How to Pack for Any Trip with This One Packing Formula

In this video, I'm going to walk you through the exact formula that I use to pack for all of my trips. It works for any destination, any season, and it's designed specifically for carry-on travel. It's six steps, and this is basically my one-bag blueprint system that you can use to pack faster, lighter, and easier, even when your trip might have multiple climates or unpredictable weather. I have a few tips to help with that that I don't think I've shared yet on this channel. The first step is to look at your schedule, review your itinerary, and group your trip into three main scenes, the three situations or occasions you'll spend most of your time in. Think of a scene as a category of activities that can be covered by the same type of outfit. So instead of packing for every single activity one by one, you bundle similar ones together so your clothes can do double or triple duty. Of course, you'll have more than just three types of activities that you're doing or occasions that you need to dress for, so the trick is to find the overlap and then simplify. For example, for something like city exploring, like sightseeing, food tours, museum days, casual dinners, you can wear the same types of outfits or clothing for those activities. So that would be one scene. Another would be maybe hiking, an e-bike tour, maybe a long travel day. You could wear the same types of clothing for those activities as well, and that's another scene. Another example could be evenings out, like dining at nicer restaurants, going to the theater, some rooftop bars, all the same types of outfits for those occasions. If you're visiting multiple destinations with different climates on the same trip, you could use the travel uniform method and create one uniform for each scene so you're still packing light without sacrificing versatility. I've got a full video explaining everything about the travel uniform if you want to go watch that next. Now that you've mapped out your scenes, you need to set your priorities and your goals so that every piece in your suitcase earns its place. When you're packing for a trip, it helps if you can be honest with yourself and think about what's the most important thing to you on this trip when it comes to packing your outfits. For example, is comfort the most important? Maybe variety and having lots of options is what makes you the happiest when you open your suitcase on a vacation. Is looking professional a priority on this trip? Do you absolutely want to avoid wrinkles or do you share my sentiment that life's too short to worry about a few wrinkles here and there? Or do you want to be able to shop and buy things and have room to bring them home? This step is important because your goals act like a decision filter and it helps you cut through all the what if questions. So then if your top goal is comfort and layering, maybe you skip the stiff shoes and heavy blazers. If your goal is variety, then you'll want to allocate more tops and accessories instead of extra bottoms and maybe even leave out a couple of tops because those are usually easier to shop for than bottoms. If climate flexibility is key, then you'll want to prioritize breathable temperature regulating fabrics as well as transitional clothing, which I'll touch on shortly. The next step is to predict conditions, which means we're going to be looking at the weather and we're going to use the triangle method to help with this. That is historical weather, the 48 hour check, and the street style check. Obviously, weather forecasts can be unreliable and if you're watching this video, it's probably because you want to do a better job at packing earlier for your trip instead of leaving it until the last minute. But this also means you might be too early for an accurate weather forecast. So the first point in the triangle is the historical weather data. You want to look up the last three to five years of data for your destination and dates. This gives you a baseline of what's typical for weather. Here's a website I found. Just plug in your city and the time of year you're going and you can start to put together what the weather should typically look like. Next, you're going to search destination plus walking tour plus month on YouTube. And this gives you the most accurate display of what people are actually wearing during the season you're going to be visiting. For example, I searched Lisbon walk tour October and it gave me an autumn walk through Lisbon. So this gives you a really good idea of what everyone's wearing, both locals and tourists. And then to complete the weather triangle, within 48 hours of departure, check the forecast one last time and then make any other adjustments that you need to. You might have to add or remove layers, maybe add a raincoat or get rid of a couple of sweaters. Together, these three steps give you the most accurate picture of what to pack, even weeks in advance. Shoes can make or break both your trip and your bag. If you struggle with packing light because you cannot decide which shoes to bring, try starting with shoes before you pick your clothes. My rule is one pair per distinct surface or situation and capped at two or three total pairs. That's it. For example, cushioned sneakers for putting on miles, a sleek flat or loafers for dinner and dressier occasions, and then maybe an optional waterproof boot if rain is likely or a sandal for warm climates. Footwear is going to vary a lot based on different trips and destinations. So it's hard for me to recommend specific shoes to pack because there are so many variables. But I have one piece of advice that I think is the most important. Always choose comfort first. Nothing ruins a trip faster than sore feet or blisters. So if you find yourself staring at four or five pairs of shoes that you want to bring, the best way to narrow it down is to just choose your top two or three that are the most comfortable. I know it's a challenge to find footwear that's comfy and looks nice, but honestly, I would rather my shoes not perfectly match my outfit than suffer through 20,000 steps in painful footwear, especially if you have to wear them again the next day. Step five is where it all comes together and you choose your wardrobe. I'll get to some different formulas and capsules shortly, but I want to bring up a few tips to help you with the ultimate goal here, which is to pack light or at least avoid overpacking and ideally into a carry-on and feel like you have enough to have a perfect outfit to wear for every day of your trip. You want to think about transitional clothing. So if you're traveling in the shoulder season where some days might be warm and others might be cool, or if you're moving geographically into different climates, transitional clothing will be a lifesaver. Examples here would be either skirts or dresses that are flowy and breezy on warm days, but you can also maybe wear leggings or tights underneath or add a sweater or some boots on colder days, as well as button-down shirts or flowy wide-leg pants. But again, find your style. This is not the be-all end-all of transitional clothing. You want to use what works for you. If those aren't your style, that's fine. These are just examples of how something could be worn on a warmer day as well as a cooler day. Similar to this, you want clothing that is seasonably flexible, something that can transition to different climates and handle temperature swings. My go-to choice here is clothing made from merino wool, and one of my favorite brands is Unbound Merino, who I've partnered with as the sponsor of today's video. Now, merino wool comes from merino sheep, which have silky wool coats. So unlike the scratchy wool sweaters you might be thinking of, merino fibers are extremely fine and soft, making them very comfortable to wear right next to your skin. I find a lot of the Unbound Merino t-shirts are much softer than cotton. And beyond being comfortable, merino works in every climate. On a chilly plane ride or during a hot, sunny, muggy afternoon, it helps regulate your temperature. So if you're going to be experiencing all kinds of weather, then picking a few core pieces from Unbound Merino can cover all of the bases. You could go with a pair of their lightweight travel pants, which are soft and flowy, a couple of t-shirts, a lightweight sweater or long sleeve, and a t-shirt dress. And you've got multiple outfits for different occasions and weather. So if you want to find yourself some great travel clothes, check out the link to Unbound Merino in the description, and a big thank you to them for supporting the channel. You also want to focus on lightweight and less bulky clothes. This is going to help you fit those extra few pieces into your carry-on that you just can't cut out. For example, this linen dress weighs over 16 ounces, whereas a similar dress weighs only 8 ounces. Or even a pair of lightweight travel pants plus my ultralight merino wool t-shirt still only weighs about 10 ounces combined. So packing thinner and lighter clothing really makes a difference for being able to fit more in your suitcase. Even jeans can be downsized. There are thin, stretchy versions like these wide leg jeans from Hilara, and they beat out the traditional heavy denim for both comfort and space. Next you're going to pick your capsule formula. And if you're just getting into the world of carry-on only travel, I would recommend either the 3x3x3 method or the 5-4-3-2-1 method. So the 3x3x3 method is when you choose three tops, three bottoms, and three layering pieces for nine articles of clothing total. Of course, everything should mix and match so that you can make all kinds of different outfits. I put together a blog post that explains this in more detail with photos and grids, but it really comes down to choosing nine pieces where you have more tops than bottoms because that gives you the most flexibility. So really it's three bottoms and six tops. Or you could do four bottoms and five tops, which is the start of the 5-4-3-2-1 method. Five tops, four bottoms, three layers, two shoes, and one extra item. So using either one of these formulas is going to bring you up to about 9 to 12 or 13 pieces. If either of those sound overwhelming though, or you're trying to pack in a hurry, what I would do is start with picking two perfect outfits. Two outfits that you would be happy wearing the entire trip in case something happened and you could only wear those two outfits for the whole trip. These two outfits should be something you know you're comfortable in and feel good in and look good wearing. And then what you do is try to pick a few more pieces to match those outfits. And now you've built a capsule wardrobe without even thinking about it. And finally, we've reached step six, which is the most important. Here you need to try everything on. All the combinations you created, look at them front and back. But most importantly, you need to try them on with the shoes that you have picked out. Because sometimes the outfits that you imagined don't really turn out in real life. They just don't feel right. And that's okay because the whole point of this exercise is to make sure you actually wear everything that you pack. I know we've all been there where you get home from a trip and realize you didn't wear half of what you packed. That is so frustrating and this is what we want to avoid. So now that you've vetted everything and you've tried everything on and you're happy with everything, at this point it's time to pack. And based on my testing and every single trip I've traveled carry on only, you should be able to fit nine to twelve clothing items into a standard size carry on, as well as maybe a pair of shoes, your undergarments, pajamas and toiletries. It should all fit. If it feels tight, remove one bottom and one to two tops and that's going to be what you wear on your travel day. It doesn't get packed, but it's still part of your capsule. And of course, if you're bringing a standard size carry on, chances are you're also able to bring a personal item with you. And you can use this as your catch all for electronics, daily essentials, snacks, even a small hair tool if that doesn't fit in your main bag. I hope this system helps you pack light for your next trip and avoid the dreaded half my suitcase never got worn problem. Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you in the next one.