Often for work I need to travel stateside by plane. I’m constantly trying to whittle down what I’m carrying to see how little I can take. After several tries I’ve gotten it down to the following for a 2-5 day trip:

• Backpack – I searched a long time for one that was small enough to carry my laptop and still had room for a few days worth of clothes, all while offering some protection.
• MacBook Pro 13″
• One quart sized bag of toiletries (case for glasses, contact lense solution, toothbrush, etc)
• 1 pair of underwear for each day
• 1 shirt for each day
• Running shorts for wearing around the hotel room
• Phone
• Wallet
• Various cords
• Down jacket – I roll this up and stuff it in the top
• Small water bottle for refills

I wear jeans on me, and only bring comfortable dress shoes that I can easily walk 3-5 miles in.

I roll all the clothes into packing cubes and iron the shirts when I get to the hotel.

While I can easily bring a backpack and small bag, I’ve found it so much easier to have one small backpack that I can carry anywhere I go. When I get to the hotel I pull out the packing cubes and put them away.