Today we leave Toronto for 52 days in Europe and North America.
We aim to travel as light as possible without suffering. Since we’ll both be working, certain things aren’t optional. I’m not bringing an external mouse, which I might regret.
I grabbed a paperback for the flight — at some point I’ll get sick of staring at a screen — which I can abandon somewhere along the way.
We’re staying in apartments through Home Exchange for most of the trip, so we’ll have nice places to work and laundry facilities. That makes packing a lot easier.
Bringing the bare minimum for clothes leaves me open to the possibility of picking up something while we’re abroad. Plus, I can always cheat and borrow something from Casey’s (even smaller) bag.
There was some major soul searching involved in whether or not to bring a second pair of jeans. I’m firmly in the camp that leggings are not pants, but I finally decided that I was willing to break that rule on laundry days. I just started a big project, so I’m going to be spending hours coding — I can do that in leggings and no one has to know. Plus, my button-down and cardigan are long enough that it’s not indecent.
The last time we were in Europe, we discovered the tiny plug adapters we had did not work well with heavy laptop plugs. We upgraded to two universal adapters, so hopefully they’ll work better.
Speaking of things that make working from the road frustrating, I remembered to bring an ethernet to USB adapter for my macbook air. Slow wifi is not an option.
I use sandwich bags and cloth bags to keep my things organized. All of my clothes are in a compression sack. I also have a collapsible duffel bag, since my greatest fear is having to check my pack and having it get eaten by the machinery.
Here’s whats in my pack:
Wearing
In my pockets
Clothes
Toiletries
Other
Bags
wow! that’s actually really not a big amount to take for 52 days. I spent 2 months of the summer in the USA and I pack much more. And, I’m going back to our home and we have stuff there. inspirational!
Wow packing for 52 days! That’s quite the planning. I need to use sandwich bags like you to organize my stuff. I want to buy packing cubes but large ziploc bags are just as good it seems!
Less is definitely best when it comes to packing especially if your in our family. We head home from Europe tomorrow after 10 weeks with 100kg of luggage between 4 of us.
I can’t believe you have only packed 4 sets of panties! I’ve just left for an indefinite time (minimum of 2 years I think) and I though 7 was doing really well haha. I now feel like a total over packer seeing what you have packed. Although I suppose I’m away for longer and need a few more ‘things’. Really interesting post.
You’re really traveling light! Since I’ve been traveling with a backpack I found it so liberating to be carrying as little as possible. Will you be coming to Montreal during your North American tour? Happy travels!