I left home eighteen months ago with twenty-eight liters strapped to my back. Everything I owned, everything I thought I might need, fit into a canvas sack that met budget airline personal item requirements.

The Packing List

It's surprisingly easy to boil down your existence. It took me a week of agonizing over the weight of a spare charging cable, but eventually, I ended up with:

  • 3 Merino wool t-shirts
  • 1 Pair of active travel pants
  • 1 Pair of shorts
  • 1 Laptop and charger
  • 1 Universal adapter
  • A handful of toiletries

When you limit yourself to one small bag, your mindset shifts. You stop asking "will I need this?" and start asking "can I survive without this?" It fundamentally changes how you interact with the world.

The Freedom

There's an undeniable lightness to moving through train stations, airports, and crowded city markets when you aren't dragging a rolling suitcase. When a flight gets canceled or a bus breaks down, I can simply stand up and start walking. I don't have to plan around luggage drops or early hotel check-ins.

But the true freedom isn't about luggage at all. It's about mental bandwidth. By removing the daily choices of what to wear or what to pack, I've freed up space to actually experience where I am.