Carry-On Only?!?! Yes, and This Is How It Looks

We vowed to try to pack light for the year ahead. Now, our goal isn’t to *actually* carry everything on — we’ll likely do a lot of checking of bags — but we needed a way to limit ourselves. Honestly the thought of keeping track of and hauling around big bags stuffed with crap on our non-stop itinerary sounded brutal. I for one am too absent-minded to be trusted with that many moving parts.

Packing has been challenging and liberating at the same time. And actually the tough part hasn’t actually been the clothes but all the other stuff, which we lump under a general “kit” category. More on that below.

First, bags. Teddy and I each have a 35L Tortuga backpack and a Briggs & Riley international size carry-on black roller bag with four wheels. The suitcases are sturdy but soft-sided instead of hard, and have a compression feature. The backpacks are roomy, have compartments for laptops etc. and look more NYC than Himalayas.

The kids each have Eagle Creek roller carry-ons that will ride on top of the grownups’ suitcases. They also both have very small Fjallraven backpacks. We went with tiny ones to keep us from over-packing them — if the bags are too heavy, the kids won’t carry em.

Inside most of these bags are countless packing cubes to keep us sane. At first, packing cubes seemed like things only really anal people would use, but now I totally get it. Your suitcase doesn’t explode with crap when you unzip it, you can find what you’re looking for without rummaging through everything else.

So, it’s possible we’ve gotten this all wrong and that we start ditching items within week-one, but here’s what we’ve got packed as we set out:

MARGARET CLOTHES

6 plain tees

4 light pants

3 dresses + 1 jumpsuit

1 long-sleeve button-down

1 pair shorts

1 bathing suit/1 rashguard

1 set sports bra and leggings

10 undies

8 socks

2 bras

2 light sweaters

1 pullover puffer thing

1 windbreaker/raincoat

1 pair workout sneakers

1 pair fashion sneakers

1 sun hat

1 light beanie

1 sunglasses

Margaret bathroom kit

Don’t need to get into all the details, but it is very, very small. My “makeup” bag has 4 small items in it and one of them is a toenail clipper, if that gives you any idea. The most exciting makeup coming with me is my eyebrow pencil. Bringing two of those.

TEDDY’S CLOTHES

1 Patagonia Nano Puff

1 Goretex raincoat shell

1 Snap up fleece

2 Baseball caps

1 Sun hat

1 Light beanie hat

6 T-Shirts

3 Casual button downs

3 Lightweight pants

2 Casual shorts

2 Dri-fit workout t-shirts

2 Workout shorts

1 Dri-fit long sleeve workout shirt

1 Bathing suit

1 Long sleeve swimshirt

1 Sweatpants

10 Pairs of socks

10 Pairs of underwear

1 Pair Flip Flops

1 Pair Running shoes

1 Pair Casual / slip on shoe

Teddy bathroom kit

2 toothbrushes

1 tube tooth paste

1 deodorant

1 travel shampoo + conditioner

1 travel face / body wash

1 face lotion

1 hair gel

1 travel shaving cream

Several Mach 3 razor blades

1 Small electric razor

1 nail clipper

6 months of contact lenses

KIDS’ CLOTHES

Willa has 4 sundresses, 2 tees and 2 shorts

James has 6 tees and 6 shorts

They each got:

8 undies

8 socks

2 PJs

1 raincoat/windbreaker

1 fleece

1 sweater

1 pair sneakers

1 pair water shoes

2 bathings suits/rashguards

1 sun hat

Kids’ bathroom kit

2 disposable electric toothbrushes (Oral B Pulsar)

Kid toothpaste

Mini kid shampoo

Hair things/barrettes

Brush

KID BACKPACKS

Each kid backpack has the following inside:

iPad mini

Headphones

Boogie Board (drawing tablet)

Sketchbook

Pencil case of colored pencils and black felt pens

Small bag of games (playing cards, tiny lego thingies, dominoes, etc.)

A small empty pillbox for tiny collected treasures

A namebadge holder on a lanyard with contact info that they can wear on their necks

Willa has a Kindle and a composition book

James has two laminated mealworms

KIT!!!

All of this is “kit” that we’ve packaged up into packing cubes and distributed among our four suitcases:

GROWNUP TECH/GEAR

1 Macbook

1 iPad (11 inch)

1 Sony A7R III camera

1 GoPro

2 Kindles

2 Pixel 3 phones

1 portable speaker

1 Anker outlet cube

1 mini tripod

1 mini microphone

2 converters

Headphones

All related chargers

Extra battery/juice

DOCUMENTS

Passports

Immunization booklets

All kinds of other stuff

ART

Sketchpad

Watercolor pad

Mini watercolor kit

Nice pens

Writing notebook/journal

A MINI CVS

Advil

Alka Seltzer

Aquatabs

Benedryl

Bugspray

Cortizone

Dayquil

Dramamine

Excedrin

Halls

Immodium

Pedialyte

Pepto Bismal

Suncreen

Tampons

Visine

All of our prescription Malaria pills, antibiotics and altitude sickness meds

6 months of daily contact lenses per grownup

MISC

Mini detergent sachets

A travel clothes line

Flashlight

Sewing kit

Mini scissors

Spare duffel

Spare daypacks

2 inflatable booster seats for the car