The Carry-On Challenge

The countdown is on to my South African adventure (just hours away!) and I’m planning to travel carry-on only.

Why? Well, for a whole host of reasons:

  • Impatience. Time moves exponentially slower at baggage claim, and I don’t want to waste even a minute of my vacation morosely eyeing an unmoving carousel
  • Risk-aversion. I have a deeply (and I believe justifiably)-held distrust of baggage handling. I once had to gate-check my beloved bag in Albuquerque and it didn’t make it to New York. The ensuing experience of trying to extract it from the clutches of American Airlines over the course of several expletive-filled days is seared into my memory for life
  • Mobility. The ability to move around the world with some modicum of dignity matters to me (though, frankly, my natural inelegance makes this more ambition than reality)
  • Pride. I want to do it just to see if I can

So the question is – can I?

Factors in my favor:

  • It’s summer in South Africa. No mitts, hats, bulky wools, or winter boots required
  • This isn't a work trip, so no fancy shit necessary

Factors working against me:

  • This trip is three weeks long. I’ve done two weeks in a carry-on twice before – China and Thailand last winter, then France and Hungary in September. But I’ve never made it all the way to three weeks
  • My time will include a bevy of both ‘I want to look chic’ city exploring moments and ‘I want to be sporty’ safari and hiking occasions
  • I need room for space-eaters such as camera equipment and books

In preparation for this herculean task, I’ve been reading about various packing strategies. I investigated the merits of bundling, rolling, and folding. I eyed compression bags and packing cubes on Amazon. I listened to friends and co-workers wax poetic about the Rule of Three and something called the  Snowball method. Then, feeling overwhelmed rather than inspired, I just decided to wing it – gathering everything I wanted to bring, stuffing it in my suitcase, and then attempting to use my full body weight to force the zippers to close. They didn’t.

So now, I'm getting methodical – laying everything out and subjecting each item to a “do I really need this?” referendum. In the end, here’s what looks like it's going to make it:

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Camera equipment:

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Toiletries:

As a person at the weird stage of life where I'm trying to beat back both acne and aging, I’m something of a skincare maximalist. My home routine consists of nine steps daily, so I need to cut back significantly to get by with what I can cram into this Tumi makeup bag. Some things that will make the cut:

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Clothes:

Here, I stuck to tried-and-true closet classics, such as:

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The Personal "Item:"

The loophole in the ‘fit it all in a carry-on’ game is the personal item, and I always take full advantage of it by bringing an obscenely large purse into which I unabashedly stuff smaller purses and other miscellaneous objects such as:

  • Foldable Ray-Ban Wayfarers – I’ve had these sunglasses longer than I’ve known my husband, and they’re one of the best purchases I ever made. I like them more than I like a lot of people
  • Comme Des Garcons pouch – in lieu of a wallet
  • Moleskine journal – for writing things other than meeting notes and to-do lists (here's hoping!)
  • Super Elixir packets – to play like you’re healthy even when you know it isn’t true
  • Kiehl’s lotion samples - for in-flight moisturizing
  • Tons to read – details to come

In the end, it looks like I'm going to have to sacrifice a bunch of things – shampoo, body wash, body lotion, that fourth pair of shoes, and any ability to straighten my hair. But it's cool, cause like, I'm going to South Africa. See you there.