(CNN) – A year of airport chaos and problems with baggage handling has left many travelers scrambling to reunite with their luggage.
Flying and carrying only as needed. But for one traveler, even that is not enough. Hitting the road with only a small 12-liter (3-gallon) shoulder bag.
Brooke Schoenman is an American woman living in Australia and the publisher of Her Packing List, a website she uses to spread her wisdom when it comes to reducing things to take on the road.
And that’s something he tried almost the worst way.
Schoenman’s path to lightening the load began when he studied in Italy before going on a graduate trip around the world. Along the way, he studied Guatemala and later worked to teach English in Ukraine before going down under 13 years ago.
“I think I had a 55-liter backpack and a daypack that I wore on the front,” he told CNN Travel on his first trip. A 55-liter box can be the maximum size — or the smallest size — for a carry-on. “And that’s when I really tried to install the lights. I thought, ‘I don’t know how people can do that with a 30-liter bag.’
“I didn’t use all those extras I had saved up.”
As he gained more experience as a traveler, he said keeping lights became more important to him.
“The very fact of carrying things started to wear me down. Every time [I] walk on this airport or find my way on the bus, on the train, at the airport or whatever, I’ll do it. I’m just like, ‘This sucks.'”
This realization is one of the reasons why Her Packing List was started in 2010. The purpose of the website is to help all travelers, especially women, pack and plan their trips properly through installation guide and inside information. The website gets its name from the checklists Schoenman says are an important tool in preparing for travel.
‘That’s all you have?’
Brooke Schoenman has improved her installation techniques since launching a blog on the subject. This may interest you : Meaningful Travel: What Is It and Why Should Travel Consultants Book It?.
“Preparing for [a trip] is the only thing you can do to bide your time before you go,” he said. “So thinking about it and thinking about all the things you can bring and store, it was great.”
The website wasn’t always about packing a little, it originally provided advice for travelers to check luggage, but it grew over the years as Schoenman did at least.
“When [I] first started the site, I didn’t always talk about storage,” he said. “It’s like checking a bag and what you take are the things you had in the room with you that are really important or broken like an extra dress and an extra pair of pants, that kind of thing. Then I let’s start. light bag.”
Schoenman reached his peak in 2016 when he went for three weeks of international travel with only a 12-liter suitcase and a US itinerary that included Portland, Vegas, Chicago, San Francisco and three on an Amtrak train.
“I got into an Uber on the way to the airport in Sydney,” he said. “The guy was like, ‘Where are you going? What terminal?’ And I was like, ‘International.’ ‘Where’s your luggage? How long is your journey?’ ‘Three weeks.’ And he’s like, ‘And that’s all you got?’ ‘Yes.'”
Schoenman says people are “shocked” by how little they can do.
His friends and family were also happy that he didn’t have bags. “My mother laughed when she saw my bag and realized that it was all mine.”
In his large bag he kept valuables. It includes a multi-purpose garment bag, folding shoes, a small keyboard for her phone and small containers of essential toiletries. He visited many different environments so planning clothes was important.
“I traveled in April and I was very confused when the temperature in Portland reached the 80s (20s Celsius) on that trip,” he said.
“Luckily, I had packed a wardrobe that was designed and fitted with that in mind, so I had light things that worked for the hot weather. It was a bit chilly and windy when I visited Chicago in that trip.
‘Wonderful’ weightlessness
Schoenman shows off a small backpack. See the article : Best hacks for the travel apocalypse.
Its lightweight bag also made it easy to transport.
“I felt like I had a lot of mental bandwidth on this trip when I was moving between destinations because I didn’t have to worry about my bag or think hard about what I was going to wear from my choices limit.
“It’s nice to be able to leave the airport or the train and go straight out with all your bags and not feel weighed down in the process.”
It also helped when it was time to check out of his room.
“On my last day in Vegas, I checked out of my house and went shopping for lunch with my bags and everything,” he said.
“Since the only thing I packed was my messenger bag, it wasn’t uncomfortable or out of place, and not having to worry about going back to my checked luggage before going to the airport was nice.”
Schoenman said it’s more important than ever to travel clean now as airport operators struggle to maintain staff after the pandemic.
“I just had someone share with me that they went on a trip and it took eight weeks to get their bag back,” he said. “Their baggage went in the opposite direction all over the world to where they were going.”
After receiving positive feedback from her blog post about her little journey, she began teaching seminars on how others can do the same.
“People are very surprised that they’ve been able to accomplish what they’ve been able to accomplish,” Schoenman said.
“I give them a framework, and each week we focus on one area of storage.
Maximizing minimization
According to Schnoenman, the minimum storage is part of the state of mind. See the article : Three hacks to make the journey easier than you thought possible.
Graduates of the class have shared photos with him about their own little adventures. But at its core, he said, the class and the trip that inspired it is not about what to keep or not. It’s a thought.
“A lot of things are just knowing what to prioritize and being satisfied with reducing, which is very difficult to deal with for some.
“I’ve had people come out of class and then they’re going to sign up for reduction courses and stuff, because they’re using their brains. It’s like, what else can I reduce to my life?”
For those planning their own lightweight packing list for an upcoming trip, Schoenman says some items are helpful, but not entirely necessary.
“Really, packing boxes can be very helpful, especially anything that can be packed so that it’s easy to get into your little one. available.
“The other thing is just finding the right size for your trip. Travel toilet containers are often larger than what you need for your trip for the amount of stuff you’re carrying. used.”
These days, Schoenman doesn’t travel with just a carry-on bag on every trip, but keeps it simple with backpacks of the same size, especially on regular opal mining trips in the Australian outback.
“My largest bag is a 26-liter bag,” about the size of a school backpack. “It’s true. That was my high point.”
(Top photo: Photo by Leah Abucayan, CNN. Photo courtesy Getty and Brooke Schoenman)
