Tips I have spent entire months out of a 7 kg carry-on — ferries, night trains, cobbled old towns with no lifts — and I have never once wished for the bigger bag. Packing light is not deprivation; it is the decision to carry freedom instead of options.
The system fits in one sentence: everything matches everything, everything washes fast, nothing is single-use. Three merino tops, two bottoms, one warm layer, one shell. If an item does not work in at least three outfits, it stays home.
The one-bag list
- Wear the heavy stuff — boots, jacket and jeans on your body, never in the bag.
- Decant everything — a 100 ml bottle lasts a month; the 400 ml bottle lasts the same month but weighs four times more.
- One pair of real shoes, one pair of sandals. The third pair is always the mistake.
- A flat packing cube for laundry — dirty clothes compress; loose clothes colonise.
Pack for the trip you are taking, not the person you imagine being. You will not take up watercolours in Venice. Bring the extra socks instead.
Laundry is the whole trick
A sink, a universal plug and a flat of quick-dry fabric turn four outfits into forty. Wash every third evening; it takes eleven minutes and dries by morning in every climate I have tested, from monsoon Goa to a Bergamo winter. The laundromat is the only subscription a light packer needs.
Finally, leave a quarter of the bag empty. You will buy the striped shirt in Burano, the cheese in the mountain hut, the book at the station. A light bag is not just easier to carry — it leaves room for the trip to change you.
WRITTEN BY
Trail & outdoors writer
Marcus has spent eleven seasons guiding backpacking trips across three continents. He writes about skills, routes and the quiet discipline of travelling light.
