Extreme Packing Report

As reported in this space earlier, I engaged in “extreme packing” for my trip to San Francisco earlier this month.

The untold story behind this (and, to be honest, unrealized truth for me until I arrived there) is that when I was 14 and traveled around the U.S.A. with my father by Greyhound Bus, I overpacked, and was forced to lug way, way too much luggage around the country. For example, I carried not one, but two transistor radios with me. It was the latent memory of this lugging, I think, that got me on the extreme packing plan.

And, of course, there was no small amount of street cred establishing at stake, what given that I was traveling aside my young compatriots/landlords from upstairs.

My usual traveling kit is an American Tourister soft-sided briefcase that holds my laptop, assorted chargers and papers, passport, etc. along with a Jack Wolfskin pack that we purchased to go to Thailand that carries everything else.

For this extreme packing trip, I slimmed down to fit everything inside a smallish Targus knapsack/laptop case. Here’s what I did to shrink down:

• In in addition to the clothes on my back, I carried only two additional changes of clothes, and arranged to do a laundry midway through the trip. I had clean clothes every day, but only needed to carry half as many as I usually do.
• I took lightweight clothes, and I rolled them up tightly to pack them in the least amount of space.
• Rather than carrying a complete toilet kit, filled with every possible toiletry need, I carried a small collection of essential items in the pockets of the knapsack.
• I didn’t carry any bulky books, presents, or other space-sucking items.
• I restricted my gift purchases to small items only.

As a result, I was able to handily fit everything inside the knapsack, which I carried on rather than checking.

While things were still perhaps 2-3 pounds heavier than I would have liked, the effect was rather dramatic: I felt much more mobile, much less tied to my luggage. While I did leave my knapsack at my hotel after checking out on the last day, I could have easily carried it with me.

Here’s a complete list of the contents of my knapsack:

• Two each of shirts, socks, underwear.
• One pair of pyjamas.
• Toothbrush, mini-toothpaste, mini-deodorant, comb, electric shaver.
• Apple iBook, with charger.
• Canon PowerShot S100 digital camera, with charger.
• Nokia 3285 cell phone, with charger.
• 4 feet of telephone cord.
• One copy of Harper’s, one copy of The New Yorker
• Two pens.
• Passport.

Compare this to what Tom Peters carries in his luggage, which includes an eighteen-pound bolt-cutter, and an Australian cricket ball but, oddly, only T-shirts and ball caps for clothing. Hmmmm.

I’m off again in April for another bizarre trip (Charlottetown - Montreal - New York - Boston - New Hampshire - Boston - Phoenix - Denver - Boston - Charlottetown), and I’m going to take another crack at this. Stay tuned.