I am , again, participating in the Indie Challenge hosted by Bootsnall. Just like last year, I’d be posting an article a day, based on the question / challenge of that day.

>>you can join the challenge by clicking here

Nov 12
Pack Light and Keep Things Simple

Show us what is in your pack!
CHALLENGE 1: Show us what’s in your pack right now, or what you bring on a long-term trip. Have you changed how much you bring since you first started?
CHALLENGE 2: Pretend you are going on a 6 month trip and pack a bag. Show us what you are bringing. There is no right or wrong answers. Be honest about everything you would bring. Now that you see everything you want to bring, how do you feel? Do you think you should bring more? Bring less? Do you have any questions about what you should pack that you’d like to ask the community to help answer?

My luggage for 2 full weeks away

I am a strong believer in carry on only travel. But I haven’t always been like this.

My first trip with Alex (as a couple) was to London in March 2011. “Blinded” by the fact that our plane tickets included 1 checked luggage each, we …checked one luggage. Albeit it was a small one. We also had 1 carry on each. One with the electronics and one with misc things in case our checked bag went missing.

I hated dragging the luggage with me all over the London tube. And from the airport to the tube. And waiting for it in the airport.

Lesson learned. Moving on.

March 2012 meant two weeks in Italy and Greece. Guess what? We survived with 1 carry on (pictured above) each. Sure, that meant I did laundry in the hotel and in the rental apartment.

But with that lesson under my belt, I pack less and less. Now I’ve managed to set up a list of “must carry” which I follow for every trip. Here it is:

• 5 pairs of underwear & 2 sports bras
• 3 t-shirts
• 1 long sleeve t-shirt (2 if it’s winter)
• 1 sports pants which fold well
• 5 pairs of socks
• 1 pair of flip flops (if I stay in a hostel, none for rental)

The yellow backpack and the black handbag is what I packed for our wedding anniversary this May. We were away for a long weekend and this time we didn’t bring the heavy camera. I find that to be the biggest problem when we travel – how to handle the big electronics!

If you ask yourself what can be fitted in that yellow backpack take a look at the above photo. Yup, that’s all I packed for the anniversary weekend and was enough!

I admit I hate to drag stuff around and I like to me as “mobile” as possible. So I ditched the netbook – ended up selling it. I used to carry a tablet- I seldom do now because I can read from my smartphone as well. And the big camera stays at home most of the time thanks to the very good smartphones we have.