This week in our Downsizing Tune Up E-Course we revamped our wardrobes. So my personal challenge this week was to complete my international capsule wardrobe. My itinerary isn’t finalized, so I’m not yet sure exactly what I’ll be up to, but I’ve got a decent enough sense of it now to get packed.
These are the shirts I’ll be taking on my travels - I think!
Back in 2015 I pulled off 5 Weeks in a Carry-On when traveling throughout the U.S. That trip was an interesting one because it included a number of different settings: attending a conference, speaking at an event, taking a woodworking class, teaching a design class, doing on-site consultations, and hanging out with friends - in climates as varied as Vermont, Georgia, and Colorado! So it was a good warm up for my upcoming international travels.
Here are the bottoms I’m planning to bring along.
Over the years, I’ve learned How to Travel with Just a Carry On and I’ve gotten pretty darn good at packing densely. (See Packing Densely vs. Packing Lightly for more on that distinction.) But this time around I was also lucky to have some help from experts.
Here are the warm layers! (I run pretty cold…)
A few months back a couple friends who had traveled the world together for a whole year early in their relationship came to visit me. I told them I was planning to do extended international travel and they were nearly as giddy as I was when I asked for their advice. They helped me go through my entire wardrobe to identify what to bring on my travels, what to keep for later, and what to let go of. Their insights and moral support were fabulous!
Here are the dresses!
They reinforced a few guidelines I’d already come to appreciate for travel:
I don’t need anything more for 5 weeks than I do for 1*
Bring natural fibers and things that dry quickly
Yup, handwashing underthings is just part of the daily routine
Plan to mix and match everything
It’s gotta be comfortable cuz I might not be
They also offered up a few new pieces of wisdom:
*When doing extended international travel, seek the endless spring so you’re not traveling between extreme climates (I can do that winter trip to see the aurora in Iceland on a different voyage than the summer in Vietnam)
Keep in mind that things can be jettisoned or acquired as needed along the way
As long as it’s not offensive it’s probably good enough - confidence is the best accessory if you’re feeling underdressed
It’s okay to not have everything yet - so you can pick up things with a story along the way (we decided that none of the four scarf/shawls I already own are quite right for this trip, so rather than trying to find one before I go I’ll keep my eyes open for one on my travels)
Here it is all packed into cubes! So satisfying.
I have purposely not worn those clothes over the past couple of months because I want them to be new again when I set out on my adventures. I tucked them into a bag and set them aside while I was doing my other packing. I reviewed and tweaked a little this week for our Downsizing Challenge and inventoried everything. I’m at 26 items right now, including the two I intend to acquire along the way. That’s a few less than the magic 33 items from Courtney Carver’s Project 333 and it seems like a great starting point for me for this trip. By the time I was done packing my international capsule wardrobe into my packing cubes and packing those into my 35 L Gregory Jade backpack I felt pretty good about it. It’s actually a more generous wardrobe than I’ve often traveled with and I’m curious to see how it suits me!
Here’s the inventory!