How to Pack Luggage For Travel
Australia Flight booked? Travel Visa granted? Ready to go to Australia? Yeah! Now it’s time to think about packing luggage for the Australia trip!
Here I have a confession to make. I don’t particularly appreciate packing luggage. For me, it’s like one of those boring travel chores that I leave to the very last minute. Besides that, I am obsessed with packing light, so sometimes I need to work hard to keep my suitcase to a minimum weight. Travelling in Australia means going from place to place every few days carrying around heavy luggage is not really ideal.
Over many years of solo travel in Australia, I have tested out different types of luggage that have helped develop a packing style that works well in many circumstances.
Packing for travel is definitely an art that you can only learn by doing it over and over again. Testing out things, adjusting them to your personal needs and tweaking them till you find what works well for you. The more you travel, the better for developing your own personal travel packing style.
How to pack luggage efficiently
I started travelling to Australia with a small Deuter Backpack that I loved. I no longer use a backpack for my travels, though, due to back pain issues. After using a suitcase for many years, I have now switched to one travel bag and one daypack.
In this post, I give you my best tips on how to pack light and be in control of your luggage all the time.
How to pick the right type of luggage that matches your travels
This may seem trivial, but it’s key. I know what it means to travel around Australia with a bulky suitcase, carrying it all over the places and facing baggage allowances.
By choosing the appropriate type of luggage, the packing will become easy. If you plan to go hiking and being in outdoors, then a backpack is ideal for travel. If you instead plan to stay at a beach resort and go shopping and sightseeing all the time, a suitcase can be a good choice. If you plan to be active in the outdoors and visit cities, the beach considers a travel bag on wheels. For my travels, I use something similar to these wheeled travel Bags.
In this post, you can read about the pros and cons of a suitcase versus a backpack.
Travel with max 2 pieces of lightweight luggage
The goal is to keep luggage to the minimum. One main piece of luggage can be a suitcase, a travel bag or a backpack and one handbag or a daypack. Try to pack all the things you need into the main piece of luggage and keep the small bag or daypack for the day-to-day explorations.
I highly recommend using one piece of luggage on wheels and one you carry on you like a sling-pack.
This will allow you to move around freely without bulky luggage, and first and foremost, it allows hands-free movements. While you use one hand to carry the wheeled-luggage, you have one free hand to move around comfortably. By doing so, you have better control of your personal belongings too.
How to pack light for travel
Packing light is probably the most difficult part. We all naturally tend to pack things that we never use. While it is almost impossible not to pack things that are not used on your travels, try to keep them to a minimum. Become creative by choosing multi-purpose garments, prefer lightweight wear like functional wear. It’s a good investment if you travel often. By re-using things like bags and resizing toiletries in smaller containers, it will save space and weight.
It is important to choose to travel and know what to wear when travelling around Australia.
My personal packing list does not exceed 12-15 kg on long-term travel and 8 kg on short trips. Set your personal goal and work around it. Making mistakes along the way is gold, and the best way to learn.
Choosing ultralight luggage is also essential for managing weight when travelling in Australia.
Switch over to the travel mode
While creating a personal travel packing list, switch to the travel mode. When we switch our phone to flight mode, the phone is automatically set on basic functions while the advanced functions are turned off. The same applies when you travel. Learn to turn off those things you do not necessarily need when switching to what I call the minimalist travel mode.
A good way to get started with the minimalist travel packing mode is to cut by 50-65% on your first choice. Make a list of all clothes that you usually wear on weekdays and in your spare time; for each item, pick 3 and then out of this list, pick one item. Another good thing is to pack mostly multi-functional clothes or be easily combined with other items.
Packing luggage and feeling comfortable
Efficient travel packing does not mean depriving yourself of the things you like most. Creating a priority packing list with the things that makes you feel comfortable is the first step towards developing a personal travel packing style that works.
Packing with purpose is key by focusing on the type of travel you will undertake and your personal needs. As with all personal habits, it cannot be transferred from one person onto another with a copy and paste gesture.
Here are my travel packing tips to help you find the perfect fit for your personality and style.
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Jimmy Fryers
April 23, 2014 @ 3:47 pm
Setting yourself a weight limit- excellent advice to avoid unnecessary baggage charges at the airport, and to make sure you only take the things you really need.
James
May 26, 2014 @ 5:18 am
Some great tips from an obviously knowledgeable traveller. When travelling around Australia I always take a wheeled backpack, giving me greater options regardless of my destination.
I recently wrote an article on holiday packing tips that you might find interesting: