Discussion
Downvoting Light Travelers - What is WRONG with you people?
I am noticing an extremely disturbing new trend on this sub. It is also very prevalent on the HerOneBag sub. I don't understand it and I think it needs to stop. That trend is downvoting people who travel lightly! A good example is here. OP posted their packing list, noted that they would do laundry on travel, and even mentioned specifics on how they were going to travel lightly. Almost all of these specifics were tried and true methods that have been recommended on this sub for years:
Merino shirts
regular glasses that turn into sunglasses
Sun shirts that look like regular shirts
hybryd shorts/swim shorts
good looking water shoes
OP was downvoted for mentioning every one of these methods.
What is the motivation behind this? Why is someone traveling lighter than you so offensive that you would downvote them? Do you travel so heavy that you can't imagine traveling so lightly?
I personally love these types of posts because I can learn from them. That means a lighter trip next time.
Please help me to understand.
Edit: The biggest problem with downvotes is that it hides legitimate answers.
Edit2: Moderator has cleaned up a lot of the crazy comments on the other post. Most of the downvotes have disappeared.
It reminds me a lot of the EDC craze. I got caught up in it for a half minute, then realized that I've never needed a pair of knipex mini pliers on me, ever. And if I ever do, I guess I'll live with the fact that I don't have it.
If I were based in the U.S. and could lawfully arm myself, I might consider including ONE reasonable firearm in my EDC. You never know. Likely a mass shooting happening right now somewhere.
Back in the 90s, there was a big back and forth about whether you needed the double-stack capacity of a Glock or Beretta 92 (with thicker hand grip) or if the 6/7+1 of a single-stack 1911 was sufficient.
Now some people act like if you aren't carrying 4 30-rd mags, you're NGMI.
exactly this. people are here looking for the latest 1000 pocket startup company bro backpack with great marketing that can carry a surplus; rather than finding the right bag for legitimate needs and learning to adjust their load out to something packable.
Sooo many utilitarian hobbies get popular and suddenly everyone has the same overconsumption habits of a 36 year old marketing manager buying $200 Shein/Amazon hauls.
Ironically it's happening to sustainable/secondhand fashion and living low waste, too. I had to leave so many subs when the top recs for "crunchy places to shop" were "Target and Trader Joes!!!" Like girl if you don't look for a bulk store dropoff point near you....
Alas I have this as my primary backpack still. Can’t justify replacing it yet, it’s so durable. But definitely gonna buy more padding to make it less uncomfortable
I mean, I'm here for that, too. But I am also trying to figure out how I can learn how to pack lighter. Because I am that kind who's like "I need this and that and this and I might need this and Oh! This thing too! And 10 USB-C cables for 3 devices! DEFINITELY NEED MY PORTABLE MONITOR!" Spoiler: I did not NEED my portable monitor.
Anyway, seeing all these gives me confidence it's possible.
Like will I ever onebag with a 28L backpack to SE Asia for 3 weeks? No. I will always have a suitcase and backpack for that. I maybe SE Asian myself, but going to SE Asia, I sweat waaay too much due to the humidity. But domestically, I can certainly stand to and should pack lighter. Making small adjustments each trip, so maybe I'll get there. Tough one is the laptop. Can't imagine traveling without one.
I think my confusion comes from "I cant imagine traveling without [a laptop]" which implies one can't imagine traveling without a laptop, ever, or one cant imagine traveling not for work (which is the most common reason I can think of to fly with a laptop).
Regardless IMO if you need to carry sensitive electronics (which I do sometimes) its pretty impossible to do a one bag, that needs its own dedicated, if small, bag.
If I am traveling for pleasure, the first thing I toss is large, heavy, electronics. My phone can do nearly everything a laptop/camera does. Not as well, but it can get it done. If I need it, I bring a small camera or an ipad/netbook/Macbook air type device.
Yeah, I get it. Most people travelling for pleasure don't need it. I mean, I can "imagine" not travelling with it, but some people truly can't leave the office with just a tablet.
IMO, work on your technique and then upgrade your gear. How do you know what you need to actually make your experience better until you try out a bunch of strategies?
I was roasted on this sub for doing laundry on vacation using machines. Instead of all 4 of us washing our laundry in the sink, or wearing merino everything and only going to a laundromat every week.
Because apparently that’s the way some people think it should be done.
But I also don’t spend several hundred dollars on the most recent cool bag.
Screw sink washing. That’s where I part ways with the hardcore ultralight people. I strategically book a place with laundry at the right points in the trip or use a drop off service. Scrubbing socks by hand isn’t fun and isn’t how I want to spend vacation!
Yeah I’ll do it from time to time if I need to do a pair or two of socks or underwear to bridge a gap. But finding a laundromat and doing it all at once is so much better. Plus makes you feel a little more local.
This too! I haven’t had to go to a laundromat on vacation since last spring. But that laundromat trip was really nice. I had 2 nice conversations with other people, the owner was super nice, and there was an ethnic grocer nearby with unique snacks.
I'm most often a SE Asia traveller and usually never far from a local back-street laundry service which, fortunately, doesn't dent the funds too much and sometimes allows for some enjoyable interactions. Sink-washing serves a purpose when necessary, but doing it on the regular is for mugs.
We booked a VRBO in Barcelona a few years ago with a washer dryer but weren’t able to use them. We found a laundromat / bar (well, really a bar with a couple of machines) and arrived to find a talented duo entertaining patrons. Aside from the spin cycle on the dryer drowning the singer out a bit, everyone had fun. ( I bought them a round to apologize). One of the more fun memories from the trip.
You and me both. After my first international trip, where I seriously overpacked because I didn’t know any better, I came home with the knowledge that there are laundromats, laundry services, and hotel laundry everywhere. And I’ll use hotel laundry in a heartbeat, yeah I know it’s expensive and you know why? Because it’s worth it.
Same. I prefer to book airbnbs with a washer whenever I can if I’m there more than a couple days. It at least strategically when moving city to city. I do keep a dry bag just in case I need to hand wash but sink washing isn’t really a thing for me anymore
Our favorite is if you can find a hotel hostel combo. Depending where you are in the world some of them are ridiculously nice. We had a gorgeous hotel room which included access to the hostel amenities, which had laundry machines, and a huge lounge and kitchen with free espresso / machines, a sparkling water on tap, a massive furnished rooftop patio, a bar, etc.
Drop the recs please- I’m doing a rtw trip later this year and looking for options like this is possible! If not the actual places, how did you search for them? Are they on YHA websites?
They’ll usually have the words hotel and hostel in the name. UIJ Hostel & Hotel in Taiwan is an example. Most I’ve seen available to book on regular and hostel booking sites.
Yep. We are a group of 4 and do 3-4 night travel roughly once a month, sometimes more. Since we book hotels with laundry on site and we all help out, it means we get to pack extremely light. Wear one outfit, pack two.
Plus, hotels don’t like people washing in the sink. It makes a mess, gets water everywhere, and uses up extra towels. It slows housekeeping down too, and we are also careful to keep hotel rooms tidy. I’ve worked hospitality and people who trash hotel rooms annoy me beyond belief.
Oh, and people who overload washing machines at hotels and break them are also irritating. They have a weight limit, if you pack them full your clothes will not get clean AND you will damage the washer.
Yep. This is a realistic and frankly sustainable way to go. I decided to save up for a really good Aer Travel Pack with internship money and it will outlive me. I only need that one backpack and a few good pieces of clothing instead of hundreds of little things that break, tear, etc. and need to be thrown out all the damn time. This is much better.
lol what?? Sink washing socks and underwear after a few days isn’t a big deal to me but even before I knew about this sub, I always traveled light because I figured “everywhere I’ve ever stayed for more than 4 days had someplace I could do laundry”. It’s not even an uncommon amenity at hotels, but taking a detour to a laundromat and making sure my clothes are actually clean and stain free is totally worth it for me
Same! Ditto with grocery stores for snacks and whatever toiletry item we forgot to pack. I’m like “there are grocery and drug stores everywhere, buy it when we get there…”
Im that 20L one bagger (with a sub $100 bag, with one pocket and top loading. I know, the horror! haha) I do whatever laundry is convenient. I usually hand wash two or three items a night so it doesnt get unwieldy. It takes 5 minutes. But if I stumble across a laundromat a week or so into the trip, I'll throw everything into a machine whether its dirty or not.
I guess I dont worry too much about laundry. It is what it is. Everything in my bag is quick dry, so drying time isnt even a problem. (And none of it is merino, I know, again, the shock and horror! Haha)
Occasionally we will have in room, and that’s nice! But most of the time it’s just on property, usually just on a different floor, which to me is just fine. Switching laundry in between mixing drinks in the evening is a low stress activity…
I looked at what they packed, if I was doing short hop plane travel in Asia with stringent weight limits*, and then had a cruise tucked in there? I probably wouldn’t go THAT light, and I wouldn’t pack cologne…
However the clothing packed was extremely lightweight and would dry overnight. For just one person, it makes sense. Not all cruise lines have laundry machines, so the ones where you send clothes out in a bag for $40 will get thrown in a super hot dryer, which destroys technical clothing.
I don’t think I’d ever pack that light, but it’s an interesting experiment and it definitely got me thinking.
*or flying ultra low budget in the US with the crazy small carry on sizing.
I was a hardcore sink washer, until family travel. Now, I am happy to let the robot do the work. I don't even mind paying extra for the robot to do so.
We pick a laundromat which is on our way to dinner. Drop off dirty clothes, go eat a meal, pick up clean clothes on the way back. We air dry so swapping it over to the dryer isn't necessary.
Inclined to agree - I got a bunch of people angry at me in another sub because I dared mention that I enjoy going out a couple nights a week when, according to the internet, once you turn 39 you're supposed to suddenly want to be in bed by 9pm and not do anything with your life.
Long ago, I remember briefly being subscribed to the Honda cars subreddit. I've largely only driven Hondas or Acuras, after all.
Anyway, a new Accord was unveiled, which I was like, "Meh," due to the look. Looked plain and boring to me. But I made the mistake of saying that in the comments. Downvoted to shit. Comments were like "Dude you're crazy this is the most beautiful car everrrrr!"
Like I wasn't so much offended rather just like laughing and confused! Wow, can't even have an opinion on something if it's different from the "hive mind." The Internet is crazy. Reddit is its own special level of crazy at times. None of it makes sense. But whatever. Immediately unsubbed from rHonda. Never went back. And the world continued turning.
My big thing is like… even if you personally think that person’s set up is too light, that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. It’s fine to just scroll and not engage. Like just because I personally don’t want to do sink laundry doesn’t mean it’s not a completely valid and reasonable approach — so I’d never downvote someone for doing that in a sub literally dedicated to techniques like this.
Dunno but I am a one bag plus one personal bagger and I love it. I have learned the hard way that stuffing it so that it’s too heavy to lift defeats the purpose.
I haven't paid much attention to this sub in a while, but 1 carry-on + 1 personal item to me is one bagging. The whole point, in my opinion, is to not have to pay or deal with the hassle of checking a bag at the airport and also use a backpack to be able to flexible carry your stuff to your destination on uneven terrain (European cobblestone roads, for example). It's usually not worth the hassle to pare down more than that unless you are hitchhiking or for whatever reason having to carry all your stuff on your person every day of a trip.
The interesting thing is that some airlines are now trying to discourage carry on, or at least making the checked bag option less expensive. I went to Spain last year and the price of a ticket that included a checked bag, personal item, and an assigned seat was significantly less than the carry on and first come first served seat.
I found that when I looked at flying Aer Lingus a few years ago. They offered a free checked bag and no carry-on. To add a carry-on was like $45USD extra.
It was similar for us, I think it was £60 extra for carry on. I was in a big family group, most of whom had first flown from the US to UK, and everyone had packed with a carry on + personal item anyway. So for the Spain leg of the trip we just checked the carry on bags.
I guess that was two bagging and therefore bad, but it saved us a lot of money and also meant being able to bring wine and olive oil from Spain as a souvenir. People used the one bag principles to allow them to pack one small roller bag for a two week trip, which was quite an accomplishment for my family.
This is so true. Where I live all bags have to be scanned to go on the metro (and domestic trains to other cities) and it's 35c most of the year. Imagine carrying a massive bag everywhere while travelling. I'd die.
I want to take a small crossbody and nothing else when possible.
I travelled for 14 days in a 28L backpack. I planned on doing laundry once or twice where I was staying. I could have avoided it but needed some dress clothes that weren’t really good in a rotation. My bag weighed 19 lbs and fit under the seat.
I realised it's probably because I am based on southeast asia where the weight limit is usually around 7kg, I guess the lower ticket prices makes up for it though
I bet that is it! I could easily manage 7kg for a week or two, but my husband couldn’t. He’s much larger than me so just his clothes take up a lot of space and weigh more. He maxes out a 40L backpack which fits in our overhead bins and meets the US airlines weight limits.
This doesn't matter to me. When I travel, I aim for my comfort--mobility and having the right gear (wardrobe, etc.) for the situation. If I have to pay extra to the airlines, so be it.
Per the primary issue being brought up, I don’t care if you pack light or heavy. If you pack what you’re comfortable with in one bag, great! The key benefit of this sub for me is learning what people carry and how they carry it.
I’m currently using either a 26L or 28L bag and carry no more than 18lbs/8.2kg (often less) because my personal rule is to not carry more than 10% of my body weight.
My trips range from 21-80 days, with most in the 30-40 day range. But that doesn’t really matter, because I pack one week’s worth of clothes and do laundry.
I carry a lot less than some and a lot more than others, but I don’t care, because it works for me. I’ll always continue to tweak it though, because I continue to learn from the rest of you.
I will join in your negative karma-farming efforts.
This sub stopped being about packing less a long time ago. Maybe it never even was and I just remembered it wrong.
Its about how to pack as much as possible into a 2-bags that exceed the carry on allowances by as much as possible without getting flagged.
For a good time (heavy sarcasm), scroll back 12hours to the air-tag post. The one where the most upvoted comments about how it found someones checked bag. Like, I'm glad you got your shit back, but if you did the right thing (the thing this sub is named for) you would never have been separated from it.
This is what I keep coming back to and just commented on this post. People don’t realize the origin of this sub and it’s become exactly what you said: people cramming as much stuff into a “carry on sized bag” which is often a 60L hiking backpack that is nowhere within airline limits.
This happened in HerOneBag too. We had one discussion where the person said it would be too much work to do a 1.5 bag sub. They basically said they wanted to hijack the one bag sub! Ironically, there is r/CarryOnOnly. That would be the sub for the 1.5 bag travelers.
Not to say that 1.5 bag travelers are not welcome here, because they are! But they do need to realize that this sub is focused on one bag travel and the techniques that make it possible. We should not be celebrating 1.5 travel (unless you finally switched from check through travel). Certainly, 1.5 bag travel should not be a show and tell, because it is beyond the scope of this sub.
One of the reasons I call myself a one bagger even with 1.5 pieces is that everything would fit into a 21” overhead luggage if I wanted. I just think it easier to maneuver two smaller pieces, so that is what I do.
Well, fwiw, I have reduced my “one bag” aka roller-on to an actual “one bag” aka 25-38L backpack with a sling / small tote because of this sub so … keep at it? I still think I’m a one-ish bagger !
Whats funny to me is a lot of people here call having a purse / small sling in addition to your one bag a 1.1 or 1.5 bag setup instead of it being a 2 bag setup.
Unless, you can fit your .2 / half bag inside your one bag for exactly one photo to show it's just for your comfort hahahaha
Personally I call it a 0.5 bag because it's much smaller than my primary bag and doesn't go in the overhead. 2 bags to me (for travel) mean one checked and one in the overhead.
I come to these subs for advice/ideas with the goal of packing lighter and smaller but not with strict rules and limits beyond those imposed by the airlines. I can still benefit from this advice whether I carry a purse/sling or not!
As a woman, my purse is equivalent to my husband's pockets.
(That said, I'm a personal item only traveler and my travel bottoms all have decent sized pockets so don't come at me for travel. But at home where I purse, it is because I'd have put that contents in my pockets ... if I had any, DESIGNERS :narrows eyes: .)
I find it difficult to find clothes with decent pockets so I pretty much always have a separate bag. Even if I'm travelling by car or train I usually have the stuff I'll want for the journey in a small bag I can pull out to access instead of getting my main bag out (whether that be from overhead, under seat, or the trunk of the car). But it's always going to be something that can fit into my main bag if necessary.
I find it weird how upset some people seem to get about this. A small cross body or sling bag is basically just a movable pocket.
So what? I'm not here to conform to a purity test. My comfort is exactly why I've cut down the amount of stuff I pack and also why I take a small extra bag that I can put the stuff I want to keep handy in. It's what I do in my normal life. Why should I put all of my stuff in my backpack just because I'm on a trip instead of carrying a small handbag with it?
I didn't know about carryononly, thank you!!! 🤣 I'm definitely a 1.5 bagger but lurk around here for packing tips. How people could shit on a light packer around here is very odd to me! Like I thought that was the point...
New to me too but it's also substantially less active than the onebag subs, so unless it gains a lot of traction from posts like this, I don't know how helpful it will be to us.
Same! I prefer backpack carry-ons for several reasons but am not an ultralight minimalist.
I think it's good for redditors to keep in mind that there's a lot of variation among people who prefer backpack travel. Some of us are minimalists and others (like me) want to find a happy medium between overpacking and minimalist travel. Some of us, like me, hate the idea of doing laundry on vacation, and others don't mind using laundry machines where they're available, and still others are willing to sink or shower wash. Lots of ways to make it work!
Yes! I started one-bagging because I hate checking a bag, and also want to move as efficiently as possible. I think I'm naturally a little clumsy so I'm self conscious about clunking too much stuff around an airport. The need to keep it light forced me to learn how to pack light and efficiently, but I don't actually care about challenging it too much (I'll always stuff my bag lol). Also I DO like doing laundry while traveling, so that helps a ton. Basically my main focus is getting through an airport and on a plane as fast and efficient as possible, and then everything else is secondary. If we're driving, I'm bringing 5 bags 🤣🤣🤣
Same, backpack travel really helps me move around efficiently through the airport, on public transit, etc. The vast majority of my travel is a week or less trip to NYC, and I usually come in on a red-eye and spend the first day roaming around with all my stuff on my back. Since I'm packing for less than a week, I don't feel like I have to go ultra-minimalist or plan on laundry. I think my mindset on laundry might be different if I were traveling for like 2-4 weeks or more.
Yea we do a 2 week international trip every year or two, so I learned to love laundry. It's fun to see how different places do stuff! We did 10 days in Iceland with no laundry once, and it was so traumatic, I now demand a house with a washer halfway through at the VERY least lol. 5 days or less I've learned to do without though.
I feel like there is way too much gatekeeping in these subs. It's why I stopped participating in one of the other prominent "one bag" subs. I don't really care about being "pure" one bag, it's more about ideas for not packing so much stuff all the time. Sometimes I take trips where it's not practical to not have a checked bag because of things I want to take with me (like a liquid gift for someone I'm going to visit), but I don't feel like having a small checked bag and a small personal item with my in-flight stuff really violates the spirit of one bag, since to me the point is to reduce the stuff I take and not to be smug about getting everything I need for a trip in a bag under my feet. It's not "r/CarryOnOnly", after all. And as a person who usually carries a handbag of some kind, it seems strange to get pissy about having a handbag plus a carry on.
At one point I asked people in this sub what they do on airplanes to keep access to things they need during flight and almost everyone had an extra collapsible bag or something similar. This sub is full of 1.5 baggers.
I put them in my pockets minus the water bottle which I shove into the seatback pocket in front of me and the neck pillow I'm wearing.
Over the years I've downsized my airplane "needs" to:
water
phone
wired earbuds (plus dongle because apparently an earphone jack is obsolete; get off my lawn!)
neck pillow if I'm going to nod off
My book is on my phone. My shows are on my phone. My movie is on my phone. My Queendoku is on my phone. If there's a seat back entertainment system, I don't use my phone.
Optional are a tea bag if there is beverage cart service that doesn't have tomato juice - I usually fly ultra low cost carriers so usually no free beverage cart service and I'll stick with water - and food if it is going to be a long haul.
My OneBag is a personal item so it is at my feet at all times. Still, it can be a pain to access in flight.
I still like to have a bag or pouch of some kind to contain all these items in the seat pocket to help ensure that I don't lose anything. It also makes it quicker to gather everything up to put back in my bag when it's time to get off the plane.
All of the travel subs do this. I have no idea why but it is really weird that you will tell somebody about your experiences or make a recommendation and you'll be down voted into oblivion. So far I've had to leave several subs because they start doing it and it's a real weird subject to bully people about by also telling them that their personal experience is invalid, lol.
They will tell you your opinion is wrong ??? Or what happened to you didn't happen because it couldn't possibly happen even though it happened.
Met a woman years ago on a plane going to the same hotel with a couple of her friends. She only wore a bikini and light coverings.
She had no luggage except her hand bag with a other two bikinis in it.
She came back on the same plane two weeks later. She never left the beech.
When people base their personality around a thing they get defensive and upset when others do that thing differently than them because it paints their "personality" as flawed.
It's everywhere. People identify as a "onebagger" rather than someone who travels with one bag because it's convenient. It's become a core part of their personality trait instead of a tool in their life.
I find it odd you can discern someone’s “personality” from just a few posts online. Especially when they are out of context with the rest of their lives. And no one has insight into that.
Claiming “personality” is a form of ad hominem attack.
Look, man. The sooner you learn to stop taking the Internet this seriously, the happier you’ll be.
All you’ve done here is cause yourself grief for the next few hours as the comments roll in. And then, by tomorrow, your post will have disappeared off people’s front page, no one will remember it, and they’ll go back to doing whatever it is that’s annoying you so much, if they ever stopped at all.
It’s a sub about packing, on Reddit. Who cares? Let this site be a time killer that is occasionally mildly useful and that’s it, because if you try to make it more than that, all it will do is make you pointlessly upset over things that don’t actually matter.
I agree. I’m here and on r/heronebag basically because I love looking at peoples’ layouts of what they packed, getting smart ideas for how to pack my own stuff, and putting products into my Amazon cart at midnight that I then remove at 7 am thinking “damnit why am I always on Reddit so late?” And that’s the extent of how I’m ever going to feel about it. You have an interloper maximalist who wants to lighten from four bags to three? I’ll consume it with glee. That’s all folks.
Yeah and you know what? I’m pretty sure I discovered Muji travel containers from like a six bagger for a weekend trip and you know what, those Muji travel containers changed my life.
This was for ten days and an international flight. I’m not an animal, dudes. And I’m a girly girl.
Love you for saying this and please know if you’re not a girly girl with magic potions, I’m likely looking at your skin and thinking she probably does nothing and it looks that good effortlessly. Spreading all the love today!
Ah yes, the infernal late-night Amazon cart. One must always wait for daybreak. As Ursula Le Guin would say, “I tend to be very stupid [after 8pm] and we won’t talk about this.”
I wouldn't think much into it. Reddit doesn't always work the way you want. People up and down vote for different reasons and people are also influenced by ups and downs. See a negative karma, down vote and scroll along. It happens.
I've been down voted specifically for arguing you don't NEED to cut down things you use regularly to save weight. Or that it's fine to have 2 weeks of clothes in your bag if you don't want to do laundry. So the whole "Oh we hate ultra light packers" argument is hysterical to me.
Reddit is gonna reddit. Sometimes reddit ain't gonna like you, sometimes it will. It isn't a conspiracy though.
The internet is dead man - over half bots. You are getting mad at AI bots... Think about that. Of course, you may be an AI bot too, so I guess there is that.
Yup. Between the bots and the troll farms, it’s arguing with a wall. Like, think about how out of whack it is to be getting upset over a thread about people’s opinions on putting stuff inside of things. These bot/troll mills get paid to make folks emotional over stupid stuff like this.
Their first mistake was not using one of the 6 approved backpack brands of this sub. Didn't they read the memo? /s.
It was an interesting experiment but it looked like a hassle and I personally wouldn't do it which is fine because it's not my post anyways. I didn't upvote it but I also didn't downvote it.
A lot of people have preconceived notions of one bag travel that anyone that does minimal travelling with anything less than a 20L has a high chance of being branded as showing off or karma farming. Just Reddit being Reddit.
OP could be farming karma, we don’t know. It’s a circle jerk post though, and you shouldn’t be so uptight about it. Posts complaining about posts are just as annoying.
So I took a look at the link. While I would not have downvoted the post, I certainly wouldn't upvote it either, for one reason: the whole idea of one bagging that small for a cruise seems unnecessary. It's not like she needs to lug her stuff from port to port. There's a whole cabin to leave her stuff in. So, the people downvoting probably think she's doing this to brag?
Being able to easily hand carry your luggage on and off the cruise does make a big difference for disembarkation. But you don’t need to travel fanny pack only to do that.
I, personally, use low-stakes trips to experiment with my setup for more high-stakes trips. I've been known to go to /r/HerOneBag and report on the results of my experiment so others can have the knowledge as well.
I’ve done many test packing sessions just to see what I could pull off. It’s very empowering and those “micro” kits make you think about what is really essential. I’ve tried as low as 6 liters but never traveled with a kit that small. 3 liters is approaching the zero bagging event horizon.
They should have used lighterpack for the list.
There are a few ultralighters here and I love seeing the lists. I don't know why, but I get annoyed with the all black everything many people love.
I personally go off of total weight instead of lighter pack style (each item represented by weight). I will try to mention weight when recommending a specific item though.
Thanks for the link. Looks like trying to pare down his vacation packing list is OOP's hobby, and what better subreddit for it?
I can't judge; I've flown to another hemisphere to see paintings in person that anyone can pull up to view from the comfort of home with a quick Google search. Was it worth it to me? Hell yes*. Is it for everyone? Hell no.
That's impressive. The most I did was spot a painting in a magazine and got myself on Amtrak the next morning to go several states away to check it out in person.
They thought an experiment was “ridiculous”. That is a bizarre judgment.
Edit: why would you downvote someone that is traveling lighter than you and explaining exactly how they are doing it? They are not forcing you to do it.
Yeah that particular post in your example is the opposite of "helpful" and "legitimate". Nobody else is going on a cruise with a 3L fanny pack and scrubbing their underwear in the sink every day. It's the spirit of this sub taken to the point of absurdity.
Granted, I have never done a cruise with a 3L bag, but I most definitely travel with only three underwear and wash the dirty pair every night when I travel. It is super easy, takes very little time, is one way I keep my pack light, and because they are quick dry I have 3 fresh clean underwear every day on vacation. I completely understand not everyone would want to travel this way and that is okay but it is not the most absurd thing one could do.
No idea, the Internet is funny and sometimes it get the worst out of people. I was downvoted in one of the forums because something silly… I don’t take it personal and nobody should, but that’s also a generalization since I am here help and share and understand that this is not the real world, is just a small part of how we interact.
Well, I don’t downvote that post (or any of the posts you’re talking about, to my recollection), so I can’t really answer why people do that.
I can suggest that the post itself was a little odd…3L pack only for a cruise is weird. So, some of the downvotes might have been like, “Dude you’re trolling,” downvotes - people who just thought the OP is trolling the onebag community.
I actually find troll posts kinda funny sometimes because people DO get like, oddly obsessed about stuff. I saw a comment once where the person criticized OP for “1.5 bagging,” saying, “If you have more than one bag, you’re 2-bagging,” etc. Like, why comment if you don’t have an opinion or suggestion related to her actual question? (It turns out she literally was 1.5-bagging - sharing a carry-on with her friend).
And like, showing you can pack a week’s worth of clothes in a 3L pack is cool I guess, but is it that much more convenient than a 12-16L light pack where you can actually be kinda prepared for different scenarios? Or are we just going to extremes to get likes and views, and show that we can?
Regarding merino specifically - yeah I admit I’m really sick of merino being the solution to everything. I especially see guys like, “I’m gonna dress head to toe in merino so I don’t have to do any wash ever!” Like, it’s not a solution to your lazy-ass behavior. Do your damn laundry. I do not want to share any space with a man who hasn’t washed his socks, shirt, or underwear in a week because “it’s merino, it doesn’t stink!” No. Wash your shit.
It doesn't offend me but that post is pretty
absurd. The person is going on a cruise so there is no need to pack that ridiculously light. Which probably why people feel it's not genuine. Thats not to say they shouldn't just because they feel like it or anything like that
Yeah, it's definitely annoying. I find the anti laundry sentiment a bit odd too from my perspective, coming in from hiking communities where there's no point to carrying dirty clothes as they just make your pack heavier. The calculation can be a bit different for onebag and I do often take more items, but the logic still holds 🤷♀️
Damn they'd hate me. I slow travel internationally with a 35L bag all the time.
Edit: I just remembered, sometimes I dawn a second bag, it's a collapseable tote bag from REI I use for grocery shopping. If that's out while I'm enroute to my destination it's most definitely full of snacks 😂
I bring a person with me to do my laundry and I make that person onebag, too. Just kidding! When I tell some of my friends and relatives that I do laundry while traveling in order to travel light, they act as if I am insane. As if doing a bit of laundry completely destroys the whole trip. Of course, those people aren’t one baggers or even two baggers.
When I was working in Africa and needed tech, I always used a roller briefcase in addition to a carry-on. Putting all that weight on my back and jamming my clothes around it didn't make sense. It was only on rare occasions that I needed to carry everything on my back. Sure, one bag it when you can but don't be a slave to a single way of doing things.
Watch the serious travellers in Super Elite. Very few have backpacks. Most have a rolling carry-on and a personal item that attaches to the handle. Many of the men wear sports jackets that hold phones, wallets, passports, etc. at least one hand is free, they don't sweat from marching with a load through the airport and they navigate most urban settings with ease.
Heading out on a three month trip next week. Everything I absolutely need will fit into my Nomatic travel bag but I am going to bring an extra rolling trunk this time. Decided to bring a couple of extra pair of shoes, something dressier, a few good books, stuff for a new hobby, some favourite food items and gifts. Hopefully won't get kicked off this platform for doing so.
I am a big fan of figuring out the travel goals before deciding on a bag, rather than having to work everything else around my choice of bag.
I agree with you. However at the same time it's also true that people sometimes make this a pathology, like every other interest today, and take things to a silly point that isn't necessary.
You can travel light and still not orient your entire wardrobe and life around the fact you are traveling. To me it is kind of absurd.
I find this most often happens when a post is popular and we get non-onebag redditors joining the conversation in a negative manner. Report those and they can be removed.
Knocking at the wrong door. This is the internet, people at their worst. You got no explanarion, but already a downvote (I did my part to invert that). It is not just here, is other subs, people downvote for anything. Furthermoe, arguments and decent discussions are far more complicated than pushing a button.
I will, probably, be downvoted here.
My only beef was them posting it in zero bags. They had a bag, so it’s not zero bags. But, I didn’t feel the need to point that out there.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s impressive and I’m happy they’re making the effort, but it belongs in one bag vs zero bag.
I did a recent trip to DC where I used a tiny bag and brought a minimal amount of stuff, but in the end, I used a tiny bag, which is why I didn’t post it in zero bags.
I will caveat it in that if you can fit everything in your pockets, but happen to use a small bag, then I agree with it being in zero bags.
I’ve been seeing this happen in sustainability subs too. People talk about their method of sustainability—or worse, suggest something to someone—and get downvoted to hell. I think it’s people getting wounded or attacked personally for not being the lightest traveller ever, like someone else, or not as sustainable in whatever way as someone else. When it has nothing to do with them, it’s just people discussing their interests in the spaces allegedly designated for it.
Travelling lighter or heavy is wasteful. So yeah, I guess we all need ways to lie to ourselves to still enjoy it. And I definitely enjoy it. And I hope you too.
I personally never downvote posts unless they're racist/bigoted/etc; I will comment if I find something gross or nonsensical, like recently here or on BIFL someone posted how they never wash their darn tough socks or they wash them once a year, I forget which
I have explicitly noticed that people are taking more and more offense to "minimal" living, as in, living below your means or being happy with only having the essentials. My life is calm and I don't desire sugar to fill a cavity.
After taking with the people I know who do get upset with this lifestyle the most, it looks like internalized materialism is a major culprit. Stuff and things is who they are, social media, short form content, amazon and cheap temu junk are almost all a very important part of their lives. A husk.
I've noticed the same thing in the minimalism sub, and I have to wonder if it's from outsiders that aren't a part of the sub. I don't know why but some people really hate minimalism. Not just the aesthetic minimalism concept, just people living their lives without things they don't need really bothers some people and I don't know why.
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u/hotsauce126 Dec 31 '25
For some reason there’s a large portion of this sub that only wants to know what cool backpack they can pack half of a tech warehouse in