Learning to pack light

As you may recall one of my resolutions for 2006 is to learn how to pack light. Last week my Dad sent me a link to the website onebag.com. It’s a website …

“offering exhaustive (some might say exhausting) detail on the art of travelling light, living for an indefinite period of time out of a single (carryon-sized) bag.”

It’s a great resource for pack heavy types like me. I particularly enjoy the detailed, annotated packing list although the Rick Steves website has a good one too.

I have a number of trips coming up in 2006: I’m going back to Ontario for Spring Break and several weddings this summer and there’s a trip to Europe in the works for September with various family members. I think it would be fantastic if I could just bring a carry-on for these trips. The first problem is that I don’t have an appropriately sized bag.

I think the best solution for me would be a large backpack that just fits under the carry-on size restrictions (21.5” x 15.5” x 9” on AirCanada). I’d like something in the 40L (2500 cubic inches) range that preferably weighs only a few pounds since the carry-on weight restriction is 10kg. If I get serious about this I’ll probably just make a trip to REI armed with a tape measure. For now though it’s just nice to imagine how it would feel not to be lugging around a huge bag!