I began my six-month travel adventure two weeks ago. You may be wondering, how does one pack for six months of traveling? What do you bring? What do you leave behind?

For the curious, here’s what I did, and how I did it.

Background

My destinations

Obviously, what you pack when you travel depends a lot on where you’ll be going. For me, my destinations included:

• Oslo, Norway (June-July: expected warm/cool weather)
• Las Vegas (August: mostly indoors for a conference)
• Grand Canyon, Arizona (August: expected SUPER HOT weather)
• Sequoia National Park, California (August: expected warm/cool weather)
• Boulder, Colorado (August-September: expected warm, cool, and maybe cold weather)
• Medellín, Colombia (September-December: expected warm/hot weather)

In conclusion, I needed clothing for both hot and mild weather. I didn’t expect to encounter any cold temperatures, at least not for more than a couple weeks.

My planned activities

What you pack also depends on what you’ll be doing. I knew I needed to be prepared for the following activities:

• Hiking
• Remote creative work via laptop
• Hobbyist photography
• Podcasting
• Nerdy conference attendance
• Walking through cities
• Reflecting/recording my experiences
• Professional networking/meet-ups

My challenge

On top of all of these considerations, I also wanted to pack as lightly and minimally as possible. My goal was to bring everything in one checked bag and two carry-ons. 

Also, those carry-ons had to be things I could comfortably hold onto while walking around a city for several hours, because I was planning an excursion into Reykjavik during a long layover there.

Difficult? Yes.

Impossible? I refused to believe so!

Preparation

How did I decide what to bring?

I started making a list months before my departure date of all the things I might want or need to pack. Every time I thought of something new, I wrote it down.

As my departure date grew closer, I started sorting the items – using color-coded pens – into “carry-on”, “check”, and “wear”.

I also began gathering these items and keeping them in one, centralized place so the packing process itself would go faster.

The packing day

My first mistake

Now, I did something I very highly do not recommend:

I packed on the day of my flight.

Yep. Yes. That happened.

Granted, I didn’t mean to. I had a very busy week building up to my departure date, including an out-of-town wedding two days prior, so I simply ran out of time.

If I could do it over again, though, I would have found a way to pack the day before, because I ended up rushing to the airport and nearly missed my flight when I realized I had arrived at the wrong airport. (You can read more about that story on Instagram.)

My carry-on items

On the morning of my flight, I whipped out my official list, a bit apprehensive that I wouldn’t be able to fit everything in my bags.

For my carry-ons, I had:

1. an anti-theft, water-resistant, spacious backpack from KAKA
2. an anti-theft, medium-sized purse from Travelon

I laid out everything I wanted to carry with me on my bed. I knew it would be faster if I could see all the items at once, and I could grab the largest items to pack first.

Here are all the things I wanted to carry on the flight (from left to right, top to bottom, as pictured):

• Assorted toiletries
• My creative notebook for ideas, brainstorming, and conceptualization (something I can’t live without)
• Several mechanical pencils + pens
• Pocket book about Oslo
• Professional, sound-muffling headphones
• 2 (two) journals (one for mental health, another for recording my story)
• My wallet
• Computer mouse
• Small adult coloring book + pencils + pencil sharpener
• Nook (for reading ebooks)
• Apple earbuds
• Amazon Fire (for reading Kindle ebooks + other apps)
• Power cord adaptor for other countries
• Daily sketchbook + sketching pencil
• Passport
• Canon T3i camera + second lens + second battery + charger
• 7 (seven) packs of tissues + decongestant (I was, unfortunately, very sick)
• ASUS VivoBook
• Plastic bag (for collecting dirty tissues on the plane… ew!)
• Macbook Pro
• Podcasting microphone
• Power cords for all electronics

Two laptops?

Why did I have two laptops? Well, my Macbook Pro was pretty old, and I was afraid it might die on me while I was abroad. I brought the ASUS VivoBook because I could use it for work, if I needed to. It also works as a gaming computer, so I have a way to separate play and work for mental health’s sake.

Of course, bringing two laptops was pretty risky! Could I fit them both in my backpack? Would it be too heavy to carry around Reykjavik during my layover there?

My KAKA backpack did have a lot of space, though, which was why I purchased it! I was optimistic it would work.

Packing my carry-ons

To my relief, it did work! I was able to fit everything, comfortably divided between my backpack and purse.

The bags weren’t too heavy for me, either. I’m someone who frequently carries heavy backpacks (between my laptop and notebook usage, and my love for big books), so it wasn’t too uncomfortable compared to what I’m used to.

Well, everything fit… except for my camera. But I did a small trick by “wearing” my camera around my neck. It doesn’t count as a carry-on bag, but I was still able to carry it on the plane without putting it in a carry-on bag. Loophole!

My checked items

I was now starting to run out of time, so I nervously assembled all the items I wanted to pack in my checked bag.

This was when I had to start changing plans, because not everything fit. For example, I left out my warm (but bulky) pajama pants, and had to put my special shampoo in a small travel container.

An (incomplete) list of what I did pack:

• 4 (four) pairs of long jeans
• 2 (two) pairs of shorts
• 1 (one) pair of pajamas
• 2 (two) comfortable, can-be-slept-in T-shirts
• 3 (three) “nerdy” T-shirts
• 4 (four) tank tops
• 1 (one) bathing suit
• 1 (one) workout outfit
• 3 (three) long-sleeve shirts for layering
• 1 (one) light jacket
• 2 (two) professional collared shirts
• 1 (one) romper
• 1 (one) warm hoodie
• Approx. 1 (one) week’s worth of underwear + socks
• 2 (two) pairs of sandals
• 1 (one) pair of hiking shoes
• 1 (one) pair of tennis shoes
• 2 (two) tiny physical books

To make things fit better, I added bulkier things first, and tightly rolled up all my clothes.

My suitcase was a little top-heavy, but it worked!

My second mistake

I made one mistake that’s very embarrassing, because I knew better. Perhaps I made this error because I was in such a rush while packing. But I’m sharing it here so you know to never, ever do what I did:

I packed blue hair dye, and didn’t seal it in its own plastic bag.

Yep.

It could have been worse; at least I didn’t pack that hair dye with all my clothes! It was in a separate partition from most of my stuff. But it exploded while in transit and ruined one of my sandals.

Lesson learned: If you have any liquids, especially ones that can stain, seal them in a plastic bag. You can’t be too careful.

Conclusion (a.k.a. TL;DR)

Here are some takeaways:

1. Keep in mind the climate/weather of all your destinations.
2. Keep in mind the activities you’ll be doing while you travel.
3. Start planning what you’ll pack months in advance. (This gives you time to adjust the list as you live your life, noticing what you need and don’t need with you all the time.)
4. Pack in twos and threes. (You’ll rarely need more than three of something.)
5. Use the loophole of “wearing” something if you don’t have room to carry it on the plane.
6. Don’t pack on the day of your flight.
7. Put liquids (especially stainable ones) in their own plastic bags.

Have you done any extended travel, for multiple months at a time? Do you have tips for how to pack? Share them in the comments below!

Photo credits: All © 2018 Brianna da Silva.

Note: All Amazon links in this article are affiliate links, which means I will get a penny or two if you buy anything after clicking them.

P.S. My cousin Brendan wants me to mention that I wrote this blog post while playing Risk with him and my brothers Addison, Judah, and Jameson, which is a longstanding Independence Day family tradition. We did this (awkwardly) via a Facebook Messenger video call, since this year I was across the Atlantic! This is not something you need to know, but writing it here will make Brendan feel like a star. Multitasking + technology FTW.