How to Pack Your Entire Vacation Into a Personal Item

I’m a frugal traveler, which means I often travel light. When I took a five-day trip to Paris a few years ago on a budget airline that charged a carry-on fee, everything had to fit into a small bag under the seat in front of me. Friends, I did it. You can too.

I first wrote about this trip right after I returned in 2017, but I can now say that I still use these tricks to this day (except for packing dress shoes for the occasional trip – what was I thinking??). We’ll talk more about what and how I packed, but it’s a feat that has more to do with planning than execution. That’s what I mean.

Measure your bag

The space under the seat in front of you is quite spacious, large enough to fit a medium-sized backpack or a stuffed messenger bag. But don’t look at it! If you make a mistake and cannot fit your bag into this area, the crew will ask you to put it somewhere else. This could mean paying extra or, depending on how crowded the plane is, you might even have to check it in at the gate.

Avoid this minor nightmare by checking your airline bag sizes . During my trip, the carrier (the now defunct (?) Wow Airlines) allowed personal items measuring 17 by 13 by 10 inches, including handles and wheels, and with a weight limit of 22 pounds. Visit your airline’s website, then get out the tape measure and check. (If your bag is soft, be sure to measure it when it’s fully packed.)

However, to truly prepare, you will also need a plan B. You may end up buying too many souvenirs and will have to check your bag. Or sometimes on domestic flights you’ll get on a tiny plane with no under-seat space and you’ll have to check your belongings at the gate. Here’s your insurance policy: Pack everything you need for your flight in a small bag or packing cube that can be placed in your seatback pocket. This way, if you have to give up your bag, your important items will stay with you.

Some great “personal item” sized bags:

• For a durable backpack: Swiss Gear 17-Inch Bungee Backpack.

• If you prefer a bag: The Weekender is a 17-inch bag with a zippered shoe compartment.

• Or try something that looks more like a suitcase: the 16-inch suitcase-style backpack.

Cut your packing list ruthlessly

I don’t have a magic spell that allows me to put a suit, business dress or sleeping bag in my carry-on luggage. The one-bag approach only really works for people with simple needs who are going on simple trips. I didn’t bring my laptop or any workout gear. I brought a few changes of clothes, essential toiletries, a sketchbook, and a phone charger.

I didn’t worry about soap or shampoo because I knew I could buy them at my destination. (Showering with French soap made my time in France a little more authentic.) My husband bought a six-pack of electrical outlet adapters, and I caught him stuffing them all into his bag. “Wait, how many plugins are we bringing?” I asked. Just two: his phone charger and mine. So we left four adapters at home.

I packed fresh socks, shirts and underwear for each day and planned to wear a dress once and shorts and pants twice. (If I had been tougher, I would have only brought two outfits and washed one in the hotel sink every night.) I resisted the urge to bring a skirt “just in case.”

To weed out the “just in case” pile, ask yourself: What would I do if I needed it but didn’t have it? Without a skirt, I would just wear a dress or shorts. This is fine; the skirt stays at home. But if my legs hurt and I didn’t have a pack of bandages, I would have to wander the streets of Paris looking for a place where I could buy them. The bandages came with me.

Think big, pack small

Throw away your bag to avoid taking trash from your previous trip, and then start packing wisely. Some tips:

• Choose the smallest item that will do the job. Bring travel-size toothpaste with you, even if a full-size one is technically small enough to pass the security check. Compare your jackets and sweaters and bring the thinnest one that’s warm enough—or perhaps you prefer a lightweight scarf that can be worn as a shawl?

• Roll up your clothes. Rolling is the most compact packaging method . Place socks and T-shirts on the inside of the roll and carefully smooth out wrinkles on the outside. Know how to smooth out unexpected wrinkles: Do you have an iron in your room? Will you steam your clothes while you’re in the shower?

• Use packing cubes. It was only after a trip to Paris that I realized how much time and trouble packing cubes can save . They don’t save space , but they do make packing and unpacking a tightly packed bag much easier.

• Wear the biggest things. You’ll have more room in your bag if you wear jeans and bring shorts than the other way around. You can also carry a travel pillow during the flight and clip it to your bag while walking around the airport.

Make sure everything is accessible. You will be unhappy if the inside of your bag is a cluttered mess. This is where packing cubes come in handy, or you can at least lay out rolls of clothes to divide up the space as needed. Make good use of pockets, too: for example, keep flat items in the laptop compartment, and keep your passport and phone charger in whatever pocket is easiest to reach.

Keep souvenirs small or intangible.

Eventually you’ll have to put it all back. If you brought travel-sized toiletries with you, you may be able to finish them and throw them away before returning home. You also won’t have to worry too much about your clothes getting wrinkled. These settings can give you several cubic inches.

If you’re serious about bringing home souvenirs, consider bringing a collapsible duffel bag from home or buying a cheap bag for travel. Then you only pay the baggage check fee in one direction, not both. Also compare the bag check fee to the cost (and time delay) of sending items home.

But if you don’t have much room for souvenirs, keep an eye on lightweight items during your trip. I bought a culinary magazine in French for my mother and translated the most delicious recipes on the way home. Foreign snacks also make great gifts and are easy enough to fit into a small space. Photos, videos and good old memories will make great souvenirs and won’t take up any physical space at all. (You can even print out a photo book when you get back, or write down your thoughts in a journal to make them more tangible without intruding on your underwear.)

What did I actually pack?

Okay, it’s time to prove that this is indeed the case. Here’s what I did.

Bag: I used an Eddie Bauer hybrid backpack bag that I bought years ago; this has now been discontinued. We traveled a lot with one bag, this bag and me. My husband, who packs equally lightly, used a Swiss Gear backpack similar to this one .

Large and Bulky Items: My only extravagance was a pair of leather T-strap heels. I stuffed my socks and underwear into them to keep them in shape, then wrapped them loosely in a plastic bag so they wouldn’t stain the rest of my clothes. I also had a travel pillow tied to the handle of my bag.

Clothing: For the four-day trip, I brought four shirts, one dress, one pair of shorts, and five sets of socks and underwear. I was wearing sneakers, a jacket and a shirt and trousers.

Toiletries: I had a small ziploc bag with lipstick and deodorant, and a Ziploc with a few liquid personal care items like moisturizer and toothpaste.

Electronics: All I need for a non-work trip is my phone, charging cable, and battery. (My husband prefers an electric toothbrush and razor at home, but made do with the analog versions on this trip.) We also brought a headphone splitter and a pair of headphones for each of us.

Interesting things: Book for the plane; a sketchbook and a small set of art supplies; Cliff bars; wallet, passport, etc.

Looking back, I only made a few mistakes. I should have left the fancy shoes and either gone without them or brought a simple pair of flats instead. I didn’t need the jacket I wore at the airport, although I’m glad I took it with me. And it’s all; this is one of the most perfectly calibrated trips I’ve ever taken.

Although I’ve had some tough times in the past. I can think of two trips where I got cold because I didn’t want to take most of my warm clothes with me. On one such occasion, my mistake was that I had to wear only skirts; a pair of fleece-lined tights would take up very little space in my bag and be a lifesaver. On several trips, I forgot to bring my purse because somehow, in my mind, the messenger bag was my purse. It’s much better to have an actual handbag (or tote bag, or laptop bag) for daily excursions, rather than dumping all your clothes on your hotel bed to make do with carry-on luggage.

I now visualize each day’s activities when I make a packing list, and this helps me remember things like bags. And I apply the “just in case” test to all of these “just in case” items. And now I’m the person who gets off the plane with a small backpack, rushes past baggage claim, and takes the subway to my Airbnb. This is a great way to relax.

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