I want to visit my long-distance partner affordably. Could I only take a "personal item" for 6 days?
LOOKING FOR BACKUP RECOMMENDATIONS
She lives in a Caribbean country, and this will be in June, so I do understand that I'll be sweating a lot. Additionally, I would like to bring my hair care products for my curly hair (cream, gel, etc.).
5 Replies
Personal+carryon is easier, but no coats helps too.
Wear your biggest shoes and/or have a pair that works for everything.
Maybe online order the haircare to the destination? That way there are spares for next time. Otherwise, find tiny bottles and relabel them.
Prioritize undershirts or tank tops to try to keep sweat off a nicer overlayer. Take a bag for dirty clothes. There might be an option to wash clothes there - even if you take enough under clothes, consider running a wash anyway for your future self.
OneBag is definitely possible, but usually involves non-wrinkle clothes and rewearing. Lack of warmth layers will help, however, as spare sweat underlayers tend to pack a lot smaller. Look at personal item max and find a backpack.
If you want to be extra, get compression or roll-vacuum bags. Will increase wrinkling but takes out some air. For your own sanity though, don't pack to the max of your bag, this way you can rummage and find things and repack later, and especially don't stretch a soft bag if using compression bags because they have no squish to go under seat.
Airlines and planes might have different personal item allowed dimensions.
Are there any particular carryons you recommend? Preferably those less prone to causing wrinkles
idt any particular bag is going to help with that. It's more about what you pack and how you pack it
echoing the suggestions upthread- you could wear only a single set of clothes, wash them nightly, and thus only pack a personal item but is that reasonable for your needs?
Take a hanger in case the hotel ones are non removable (if in a hotel) and take a hot af shower with the clothes hanging to steam them. If you have stuff that doesn't NEED ironing the night-before shower usually can do well enough.
I think someone could manage a week of outfits with 1 bag, there is a bit of a cult in r/onebag for it. It follows plug and play basics or items that can be used multiple ways, so you mix and match through the week. It works even better with under layers that you only wear one day and that can be balled tightly and wrinkled to take up less space.
However, this requires planning and is easier if you can make a week of outfits that use the same bulky items like coat, hat, and shoes.
An extreme but with a lot of examples is someone who did onedress, where she wore it in different layers and in different ways to keep it interesting. I think it was a month or longer.