Talking to a hostel worker in Portland made me rethink how I pack

I was chatting with this guy who works at a hostel in Portland last month. He said he sees so many people lugging huge suitcases on public transit and paying extra bag fees. He told me he travels for months at a time with just a 25 liter backpack and a small packing cube setup. It hit different because I always thought you needed more stuff for longer trips. He fit jeans, three shirts, socks, a light jacket, and toiletries all in that tiny bag. Now I'm wondering if I've been overpacking for years. Has anyone else tried cutting down to just a small backpack for a week or longer?

3 comments

3 Comments

torres.grant11d agoTop Commenter

Wait, doesn't the sink laundry thing get old fast? I get the appeal of traveling light but I've got this mental image of trying to scrub a pair of jeans in some crusty hostel bathroom sink at midnight after a long day. The whole "do laundry in your room every other night" sounds like it would eat up time you could be spending actually doing stuff. I did a 4 day trip with a small backpack once and by day 3 I was just tired of wearing the same slightly damp shirt. Maybe I'm doing it wrong but I feel like there's a middle ground that nobody talks about.

annaw7312d ago

and honestly that hostel worker is 100% right. I did the same exact thing last year when I went on a two week trip to europe with nothing but a 28 liter backpack. I packed two pairs of jeans, four tshirts, a hoodie, some socks and underwear, a travel sized toiletry bag, and my phone charger. I ended up wearing the same two shirts over and over and literally didn't touch half the stuff I thought I needed. The best part was not having to check a bag or drag a suitcase up three flights of stairs at some ancient hostel in barcelona. Now I pretty much refuse to bring anything bigger than a small backpack even for a week.

craig.mila11d ago

Is anyone actually having fun wearing the same two shirts for two weeks though? Like sure you saved time on stairs but I bet that hoodie started smelling like a gym bag by day four or five. I've done the minimalist thing before and honestly it just made me feel grimy plus you end up doing laundry in a sink every other night which is its own kind of hell. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but @annaw73 I'll take a small suitcase any day over rewearing socks from a hostel sink.