I often travel a lot for work and the older I get, the lighter I want to travel.  The lighter I go, the more I realise how much of the ‘stuff’ we have or pack is just not necessary. Even when I pack super light, I often still end up coming home with things I never used.

The advantages are endless – avoiding queues at check-in, floating through airports, no sore arms or shoulders, being able to walk or go anywhere without worrying about bags or finding somewhere to leave them, being flexible with plans.

I’ve prided myself on being able to travel super light for holiday travel. But I figured that when I have to take a briefcase full of work and study, that probably rules out doing carry-on only.  It didn’t stop me from trying though, and I found it can be done.

On two recent 3-5 day work trips, these two bags are all I took. They are both so small and light that I could take both as carry on.  They were so easy to carry that I was able to walk around Thursday Island visiting people on my last day there without worrying about going back to the hotel to get my bags – just took them with me!

So did I feel like I did without?? No, yet again I came home not having used everything in my bag.
My first trip was most impressive as not only did I have a plane flight and meetings but also was going to be swimming and staying at a caravan park with Ron and the boys who were meeting me in Townsville so had to be prepared for a few different scenarios!

Well, in my Sativa Hemp ‘briefcase’ I had:

• Laptop, tab, phone
• Sunnies, hand cream, sunscreen, lip balm
• Pens, notepad
• Journals and papers for a meeting
• Chargers for phone and laptop

In my little black bag (a no frills freebie from a conference) I had:

• Toiletries including a little Nude by Nature makeup for work stuff, a small
  

  Left – my office/work bag, Right contains all my clothes and toiletries

  Kathmandu jewellery roll for some simple beads and bracelet and hair clips

• Swimsuit, swimshirt, turkish towel, hat
• Outfits for two days of meetings and a plane flight
• Outfits for two days of beach and river fun with Ron and the boys

 

On my second trip I swapped the swimming gear and beach outfits for yoga gear and walking shoes because I walk quite a bit when on Thursday Island.

Although if I’m not doing too many miles of walking and I am going super light I pack a multifunction shoe like my black Merrell slides. Because even though they are casual slides, they still look smart enough for work and are really comfortable even when doing quite a lot of walking. I’ve even done some short hikes in these.

Work trips it’s usually not a problem having clothes that need ironing as work pays for hotels with an iron but on the Townsville trip I was in a caravan park so resorted to an old trick someone told me of hanging your shirt up in the cubicle whilst you take a shower and letting the steam and spray smooth out your clothes – it works! But I still prefer clothes that don’t need ironing.

I love my Sativa Hemp bag – I had a Sativa laptop backpack that I punished for about a decade, and it’s still in pretty good shape – tough and also eco-friendly. But trying something different now. Haven’t quite found what I want in a small, super light clothes bag yet, so open to suggestions.

 

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