As minimalists, we take our work seriously. You may remember that we began our adventure with the following luggage: two big suitcases, two backpacks, and a giant ‘purse’. Half a year later, we slimmed down further, and then two months later, we did it again. Our Turkish bargain suitcase turned out to be a dud, but we replaced it with a slightly smaller one. And that entailed getting rid of more things.
Now, thanks to more kind relatives willing to serve as beasts of burden (thanks again!), we have gotten rid of the two big suitcases, and switched them out for a small suitcase. That means we’ve got one backpack, roomy but small enough to put in the overhead compartment of most planes, and a rollaboard. Plus two small bags for computers and essentials. I.e., we are back to carry-on luggage! With airlines increasing their checked luggage fees, and with how much we’ll be moving around in 2024, it made sense to slim down. So we’ve cut way back on liquids and toiletries, and ditching the Swiss Army knife and the scissors.
Also, we’ll be spending most of the year in very warm places. So here’s what we’re now without (some of it our family is keeping, some we just gave away or threw out)!
- Clothes: not all, but most of our long-sleeved clothes. Between us, we have two long sleeved t-shirts and a hoodie. (This latter is mostly for planes, which often get cold.) We also sent away our down jackets, raincoats, gloves, and winter hats. But we did pick up rain parkas that we were grateful for in the jungle. And we got rid of the boots and dressier shoes. All we have left are trainers/sneakers, walking sandals, and flip-flops. The dressing gown and our heavier pj bottoms have also gone. We replaced them with lighter pj bottoms. This is the largest category of things we got rid of, by number, weight, and bulk.
- Kitchen stuff: we’ve trimmed our kitchen essentials down to the bare basics, which are a knife sharpener, plastic travel utensils, and two collapsible water bottles. We found that this stuff was very heavy, and we have figured out that we can make do most of the time. (If not, we’ll have learned something!)
- Stationery: all of it, more or less. It’s still important to us to keep some kind of record of our travels, but we’ve moved that online. And we have, maybe, finally stopped buying ridiculously heavy paperbacks (we’re looking at you, War and Peace). We’ve still got our calendar/lists, and one small notebook each for scribbling emergencies. We’ve also worked our way through the pile of pens we brought. Somehow we imagined they don’t have writing implements elsewhere in the world? [But see below…]
- Tech: we got rid of both portable keyboards, and may replace them with smaller ones. And we also gave up the T-drives that we’d been carrying about in case we needed the information on them. Two years on, nobody is counting on us for those files any more!
And here is some of what we still carry, stuff we’ve found worth its weight:
- A racquetball for sinks without drain stoppers. We need this about one location in four, but that one time makes up for all the carrying about. We need a stopper not only for hand laundry, but also for putting in contact lenses over an open sink.
- Tiny sewing kit. Not absolutely necessary, but it has come in handy dozens of times, including yesterday. (We are tough on clothes!)
- HDMI cable, which allows us to stream directly onto a TV from our computer.
- Itty bitty role of masking tape. Surprisingly useful, for labelling things or holding them together.
- Fountain pen: one of us really likes them, and has worked through the ink that was weighing us down.
- Excellent food storage containers which we picked up at El Corte Ingles (the Spanish department store); we got them free with dried fruits and olives, and they’re also the perfect size for packing cubes!
- Our exercise equipment from TRX. We tons of time trying resistance bands, but the only ones we could find in Europe were as heavy as the TRX setup. (We did, however, get rid of the exercise ball mentioned in that post, and we had a yoga mat for about a year but left it in Spain…).
That’s the 2024 Luggage Update: we’re not sure whether we’ll go back to bigger suitcases for the winter, or remain in our streamlined state. The coming months will tell!
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