even think about a middle layer or an undershirt.

If you take your t-shirts as base layers, you'll just need to wash them, while the remaining clothes will still be smelling well. So, no need for more laundry than for a summer trip.

 One final tip: if you're taking just one backpack and you are going on a flight, keep in mind that there are limitations to what you can take inside the aircraft cabin.

Deodorants, perfumes, shampoos, shaving creams, body lotions, all have limited quantities that can be carried. The same goes for Swiss army knifes or similar.