Packing the Perfect Perpetual Carry On Travel Bag

Whether you’re flying Spirit and can’t afford bags, or you’re a corporate traveler who can’t afford to wait at the baggage carousel, having a carry on bag that can last your travels in perpetuity is one of the best feelings of travel. This article will walk you through what you’ll need to consider and have to begin your minimalist and care-free travel journeys.

Before we begin, we need to set some ground rules.

1. Drop the Check In Luggage. There are many disadvantages to Check In Luggage, you can’t standby onto earlier flights, there’s a dubious chance of it making a tight connection, a high chance of your carrier of choice losing it, and nobody really needs four pairs of shoes, so leave it all at home.
2. Aim for 5kg / 11lb, unless American. North American Carriers almost always limit cabin baggage based on dimensions and not weight. If you exclusively fly with these carriers, you can ignore this rule. For everyone else, most airlines follow a 7kg cabin allowance.
3. Use a personal item. You’ll mostly fly on full service carriers where you’re allowed a small backpack or handbag in addition to your carry on, that doesn’t count for main bag allowance — I’ll cover this below too.

The Bag

Let’s assume you’ve got 7kg to play with — your bag is the most important piece of this puzzle. You want a bag that’s easy to carry, robust for all the traveling it’s going to do, relatively secure, can handle an unexpected check-in, weigh 2kg or less, and ideally cost $200 or less.

There’s three types of bags you can opt for — a duffel bag, hardshell suitcase, or a softshell suitcase. All of them have their strengths and weaknesses, and there’s a perpetual debate on which one is best online.

• Duffel Bags are the lightest of the bunch, are easy to carry, can squeeze into any overhead locker or taxi boot, and you can use them for everything from a picnic to a trans-continental journey. They’re also surprisingly safe — good ripstip fabric and a heavy TSA lock will keep it from prying hands, and you don’t need to worry about bolt cutters since you’re carry on. The biggest downside is you’ll be carrying 7kg on your shoulder when you go through an airport, and this may not seem that big a deal for your local airport, but try walking an International connection at Hong Kong Intl Airport, or walk from Terminal 1 to TBIT airside at LAX with the bag — your shoulders will kill you.
• Hardshell suitcases are my favourite, they’re robust, secure and can handle a drop. Contrary to popular belief, these can be made really lightweight with the right materials, and both Samsonite and Delsey sell <2kg / 4.4lbs ones at the $200 pricepoint. The TSA lock is usually moulded into the case so it prevents the classic ball point pen unzip trick going unnoticed. There are some downsides though, the biggest is they will not expand unless you break the laws of physics. If you’ve purchased a few souvenirs and the suitcase doesn’t have space, all the squeezing in the world won’t solve your problem. They’re also prone to scratches and unremovable glue — some people see this as a well travelled mark of pride, but I’m always self conscious when I show up at an important meeting with a tattered looking suitcase.

The one I use is a 24" Delsey Spinner, a 2.4kg hardshell that I got for $90 CAD in Vancouver. My usual preference is IT luggage for their really lightweight options, or Samsonite if I have the budget to spare.

When buying, an important distinction is the material, make sure you go for Polycarbonate or Polypropylene, and avoid ABS. The former ones are strong and lightweight, while ABS is generally used in cheaper suitcases.

• The last type are Softshell Suitcases these are pretty good too, but make sure you weigh them, you may find that with the heavy fabric and plastic, it weighs the same or more than the hardshell types. The advantage of softshell is they have some limited natural expansion, and you can always squeeze a bit more in them. The good ones are always light, and they can sometimes be compressed when not being used. You need to consider a few things though, first, make sure it can be checked in — in that if you get a nasty gate agent, the bag will survive a) Rain b) Baggage Handlers practicing for Olympic shotput. Second, make sure it’s got ripstop fabric or ballistic nylon, the last thing you want is your bag tearing to shreds with protruding objects.

The Toiletries

Now that we have the bag sorted, let’s sort of the toiletries. This comes down to personal choice, but remember, every liquid, aerosol, and gel you have must fit into a 100ml / 3.4oz container and all of it must go into a clear plastic ziplock bag that’s 19x19cm.

Most chain stores sell “travel sizes”, and these are great to buy in bulk. I prefer my own bottles to do my bit for the environment, so I usually just buy the bigger bottles and refill as needed.

My list:

• Toothbrush
• Small Toothpaste
• Dental floss
• 100ml Deodorant Spray / 59ml Roll On
• 100ml Facewash
• Bandaids
• Painkillers
• Antibacterial 100ml Gel (I always carry this close to me because I’ve learnt over the years that travellers are great at spreading germs)
• 100g of Laundry Powder*
• Lip Balm
• Sunscreen & Moisturizer

Shaving (Optional if you don’t need it)

• Gillette Mach3 Razor w/ spare blade.
• Shaving cream in 50ml bottle
• Aftershave in 50ml bottle

A full supply keeps me going for a solid 2 week trip, and I usually just buy local if it extends more than that. Sometimes you may even discover really cool local products — like amazing skincare products in Korea.

*The Laundry Powder Story: Yours truly showed up to Yellowknife, up near the Arctic Circle of Canada after a 30 day trip expecting to have the hotel do my laundry. Unfortunately they didn’t and I had a big conference the next day — I had to walk 20 minutes in -20C to buy detergent and do hotel sink laundry!

The Peripherals

Next up, we’ll need to sort out what you need to make your journeys easier. These items may not be used every time, and you have some leeway here.

• Laundry Bag: separates good and bad clothing.
• Intl travel adapter with a 2A USB port: for your international trips, also doubles as a phone charger.
• Spare Credit Card + ID: I always like throwing in a low limit, disposable credit card into my carry on, just in case I lose my wallet or something. If you get mugged, it’s unlikely they’re going to want to run off with your suitcase (if they do, then you’re having a really bad day and should just go back home).
• Lightweight Running Shoes: I love the New Balance Koze, really cheap, really lightweight and packs down easily, also great when you’ve got downtime to exercise or explore your area.

The Clothes:

Ok, this is where it’s going to get tricky. Ladies, once again, I apologise and I’ll try find another article that has someone more knowledgeable than me explain your needs. Guys, my list:

I love Uniqlo, their stuff is super lightweight, soft, packs really well, barely creases and costs like $10 a piece.

Inners & Sleepwear:

• 6x Briefs (Uniqlo Airsim)
• 6x Socks (Variety of types)
• 2x Undershirt (Uniqlo Airsim)
• Jockey Performance Shorts (Doubles as sleep, exercise and swim wear)
• 2x cotton sleeping t shirts

Outwear:

• 4x Cotton Business Shirts (Tarrocash)
• 1x Chino Pants (Uniqlo)
• 1x Polo Shirts (Uniqlo)
• 1x T-Shirt (Uniqlo)
• 1x Suit Set (Lightweight New Zealand Merino Wool)

Cold Weather Gear

You’re going to struggle to stay under 7kg with these, and consider wearing some of this if you need to go carry on.

• Thermals (Icebreaker Merino)
• Softshell Jacket w/ Removable Hood
• Gloves
• Beanie
• Parka

The trick with clothing is to wash them after 5 days, on your weekend off or a Therapeutic Tuesday night away with room service, spotify, and laundry.

My list is also quite professional — you could drop the suit set and the 4x business shirts and replace it with Polos if your business trips are really casual.

Also remember that T-shirts are universal, cheap, and disposable. I have T-shirts from all over the world mostly because I just buy them on the go.

The Personal Item

The personal item is where you add in the items that you use every day. My personal item is a Kathmandu 18L backpack, even if it’s not classy, it’s very versatile and works across all my travel. In it, I carry:

• Laptop
• Passport and travel documents
• Pen
• Noise Cancelling Headphones
• Water Bottle (empty)
• The soft shell jacket mentioned above
• Spare Brief (Nothing says you’re prepared for anything like a spare Calvin Klein in your bag right)
• Book (When you fly a lot, you’ll get sick of seeing the same movie collection on the flight entertainment)
• Sunglasses

Weighing it all Up

At the end, you’ll want to weigh everything up, and it should come out to around 7kg. If you want to be meticulous, you can weigh each item individually on a kitchen scale, and enter the data into an Excel Spreadsheet, so you always know down to the gram how much something weights.

Liked this or have suggestions? Let me know in the discussions below what you carry, and what you’d change!

Lastly, I want to leave you with the guidance given by IATA — The international airline association, who have published a table of weights for common items:

IATA PSCRM, 30th Edition, 2010. © International Air Transport Association.