The Basics Of Light & Easy Backpacking

When we left for our first backpacking trip together last year Nathan brought his old 90 litre backpack and I bought a brand new 65 litre one. The shop assistant told me that she thought I might find it a little small for the kind of backpacking trip we were planning:

8 months straight on the road from NZ – South Pacific – Asia – Europe…

She was right.

The first few weeks I cried out in desperation every time I had to pack my gear in the backpack every time we left to a new place (which was nearly everyday). And since we basically walked everywhere (for hours every day) with a 7 kg tent, we started hunching and our backs were just killing us.

It didn’t take us long to realize that we couldn’t continue like this… I remember how tough it was at first to throw something out – I always had 100 reasons to keep every small item! But the thought of carrying that backpack around for a year like that was just unbearable, so I had to get rid of my ego and think practical.

It’s actually a really good ‘spiritual practice’, learning how to get rid of the ego’s ”want” for everything, so instead I started asking myself:

Do I REALLY need this?

After that, every time we went to pack our bags we threw something out, and never would we buy something new without throwing away at least 1 old item.

Three months later, no matter where Nathan travels, everything he carries around with him fits into a small rucksack (35L) – we will post more specific details on exactly what Nathan takes on his travels in an up-coming blog!

The more you throw out – the more you understand how little you REALLY need.

I threw out 90% of my belongings (i.e gave it away to hostels and second hand shops) but I just didn’t have the guts to give my NEW backpack away, instead I sort of folded it in half since there was basically nothing left inside.

So here’s some advice of how to travel light:

• Think practical. Ask yourself: ”Do I really Need this?”
• Bring 2 underpants (at the most 3). You can wash the dirty one when having a shower, wear the clean ones while you leave the other pair to dry during the day.
• Make sure everything goes with everything else. That all tops go with all bottoms. If you have something that only goes with one other item, it’s not a good idea to bring it.
• Bring a mini-laptop (I recommend about 10 inch screen) with you. It might not sound very light-weight, but in the end it is. You won’t have to bring any books, notebooks or travel guides – instead you can download it all into your laptop and read them from there. Make sure it’s a light one though. A big and heavy one is just trouble (Nathan took a 15 inch laptop and 2 months later simply gave it away to the red cross – too much hassle!)
• Don’t bring clothes made of heavy fabrics like jeans and wool. Bring as light clothing you can. If you’re going to colder places, buy long johns and poly-pro top instead of woolen jumpers and hoodies.
• Bring stuff that can be used as several things, like a Sari. You can use it as a normal towel, a beach towel, dress, skirt, blanket, fold it to make a bag etc.
• For guys, instead of bringing a pair of shorts AND a pair of board shorts, try to look for a pair of board shorts that look just like normal shorts (or as close as it can get).
• Don’t bring anything white, since you don’t bring many clothes you’re going to use the ones you have a lot, and white needs to be washed more often than dark and colored fabrics.

Some people suggest you cut your toothbrush in half because even small things weigh and they add on. It’s true that everything adds on, but I don’t go that hardcore myself to care about how much weight my toothbrush adds on. Lightweight travelling should be easy, not extra hassle.

Do you have any other tips, ideas for light-weight backpacking? We would love to hear your tips so just leave a comment below!