No jokes. Me and Mike will soon embark on our journey through the UK and Europe with a carry-on bag and a backpack each (and they are not oversized backpack's either)! See exibit number 1 below.
This 'spacious' piece of luxuary luggage allows you to pack a few things on the left, have some compartments in the middle and more of your 'few things' on the right.
So how do we do it?
Well. Here are some good reasons why 'lifestyle entrepreneurship' has been coming exceptionally naturally to me.
1. Mike calls my Dad 'The Eagle' and for good reason. He focusses on stuff. Including taking his nestlings on a holiday where heavy luggage is a no-no. I remember a holiday to 'Kommetjie' in the Western Cape in an Uno (i.e. very small car) where each of us was only allowed a small box (yes a friggin' box) for all the clothes, shoes and stuff we may need for a 3 week holiday! Goodness. Can you imagine our faces when he broke the news to us? Bottomline is, we did it! My first lesson in simplicity and why it's not neccesary to over-pack. Oh, he also managed to starve us from breakfast through to lunch so that when dinner comes, we would be as hungry as beasts, therefore "be grateful for our meals and commend him on his cooking style" (which you can imagine would be brilliant in the mind of a food-deprived holiday-maker over-active kiddo). Haha. We love you Dad!
2. I happen to date the lightest traveller of them all - Mike Handcock. His travelling beliefs have certainly caught my attention (actually, all about him has caught my attention, but more on that in a different blog..). So here is his list of do's and dont's:
Do
- Pack only small toothpastes. No big tubes allowed.
- Wash your laundry in the bassin. I've seen him doing this in front of my own eyes. His washing detergent is shampoo and it works like a bomb. That way he need less clothes than the average traveller.
- Take a backpack with enough compartments to organise your travel experience. Mike chooses this 'travel companion' with a lot of tenderness and thought. It has to look cool, there must be compartments WITH ZIPS, he especially looks for secret pockets and likes his bag to making finding stuff (especially small things) easier. Clever eh?
- Leave heavy aftershaves and perfumed bottles home. If you want to smell nice, take the smaller versions of your favourite brand. They last surprisingly long.
- Choose the smalles and lightest technology on your travels. No use in dragging your 'state-of-the-art' heavy-metal laptop along with you. Recently Mike exchanged his bigger video camera for a go-pro and his Macbook Pro for a Mac Air.
Don't
- Take any jackets with you. They are too heavy. Rather buy a jacket at your end destination if a must.
- Have more than 1 pair of jeans with you. Trousers can be washed.
- Travel with more than two items. That can be a travel bag and 1 piece of hand luggage. But no more.
- Go out of your way to find big locks or safety cables for your bag. If you are doing it, it means that you have been packing too many valuables. Let it go.
- Travel with heavy books. Load your reading on your I-pad or Laptop. It's a no brainer and makes a huge difference to carry-on.
.. and here are some of my light-travelling tips for us girls:
- Pack toiletries like shampoo, conditioner and hairsprays in the bare minimum. If you are not country-hopping too much, you can buy these at your end destination.
- Go slow on the shoes. Heels and sneekers are quite heavy so take your two favourite pairs, use them up and throw them away as they tear.
- Choose light cotton-type dresses and roll them up in your suitcase. They take you very far and are exceptionally versatile.
- Replace belts with necklaces. Looks cute and much lighter.
- Build a make-up bag with no more than 1 item per facial feature in there. I.e. 1x Eyeshadow, 1 x lipstick/gloss, 1 x mascare, 1 x base, etc. We have too much stuff in there and you know it! Lol
So next time you travel, keep that bag small. After all, we travel to get away from our "precious", the stuff that makes us heavy and hurts our backs as we carry it around.
And hey, you can always buy whatever you have left behind.
Safe travels everyone!
