Traveling Light, Also Known As No Suitcase

I had a four-day weekend trip planned, and I decided to travel without a suitcase. It was mostly a casual trip so I thought it would be a good venue to test out some of the theories and tricks I’ve been reading in travel blogs. I took a small crossbody purse and my trusty Jansport backpack. Not the most glamorous but certainly sturdy.

And it worked!

The purse held all of my normal purse items such as my wallet, phone, lip balm, and notepad. I was not overly concerned about needing a larger purse than what I had planned.

But I did manage to fit everything else into the backpack, including several magazines to read on the plane. Here are a few tips that made it work for me:

• I tend to let my magazines pile up, but they are great to read on the plane. I simply tear off the address label and then I can just leave the magazine on the plane when I’m finished.
• I can’t remember the last trip I took without my trusty Eagle Creek packing cubes. They’re not airtight but still manage to compress my clothing quite nicely. I took a full size cube for actual clothing and a half size cube for my undergarments. The main portion of the backpack held both of these, my toiletries bag, and a pair of black flats.
• The medium front section of the backpack held a zip bag with my phone charger and my earbuds as well as a hostess gift, a lotion bar, and my keys on the key clip.
• In the front small section, I had nothing but my 3-1-1 Ziploc for easy access through security.

All in all, I loved how simple it was to travel this way.