Minimalist Packing Tips & Hacks - Travel Light With Only Carry-On Luggage!

hey everyone in this video we're gonna give you our best tips for traveling with only carry-on luggage so you don't have to check any bags [Music] traveling with just carry on luggage makes your trip a lot lighter less stressful and a lot more enjoyable we did it for almost a year with these two small backpacks and we highly recommend it in this video we're going to talk about carry-on luggage sizes what you can and can't bring in your carry-on and we'll share our best tips for what to pack and how to pack it and at the end of the video we're gonna do a test pack and show you exactly what we would pack for a long-term trip so that we wouldn't have to check any bags first we want to thank audible for sponsoring this video we think that audiobooks aren't essential if you're trying to pack light and avoid bringing bulky books with you we'll tell you more about audible later in the video so why would somebody want to travel with just carry-on luggage and not check any bags first is that sometimes you have to pay to check bags so if you're traveling with just carry-on luggage you are saving money on most flights there's also a really great feeling when you arrive at your destination and you're able to just grab your bags out of the overhead storage on the plane and walk off and not have to wait for your bags at the carousel third reason is there's no chance that the airline is going to lose your luggage or that someone's going to walk off with your bag which is something that's happened to us and it's not a great way to start your trip and the convenience of having carry-on luggage doesn't end at the airport most trips mean that you're going to be either in taxis buses trains or walking around with your luggage and the less you have to carry around the more pleasant it's going to be for carry-on luggage sizes that are allowed are not allowed with you on the plane this can actually be a little bit confusing first of all different airlines might have different requirements for the size of suitcase that they'll let you bring onboard with you and to make things even more complicated if you go shopping for a new suitcase for example in the store most small ish suitcases will be labeled as OK for carry-on even though they're all different sizes and even though some of them might not actually be allowed as a carry-on so we did some research and it seems like most major airlines are trying to come up with size that'll be more Universal and that seems to be for now about 9 inches by 14 inches by 21.5 inches we got our hands on a suitcase that's exactly that size and that's what we're gonna use for our test back at the end of the video you're also allowed to bring an additional small personal item which can be something like a purse a briefcase or a small backpack this is nice because in that smaller bag we usually keep our snacks our electronics that we use for entertainment on the plane and things that we need access to at our seat on the plane and then the rest of the stuff that we don't need access to as much is stored in the overhead compartment for tips on what you can and can't bring in your carry-on luggage so basically there are some things that you could pack in a checked bag like large bottles of shampoo for example or a camping knife that you won't be allowed to have in your carry-on luggage when you bring it on board some of the most common things that you're not allowed to bring in your carry-on on board the plane are pretty obvious there are things that are sharp pointy dangerous flammable liquids and gels are also restricted so you can still bring some of your toiletries on board but they'll have to be in bottles that are a hundred milliliters or smaller and you can only bring a certain amount of those small bottles on board with you and make sure that the liquids are labeled since the rules about what you can bring in your carry-on on board are always changing it's best to go to the tsa website for the country that you're going to be visiting and look up the item that you're not sure about and they'll let you know if you can bring it in your carry-on will link to a few of the TSA websites we've found down below in case that's helpful for you now we're going to give you a few packing tips to lighten your load so first of all the items that are going to take the bulk of the space in your suitcase are clothes so here it's important to really think about what you're gonna be bringing and make sure that everything is interchangeable and that every piece of clothing can be mixed and matched and layered so for example you don't want to bring a shirt that can only be worn that will only match with a certain pair of pants you want to make sure that you bring items that can be used everyday in any combination another great tip is to try and bring a smaller amount of the essentials like t-shirts underwear socks and what you can do is bring a dry laundry bar you can wash those on the regular basis in the sink let them dry overnight and that way you're staying clean and bringing a lot less stuff with you we also found that rolling clothes takes up a lot less space than folding them and also when you stack them next to each other rolled you can see everything at a glance for toiletries again it's important to remember that liquids and gels will need to be kept under 100 milliliters after that we have items that we kind of put in the Justin case category a good example of that is an umbrella it's an item that might come in handy but you might also not want to carry that around on your whole trip so try to limit those just in case items as much as possible if you find that you really need them you can always buy them at your destination when it comes to entertainment luckily nowadays there's small many options for pretty much everything almost everyone nowadays has a phone an iPod a tablet or a small laptop for cameras you also have smaller options and again it's important in this category to try and minimize as much as possible and really just bring the items that for sure you're gonna need and use a lot if you're a person who reads a lot of books you'll know that books are heavy and bulky and they take up a lot of space now there's great options as alternatives to books so you can bring an e-reader but even better than an e-reader so you don't have to bring an extra device our audiobooks you can download audiobooks and just put them on your phone your tablet or your computer and they're just really practical and take up no space and if you're the type of person who gets motion sickness they're also great because you can use them on the move no problem if you're interested in trying audiobooks audible actually sponsored this video and they're offering our viewers a free 30-day trial membership that includes a free audiobook so you can just go to audible.com slash exploring alternatives to get your free audiobook they have a huge selection and we've downloaded quite a few books and last year for the new year we plan to continue our minimalist journey and it's always nice to find inspiration from other people our first download is going to be a book called minimalism by the minimalists we love what they do we've been reading their blog for a long time we saw their documentary and we're really looking forward to their audiobook again to sign up for your free book you can go to audible.com slash exploring alternatives for us viewers you can also text exploring alternatives to five zero zero five zero zero to get started today and now let's go do our carry-on test back alright so now I have my standard sized carry-on suitcase I'm gonna start by packing all the clothes so I would usually bring one pair of pants I don't have it with me here but usually I'd have a pair of shorts that would also act as a bathing suit and then I'd have probably about three shirts that can all match with the pants that are pretty light and that dry pretty fast I would also bring one sweater with a hood on it to stay warm and then I would bring one windbreaker slash raincoat that's really light and portable and it folds really small after that I have three pairs of socks three t-shirts three cotton t-shirts and then three pairs of underwear so now with these clothes I would be comfortable in the warm climate but also I can layer all this if it gets a little bit colder I also always bring a pair flip-flops obviously these are great in warm climates but they can also be nice if you're taking a shower in a hostel for example and it's not super clean great thing to have with you and I always just have a plastic bag I can put them in just so I don't get the rest of the stuff dirty and then I'll bring one pair of shoes that I'm usually wearing what I'm traveling around one last piece of clothing I forgot to mention is a hat as you can see this one's really nerdy but it weighs almost nothing it's super tough and it folds up completely flat so I can put it on top of all my clothes here when I'm done packing them and clip this on and I got all my clothes here nicely packed on one side next I have all the toiletries so I'll have everything in a carry case like this so in here I'll have just the basics so a toothbrush I live floss for toothpaste I'll have a container that's under 100 milliliters maybe a small container of hand cream the small travel size container of shampoo some hand sanitizer nail clippers I always bring a pair of earplugs I'll also carry my laundry bar my dry laundry bar and I'll also have just a standard dry soap bar then I have my deodorant I'll usually carry some gravel or anti-nausea anti motion sickness medication and then I have my shaver this is actually just a hair clipper but I can use it on the short settings to shave my face and then if I bring this one adapter here I can also use it to cut my hair next I have all my small electronics it mostly all fits in this carrying case so I have my charger for my iPod AC wall adapter charger for my camera pair of earphones and then I have my charger for the toothbrush batteries I also have my power adapter for my laptop my iPod Touch here and then here I have some power adapters that you'll need if you go to different countries these are fine but they're all separate so I suggest getting one device that has all these combined the last thing I'll pack in here is a microfiber towel even if you're going to hotels especially in hostels it's nice to have an extra towel but bringing a regular towel they're huge they take forever to dry so this is a great alternative they fold up really small they're made to dry super-quick and it's a great thing to have with you so as you can see here there's still plenty of extra space in the suitcase and that's actually really good because you might pick up things along the way I might also one day be wearing my flip-flops and be putting my bulkier shoes in here while traveling and you never know what you're gonna pick up along the way so it's always good to start with a suitcase that's not completely full so now the last thing is my personal item like I mentioned earlier in the video you're allowed to carry a carry-on suitcase with you on the plane but you're also allowed one personal item which can be a small backpack a purse or a briefcase so I'll usually bring this small backpack in here I'll carry my laptop my small mirrorless camera I'll have my passport in there and then I'll have some food items so I'll usually carry a small piece of Tupperware like this just to create less waste and also it can really come in handy I'll bring my own piece of cutlery so this is a foldable spork this is really practical then I have my water bottle and in my travel mug and then in here I'll also have a bunch of food and snacks for the trip and this is great when I'm walking around I can take my small backpack put it on top of my rolling suitcase I just clip the backpack on to the rolling suitcase handle and then I just have one bigger piece of luggage I can roll around [Music] we hope you enjoyed our tips for travelling with just carry-on luggage it's a great way to travel we don't often get to do it anymore because we work from the road and so we often have all of our work gear with us but if we do have the option we always try to pack as light as possible if you have any other amazing carry-on packing tips that we didn't mention in this video please add them to the comments also give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and subscribe to see more like it

Channel: Exploring Alternatives

Views: 2,431,739

Rating: 4.7505813 out of 5

Keywords: minimalist, minimalism, travel, wardrobe, packing, tip, tips, carry on, carry-on, suitcase, luggage, bag, how to, hack, DIY, light, less, save, money, travelling, traveling, long term, pack, what, how to pack, what to pack, baggage, claim, nomad, exploring alternatives, hacks, around the world, shoestring, cheap, free, flight, airport, flights, Audible, audio book, TSA, carry, how, digital nomad, checked luggage, pro tips, guide, essentials

Id: -PcrLWkxZSk

Length: 12min 50sec (770 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 14 2018