Traveling With a Single Carry-on
When I went to my recent personal development retreat, I was pretty proud of myself: I wore everything I took with me except maybe five pieces. And I packed it all in a single carry-on. In this article I’m gonna walk you through my exact what-to-pack strategy for traveling with a single carry-on.
Back to my recent trip. I arrived in Washington DC and met up with one of my classmates; another classmate picked us up at the airport. When we were loading the car, I was surprised to see the size of my classmate’s suitcase. I think it was double the size of mine; he definitely had to check it.
So let me explain a bit of my strategy:
What to Pack in Your Single Carry-on
Step One: choose your shoes!
First, and this probably had the biggest impact, especially in terms of weight, I only took one pair of shoes. My single carry-on didn’t contain any shoes. The shoes I wore to travel in were the shoes I wore the entire time.
In part it was an experiment, to see if it could be done and if I would like the outcome. Yes to both!
Part of what was in the back of my mind when I made this decision was when my friend went to Hawaii earlier this year and one of his Chacos got lost. Like he checked his bag in with a pair of Chacos in it and only had one when he got home!
So I took one pair of Chacos on my feet and no shoes in my suitcase.
The sandals I took had red, blue, green, and yellow pattern straps; every outfit I took needed to coordinate with them. This is sort of an advanced move, but I have an episode planned coming up soon on a foolproof shoe strategy that will go with everything.
Step Two: choose your jacket(s)/coat(s)
This is how I ended up with extra space in my carry-on. It was Summer. I wore one jean jacket and packed one jean jacket, and that was all I needed.
When I have to go somewhere where I will need an actual coat, I will wear it on the plane and make sure it goes over all the outfits that I take. Packing an extra coat would take up way too much space.
So far, that’s one pair of shoes and one coat.
Step Three: The one-off’s
- Sleepwear
- Swimwear
Step Four: Unders
I like to count how many days I’m gonna be gone, take that many pairs of underwear, and throw in a couple extra. On my last trip, I was only gone six days and I took three bras which may seem like a lot, and kinda was, but I was happy I did that because summer. Sweaty.
Step Five: choose your bottoms
2 1/2 years ago, I went in a hurry to Seattle when the hero was hospitalized. The coat I took was blue, green, and black plaid; the pants I took were blue, green, and black.
This most recent trip I was matching my shoes: red, blue, green, and yellow.
Besides the pants I traveled in, I took a yellow skirt, a pair of blue pants, and a pair of red shorts. This event I went to was casual. If I had had a dress I wanted to take, I would have passed on the skirt. I could have taken another pair of pants, but this actually ended up being fine.
What I Wore on the Plane and Why
On the plane, I wore yellow drop crotch harem style pants. There are plenty of other things that I think people might want to wear on the plane to be comfortable, but let me share my reasoning for these. Alot of the pants that I have right now that I like to wear in the summer are wide-legged crops. The problem with wide-legged crops when traveling is having to make sure they don’t touch the floor in a public restroom situation.
The Rest of What to Pack in Your Carry-on
Step Six: choose your jackets.
I recommend you have a jacket or sweater for each outfit, in case it gets cold with air conditioning. (If you are a body type that doesn’t need this, you know it; most of us do.)
I took a white cropped jean jacket and a blue jean cropped jean jacket. Either one went with all of the bottoms that I had brought.
Step Seven: complete your outfits.
The only thing remaining now is to choose tops and accessories.
Tops are another thing I like to bring extra of.
So I just laid the bottoms and put two tops with each one, making sure that one or the other jacket, or both, made an outfit.
And I brought a pair of gold earrings and necklace, and a pair of silver and blue earrings and necklace.
Why This Was Easy for Me
The secret to why this was easy for me: I know my palette.
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