What's In My Suitcase?

I've been traveling for the last 7 years of my life. I've been to a dozen countries in that time, slept on many random couches, had so many crazy adventures.

The question that people always ask me: "How the heck do you travel so light?" (translated to whatever language they are most natural with).

That's because i usually only carry 1 backpack with me for these trips, albeit a decently big backpack. Even if I'm gone for an entire month, I bring just 1 backpack of stuff with me. No suitcases.

Since so many keep asking me this question, I thought I'd write a blog post outlining all the things I bring with me in my backpack.

The Items

An iPad: My iPad is extremely thin and is used for mostly entertainment. I have a phone with me as well, but on longer trips, I like to have a bigger screen to stream Netflix, write fanfiction, read Commaful, or browse through photos. I do all of my writing on my iPad, so I don't bring a laptop with me and the iPad is an amazing substitute for nearly all my needs that I can't do with just my phone.

7 shirts, 7 undergarments, 2 pants, 7 pairs of socks, 1 jacket: Rolled up, these actually take little space. I stuff it all in one pocket along with a bag. The bag is for dirty clothes. These clothes usually last me 1 week without needing to do laundry, meaning I just need to worry about laundry once a week.

Pens: I have 5 of them, you never know when you need to write. They're light and useful in many situations.

Travel makeup kit + Small comb: tiny makeup kit I can fit in a back pocket of my backpack

Tissue paper: can be used for toilet paper in emergencies or facial paper in other cases

Band-aids: surprisingly useful and have needed to use them on numerous occasions.

Notebook: To jot things down quickly when needed.

Toothbrush + toothpaste: gotta stay clean

Mini razor: for shaving the parts that need shaving

And that's it! I get mini versions of almost everything on this list so that they don't take too much space. I'd rather replace things frequently than have to carry them everywhere. It's usually very convenient to get the smaller supplies.

How To Put Together The Joanna Backpack

I gave one of my friends this list once to help her pack light, and she still ended up carrying multiple bags. It's all about the size of the things you bring and the placement of the objects.

1.  Flat objects go in the backpack first, against the side that will touch your back. I usually put the iPad and notebook here. It's a flat surface that won't hurt your back, but will also maximize space
2. Put small objects like the razor, band-aids, tissue paper, makeup kit, toothpaste and pens in small pockets if you can. If you can't, leave the smallest objects in the small pockets and put the bigger objects behind the flat objects in the main backpack area.
3. ROLL your shirts, pants and underwear. You can't just throw your clothes in or fold them. Rolling your clothes will help all of your clothes fit in one bag without any effort (and usually without many wrinkles either). Always put the clothes in last.

I carry my wallet and phone with me in my clothes.

Let me know if you want diagrams! Happy to provide them.