Best Tips to Pack Light on Your Next Trip From Travel Bloggers

Best Tips to Pack Light on Your Next Trip

Every time I pack for a trip I swear I’m going to pack lighter “next time”. Not because of baggage fees, because the luggage gets heavy! The dread starts as I drag the suitcase down the stairs to the front door and escalates when I struggle to lift it into the car trunk. Next, there’s steering the bag across the parking lot to the airport shuttle and the panic when I get on the shuttle and have to lift it onto the luggage rack. Cobblestone streets, broken elevators, long flights of stairs to the Metro, there are so many factors that make heavy luggage a nightmare. I asked 20 travel bloggers to share their tips to pack light, here is what they had to say…

Read: 50 Travel Packing Tips, Tricks, and Hacks to Pack Like a Pro
Read: Travel Packing 101, How to Pack Your Luggage

20 Tips to Pack Light

One of the biggest struggles with packing light is figuring out how to pack all your favorite outfits.  Obviously, bringing fewer garments is one solution, however, reducing the weight of each individual item will allow you to maximize space in your suitcase. Bringing clothes made with lightweight materials will significantly reduce the weight of your luggage.  Avoid thick cotton and bulky items.  Wool, especially merino, is the perfect fabric.  It is lightweight, dries quickly, and regulates your temperature – making you cooler in hot places and warmer in cold places. Also make use of synthetic materials, such as those used in sports clothes, to reduce your luggage weight.
Delilah from Our Travel Mix

Since discovering coconut oil on my first trip to Thailand, my backpack got a whole lot lighter. Coconut oil is incredibly diverse, you can replace so many of your beauty products with it and consequently save yourself a couple of kilos in travel weight! Coconut oil is a great moisturizer, use it on your hair and body – especially dry patches on elbows and feet – you only need a few drops. It’s also a great make-up remover and useful instead of shaving cream. At a push, it can also be used as an emergency sunscreen as it has an SPF of 5.
Nicky from Above Us Only Skies

Want to pack light and come out looking less wrinkled at your destination?  Roll your clothes to make them less likely to shift and they’ll fit together more neatly while packing. Fold your tops into thirds lengthwise (bring the two sides into a middle point, folding in the sleeves). Roll from the top collar to the bottom of the shirt. Fold pants in half along the leg crease. Fold in the rear of the pants in line with the width of the leg.  Roll from the waist to the bottom hem.  Jeans can be compressed while rolling. Also roll belts, underwear, and socks.
Allison from Tour and Table 

A “travel wardrobe” consists of tried-and-true pieces set aside for travel. It consists of shoes, bottoms, tops, and outerwear of my chosen color palette of neutrals and complementary colors. Shoes, and each bottom and base, mid and outer layer is of a color, size, and style that allows mixing and matching to create several different outfits. This approach helps me stick to my clothing numbers of 2, 3, 5, 5, 3, 2. It means 2 pairs of socks, 3 bottoms, 5 panties, 5 tops, 3 pieces of head/neck gear, and 2 bras. Add one piece of outerwear, one swimsuit, one dress, and one mid-layer (reduce the 5 tops to 4) and I’m good to go for most trips.
Anne from Packing Light Travel  

If you love taking photos and reading books along your travels. Did you know you can carry your book collection and photo libraries along with you at all times? In the age of electronic books and digital photography, there’s no need to carry paperbacks or even a stand-alone camera traveling. If you’re serious about saving space, you can utilize cloud applications to help you. With a smartphone and apps such as iBooks plus a camera application, you can sync your books and photos across all your devices. That way, you can travel with your book library and upload your photos from your smartphone. Meaning, you have your media with you at all times. This leaves room for you to pack more efficiently and save on unnecessary weight.
Daniel from Layer Culture

With the airlines getting tighter restrictions for carry-on and personal item size, it pays to become creative when packing. Or should I say saves you money if you can pack light? One item that will help you immensely is packing cubes. If you’re someone who loves to travel light, you absolutely need these. They come in a variety of sizes and colors which makes grabbing the right one easier. I’d recommend getting 3 different sizes so you can have the smaller one for socks and underwear, a medium one for T-shirts and shorts, then a larger one for pants and sweaters. The soft-sided ones are the best since you can squish them down more. If you’ve never used packing cubes before, you’d be amazed at how much you can fit in a small space.
Kimberley from Two Travelling Toques 

The most sensible tip for packing light is to pack outfits rather than single items. Make sure to pick items that you can easily mix and match so that even if you only have three or four shirts and tops, and three or four pants and skirts, you can match them in various ways so that you always look like you are dressed in a brand new outfit. The trick is to pick neutral colors (i.e. clothes in colors that would be perfect in the jungle) in shades of grey, light blue, khaki, light brown – they all look good together!
Claudia from My Adventures Across The World

There are many great tips when it comes to packing light for your upcoming trip. My advice for you is to book hand luggage only tickets. As many airlines nowadays charge for checked baggage anyway, this will also help you save money that you can actually spend once you get to your dream destination. Every airline has different sizes and types of luggage they allow on their planes; you want to make sure your backpack or suitcase fits those criteria. When packing, think of what you really need and leave all “maybe” items at home.
Viktoria from Chronic Wanderlust 

If you are packing light for a longer trip abroad, it greatly helps to stay at places that have a washing machine.  This is better than paying someone to launder your clothes if you want to save money and if you bring clothes that need to be air-dried. If you can wash clothes as you travel, this enables you to only bring a few days’ worths of outfits that you can re-wear again and again.  To find lodging options with laundry available in the unit, look for apartment or house rentals on Airbnb and other vacation rental websites.
Theresa from Fueled By Wanderlust 

Choose a small piece of luggage, ideally about 40 liters. The more room you have in your luggage, the more you will be tempted to fill that room with more stuff. My previous backpack was 45 liters, and I have just downgraded even smaller to a 40-liter Osprey Fairview. This is what I use for trips of any length, including trips where I’m on the road for months at a time. An extra advantage of a small backpack or suitcase is that it can be brought as carry-on luggage on flights.
Wendy from The Nomadic Vegan 

My tip for packing light is to carry a buff and/or sarong with you as these can both be used for many things. A buff can be used as an eye mask in hostels and on public transport including flights, as a neck warmer on a hike, or as a sweat rag if it’s hot. It can be used to cover your mouth and nose on a dune buggy ride in the desert, and as a hair accessory to cover dirty hair when times get hard! A thin cotton sarong also has multiple uses. It can be a beach mat, a towel, a blanket, a skirt, a dress, or even a top. I’ve also been known to make a bag from a sarong. It can be used as a scarf when the weather cools or as a wrap when visiting temples. These two items are a staple and will save you so much space!!!
Jo from Backpack and Bushcraft 

Quick-dry clothing, made out of a polyester blend of some sort, makes packing light easier. These types of materials pack up smaller, which means you can fit more clothing into less space. They also don’t hold onto odors as easily as a cotton shirt would, so you can wear the same shirt a few times before having to wash it. And if you have to wash a few things in the sink, they will be dry by morning. Outdoor companies like Sherpa, Patagonia, and Mountain Equipment make quick-dry shirts that don’t automatically look like travel clothing.
Ali from Travel Made Simple 

Packing a bit of jewelry is a great way to feel good about an outfit while still packing light. When you set out to pack minimally, clothes are typically a limiting factor. The more clothes you bring, the less you are ‘packing light’. Jewelry is a great way to dress up one of your outfits without adding a ton of space to your bag. A cute set of earrings and a necklace can help give a relaxed outfit the bump it needs to be dressy enough for a nice dinner! Pack fewer clothes and more jewelry.
Zach and Julie from Ruhls of the Road

Wrinkle-resistant, odor-resistant, and versatile. These are just three of the benefits of travel clothing made from merino wool. The list of benefits goes on, but when it comes to packing light for travel, these three are key. As a natural material with a bit of spring to it, merino wool maintains its shape even after being packed away. The fibers in merino wool resist odors and stains, which allows travelers to carry less clothing and to wash them less frequently. Merino wool is also versatile enough to be worn in both warm and cold destinations. There’s no need to pack specific clothes for specific destinations when merino wool works in all of them.
Amber from Food And Drink Destinations

Traveling light can be tricky. But it can even be more difficult to restrict yourself from buying souvenirs, clothes, or some yummy treats due to the lack of bag space. Hence, my best tip for traveling light is to bring a foldable duffle bag with you. It gives you the liberty to bring back home some local specialties and souvenirs. But also flexibility, you are not stuck with oversized luggage that is only half full because you did not buy anything after all.
Lena from Salut from Paris

For most people, shoes are the hardest to pack as they take up a lot of space in our bags. Multi-use shoes that are comfortable and can be easily matched to any kind of clothes are best. But if you really need to bring more than one pair, it’s best to wear the bulkier and heavier pair instead of trying to find room for them in your suitcase. Let’s say you need a pair of sneakers and flats, the best thing to do is wear the sneakers in transit and pack the flats. It’s also important to bring no more than two pairs including the ones you’re wearing.
Dea from How She Wanders 

For my wife and me, packing light means knowing what’s worth packing and what’s better bought after you land. Look at your bag. What can’t simply be re-bought? I’m looking at the size, the weight, and the potential cost/hassle of replacing. An extra pair of prescription glasses: pack ’em every time. A pack of laundry detergent? Just re-buy it.
Chris at Worthy Go 

When you have small kids, it feels like no matter how many clothes you pack, you’ll never have enough. We were never particularly light packers and with two boys who love to throw themselves in the mud at every opportunity, we needed to come up with a plan. Our top tip when we travel is to take our travel washing line with some eco-friendly detergent. We can cut down the number of clothes we take dramatically by washing clothes while we’re away. Ideally, you’ll pack quick-dry clothes to make this easier.
Jacs from Flashpacking Family 

One of my tips to pack light is to use a light, minimalist backpack. Many backpacks have lots of padding and unnecessary pockets for things to get lost which results in the weight that we carry around. Buy a backpack with pockets for everything you need but lay flat when not in use. If you want to travel light, start with a light backpack.
Jyoti from Story at Every Corner  

Always pack items that serve a dual purpose. Leggings work as pajamas, daywear, or exercise attire during a hike or run. Combination utensils can serve as a fork, spoon, and knife in one. A canga or sarong can be used as a blanket or extra sheet, a beach cover-up, or a towel.
Candy from Boogie the Pug

One last tip to pack light from me, make a small change each time you travel. Completely rethinking how you pack can be overwhelming. Humans don’t like change, even when what we are doing isn’t working for us. Choose something from above to implement the next time you reach for your luggage.

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