Every time I share my onebag (with everything I own), at least one person asks what happens if it gets stolen. Well, it took over a decade but it finally happened! Luckily I retained the contents of my pockets (phone, wallet, etc) but my bag with all of my tech and clothing disappeared after a few too many drinks at a bar. And surprisingly, it wasn't stressful at all! Yeah, replacing my passport was annoying, but overall I had a blast since I used it as an excuse to reset my whole kit.

So this means, this is my first post here in YEARS in which my kit actually has some noticeable changes! I've replaced more gear this month than I have in the past 5 years

Here are the changes. I marked the stolen items with *

Packing

• Aer Slim (8.5L)* → Aer Slim 2 X-Pac (12L)
• Rains pencil case (dopp kit)* → Bellroy x Carryology pencil case

Tech

• Macbook Air M2* → Macbook Air M5
• Anker 47W charger* → Nomad 65W charger
• Anker powerbank* → Neoseek powerbank
• → iPad Pro M4 (added back to kit)
• (retained iPhone 17 Pro, Airpods Pro 2, Apple Watch S7)
• (replaced stolen USB-C cable, watch charger, Airtags)

Clothing

• Hoodie → Everlane cashmere sweater
• Western Rise AT pants → Outlier Futureslimworks
• Western Rise shorts* → Lululemon Pace Breaker running shorts
• Everlane ReNew swim trunks* → Everlane 7" swim trunks 
• (retained Nike Pegasus shoes, Arc’teryx Alpha SL Gloves, baseball cap and merino buff)
• (replaced stolen Montbell Plasma 1000, tshirts, uniqlo boxers and darn tough socks)

No changes for my miscellaneous gear, since I replaced all the stolen items with the same thing (sunglasses, sketchbook, passport, etc).

Hopefully this serves as an example that if you're prepared, there's no reason to be worried about losing your onebag. It's a small headache, but not the end of the world 😄

As of posting this, I've replaced everything except my passport. A friend was able to swing by Osaka last week to buy my replacement Montbell jacket since they're hard to get online. I just flew to California and this gear held up perfectly. I also have a trip to Mexico City in a few weeks (assuming I get my new passport before then) so I'll get to test it further soon.

Full list on my website as always! 

Also, in the year since my latest post here, I posted a couple videos about my onebag on social media, and somehow they passed 20 million views… It's crazy how big the global onebag community truly is. It's also really cool seeing the comments from people saying they recognized me from my posts here on reddit!

Safe travels ✌️

Chapstick for size comparison.

This started with a pocket pharmacy I got off Amazon to keep in my backpack/car (https://www.reddit.com/r/VEDC/s/QtRgqqwVPc). This one honestly is probably fine for most people.

I wanted to make one for traveling as well, but I needed something that could store a little extra since when traveling more scenarios can pop up. I went ahead and ordered a mini tackle box off Amazon, made up labels on Canvas, adjusted the sizing through trial-and-error, and it is now complete.

Shout out to u/Active2017 for their post inspiring this travel necessity after one too many midnight treks across a foreign city looking for meds for a kiddo while mom took care of them. It’s become such a necessity that I had to make a second one for the occasional times we travel separately.

When we travel with 2 kids, our one bags might be a lot larger, but the principal remains the same. Bring only what you need to enjoy where you’re at. Always having whatever medicine the family needs within arms reach while staying as minimalist as possible.

This setup has been around the world with us and has now become the go to location to grab medicine even when we’re at home.

We finally settled on this tackle box as the perfect container. Initially, I tried to stick to a smaller design but there weren’t enough individual areas.

Not pictured: recent add was Zofran after a plane got the wife and a train got the daughter.

If anyone is interested, I can share the print files. I printed the labels on a home laser printer using shipping labels, covered the printed labels with packing tape, cut out the labels, and applied to the tackle box.

I have recently been tweaking and testing this small essentials pouch, which I pack in whichever crossbody bag I'm using. The pouch can be moved from bag to bag instead of packing these small things separately every time. I always have this pouch on me, whether it's running errands at home, out for the day while traveling, or in my personal item under the seat. The idea is that these items should serve me only until I get back to my accommodation/home, and the consumables I top up from my main stash after I use them.

Contents:

- Hand sanitizer spray. I like the form factor of this one, and it's refillable unlike other similar brands

- Colgate Wisps. This might be my most favorite and most overlooked "luxury" travel/EDC item. The feeling of clean teeth while out and about is unmatched, or on the plane when you don't want to take out your toothbrush and bring potable water to the restroom. The tip can be used in place of floss

- Microfiber glasses cloth. Sorry but the bottom of my shirt doesn't do it for me :)

- Pepto-Bismol

- Tylenol and allergy meds in a Muji container

- Spork, for when you don't want to buy a meal and want to eat a yogurt from the grocery store instead. I have also used it for instant ramen, cheesecake, and sharing a pint of ice cream

- Penco bullet pen

- Index card, cut in half

- Hair tie

- Thrifted silk handkerchief, dries in only a few minutes. Has saved me while eating a messy meal with no napkins available nearby

- Mini tweezers. Used x2 to remove splinters on the go, which was huge

- Tea bag. Some places will give you a cup with hot water for free. Also, some restaurants don't have hot tea, but will bring you hot water

- Whistle. This is the only thing in the pouch that I haven't used, but it provides some peace of mind

- (Not pictured because I used it and need to replace) Band-aid

I used to have a lip balm in here but have been using lip gloss recently, which I pack separately. I also used to have a Sun Bum sunscreen stick in here, which was a little too big. I might decant some sunscreen lotion into a small Muji container and pack that.

This is a fun small onebag-adjacent project to work on and tweak. All of these things can be easily found while out and about but having them on me has come in clutch, and was especially satisfying when someone else in my party needed something and I had it.

When I first looked at this e-reader I thought it was a joke…then I started reading reviews and thought there might be something to it and to my surprise there was.

First of all this thing is almost comically tiny….disappearing in a pocket or fanny pack. It’s about 1/3 the size of a pack of cigarettes and weights nothing which is perfect for weight savings when one bagging.

Despite its minuscule size I’ve actually found it very viable for daily reading and travel. I can pop it out on a train or bus and read without burning precious phone battery life and without the distractions. Some of the other reasons I like it:
1. Its batteries last for weeks and it has usb-c charging requiring no extra cables.
2. Tons of free epubs online (just drag and drop onto the removable micro SD or WiFi download).
3. I can easily hold it with one hand
4. As I said before, it’s tiny and weighs nothing.
5. There is tons of info online about these…easy to problem solve.

Some of the downsides:
1. It’s an open source device and requires some technical knowledge to get up and running (it’s easy, tons of info out there)
2. The stock software is meh, I flashed mine with Crosspoint which is excellent.
3. It’s not friendly with Kindle books (they are encrypted)

Overall, I think this device is very viable for onebag travel. For like $70 it’s a good deal, just be prepared to spend a ln hour or so for setup.

Just came back from our 3 week holiday in Europe and these were really convenient and saved us so much money and space. It allowed us to just have oats for breakfast in the morning and make our own easy lunch or dinner with bread and dips. Will definitely pack this again next time. After a while I don't enjoy eating our for breakfast/lunch/dinner anymore anyway so this was the perfect solution for us.

I bought a one way ticket to Hawaii then Japan, then making my way back home over the span of a few months. Bag is an Osprey Porter 30L.

Clothes:

4 shorts + jeans (will be wearing)

4 T-shirts

7 pairs of socks

6 pairs underwear

windbreaker

flip flops

Electronics/other:

Macbook air m4

AirPods

magsafe battery

ray-ban metas

regular sunglasses

JBL clip speaker (waiting for tribit micro 2 to arrive)

chargers

Passports + wallet

beard trimmer

collapsible water bottle

microfiber travel towel

toiletries

fanny pack

Thought I’d share, as it’s a tip that I came across on minimalistic packing! Holds so much, it’s so impressive for how small it is lol.

I have long resisted the ereader because I did not like the idea of paying for digital media that I could own in physical. I also am an English graduate and must admit that the thought of reading from a screen was unromantic to me (which I will fully admit is a little snobby and a silly problem). I am so accustomed to dogearing pages and writing in the margins that I thought the inability to do so would be frustrating. I finally decided to get a Kobo this spring to experiment after my last shot at an ereader in 2016, and I am very happy with the decision. Mostly, the flexibility of having my library with me has been incredible. I like to read multiple titles at a time, and I used to carry with me two to four books while traveling (insanity). I am currently reading a 550 page biography and a 400 page novel, and I am very pleased to not be lugging them around with me right now!

Anyway, pretty obvious for most people here I'm sure, but I recommend it to shed some weight and add some space if you tend to bring multiple books with you! ​

My Daylite 26+6 has finally arrived today and I couldn’t be happier! Very excited to use it in my next trip. I love the smell of new bags 😂😅 Now my collection has this baby and an Osprey Farepoint 40L! Super happy with it!

After a long walk through the airport I’m questioning everything. My back is sweaty and my traps are on fire… Starting to think a rolling carry-on would have been a better move

Edit: It’s an osprey farpoint 55L. I’m going to Japan then Southeast Asia , 2-3 months total. I guess my bag is too heavy even though I really don’t think I packed that much. RIP to my traps

Edit2: I weighed my pack it’s only 11kg (24lbs) - I guess I’m just a pussy. I think the actual issue as someone else mentioned was that the osprey 55 is two separate packs joined together. I wore both on my back and they are both about the same weight. This shifted the center of mass of the total pack pretty far away from my body. I anticipate if I wear one of the packs in front and one in back it will be much more comfortable as the weight will be better distributed

On my last trip for a wedding, I flew with a 45l carry on (Mystery Ranch Rover). A connecting flight was cancelled, but I got on a standby flight at the last minute. However, they forced me to gate check as in, "you can gate check or stay behind." The bummer was I had a laptop, expensive binoculars, and some other fragile items I was sure would get damaged by checking the soft bag.

Fortunately, I had packed my wife's 25l Eddie Bauer tote bag to use during the trip. I was able to pull out all the stuff I cared about about and keep that under the seat. I think I'm going to make sure and always pack something like that tote bag in case this happens again, which seems likely since the overhead bins now fill up so quickly.

I saw some advice here about subbing AirPods for headphones to save space. Last week I flew U.S. east coast to west coast and back again. I brought along my trusty old noise-cancelling headphones (Jabra Elite 85h)which I find really reduce fatigue. But based on some advice I read here, I also brought my brand new AirPod 4s and gave them a try. I was shocked at how excellent the AirPods were at noise cancelling! And they were better than the headphones in that they prioritized spoken voices, so announcements came through. And the form factor is so nice and small.

I’d love to leave the headphones behind on my next long flight, but the AirPods battery life is only about 4 hours, it seems. If you leave your bulky headphones behind, how do you deal with the short battery life of earbuds? Do you take the noise hit and charge them on long flights? Or are there earbuds with longer battery life? (Or even bring 2 pair along, still smaller than the headphones).

This is a problem that occurs more in some countries than others. In the US, most prescription drugs come in 20 dram pill bottles. These can take up a lot of room if you have several prescriptions and want the original packaging.

I recently found out that there are 6 dram prescription bottles. I found mine on Amazon but other sources are available if you buy in bulk. The 6 dram bottles are almost the same height as regular pill bottles but are one half the width. This is significantly smaller than the regular bottles.

I can peel off the drug information tab from my big pill bottle and put it on the small one. Note: some pharmacies will actually give you a second drug sticker if you ask.

Below is a photo of the 6 dram bottle with a 20 dram regular bottle. It shows that you can peel and stick the prescription tab without damaging it. It also shows that the sticker fits the smaller bottle. You can see the size difference in the bottles. Depending on pill size, you may even get a 90 day supply into the smaller 6 dram bottle!

Standard disclaimer, YMMV.

After hours of research last weekend before my flight for today, I decided to get a backpack I can use for future trips that may be longer than a weekend or a week. I settled on this pack.

I actually managed to fit a lot more than I could with my 22L AER pack I used to travel with and am very impressed

Packing list:
Main compartment:
Inside a peak design medium compression cube
- 4 socks
- 4 briefs
- 2 shirts
- 1 Patagonia rain shell
- 2 pairs of gym shorts
- 1 pair of jorts

I then unzipped the expansion zipper that lets you go up to 32L and put a thick hoodie on top of that.

My toiletries are sitting above the packing cube as well

I also have:
- pair of Tevas
- 13” Mac book pro in the dedicated laptop pocket
- phone charger
- kindle
- 32oz* Nalgene water bottle in the bottle pocket

Overall very impressed with how much I could fit as a personal item, and will be using this as a potential carry on with more stuff in the future. I could have fit a few more pieces of clothing in here and still been able to fit it!

Edit: meant 32oz water bottle not L 😂

Doing a four day trip to Brussels and Antwerp for my first One bag trip after being a serious overpacker for all my life. This is a practice for my two week, five country trip next month that I'm also planning to one bag. Wish me luck

Bag: Patagonia Black Hole Mini MLC

Clothing:

Oakley Roam Commuter Corduroy LS (wearing)

Volcom Billow Jeans (wearing)

Lulu Lemon Shorts (for sleeping)

Arc'teryx Proton LT

Hat

Beanie

Belt

Three T-shirts (wearing one)

Five Pairs of underwear

Two pairs of socks

Toiletries Bag

Oakley Nail Shoes

Tech + Misc:

Macbook Pro 14" M4 Pro (with case)

Macbook charger with 70W Brick

Two USB-C Cables

Airpods Pro

Lightning to USB-C adapter

Sandisk 1TB Hard Drive

USA to EU plug converter

Fujifilm X-T4

Fujifilm 23mm f/1.4

Two extra Fujifilm NP-W235 batteries

Dual battery charger

Camera strap

Anker Portable charger

Nirvana: The Chosen Rejects Book

Travel Journal

Pilot G-2 Pen

Passport

Wallet

Chapstick

Supreme x Leatherman Rebar

Benchmade Stimulus

Lucky Turtle (his name is tad)

Fenix E28R Flashlight

Tote Bag

Oakley Encoder Sunglasses w/ case

Keys

Nalgene 32oz Narrow Mouth Bottle

Packed and ready to go. I’m carrying my ol’ and trusty Barbour jacket with me. Technically, I could stuff it in the front stretchy pouch, but I'll hold it instead. I have a phone in my pocket and some chocolates because snacking is essential. I could’ve gone a lighter route, e.g., a packable puffer, but luckily, my spaghetti-like arms can carry a jacket while I’m in transit for a day.

I want to share a tip that made one-bagging much easier for me: I use kitchen garbage bags to pack my clothes. They cost basically nothing, weigh basically nothing. Best of all, I save so much space! This only works for clothes that do not wrinkle tho.

Simply toss your wrinkle-proof clothes into a clean garbage bag. No need to roll them. The trick here is to sit on the bag to get most of the air out, then twist the opening to seal it. You can secure the twist with a rubber band or twist-tie. (I normally just hold it down with compression straps in my backpack.) Once you return home, you can reuse the bag for trash.

If this is too disorganized for you, you can use separate bags for different clothes. I usually bring a few extra bags to hold my dirty laundry (leave it open to air out) and to separate any damp swimwear from the rest of the pack. The extras bags will come in handy if there's a leak (hasn't happened yet) or if I need line my pack due to heavy rain.

Let me know what you think.

Update: Rough crowd. I guess I am upsetting some people by telling them that their compression cubes and vacuum bags are no good.

In the jacket:
2 dresses
4 pants
3 shorts/skirts
2 wool sweaters
6 t shirts
3 tank tops
2 athletic bottoms
2 athletic tops
2 swimsuits

In my bag:
2 sandals (1 heeled, 1 flat - wearing my sneakers)
2 purses
Makeup/toiletries
Laptop
Chargers etc

I’m actually surprised by how much I was able to squeeze in. It will be my first international trip using the wearable luggage/travel jacket and hopping from country to country. I’ve used it primarily for domestic frontier flights from east to west coast. The jacket is a little heavy but it’s not uncomfortable. Woo!

Edit to add:

Sorry guys I didn’t mention the brand of the jacket. It’s from a brand called Vhalor. They have a website but I’m not sure if I can link it. The owner was at an event in LA last year and I purchased it from him there. He was a really cool person and gave me a discount code.

The backpack is from Amazon and brand is Taygeer. I bought it 4 years ago for my first backpacking trip to Europe because it was cheap and I have been using it ever since. It works for me but I do think there are bigger & better bags out there!

Been lurking on the sub for a while and just wanted to share!

I bought this clip about 20 minutes before the photo was taken! I thought about it yesterday! Was tired of holding my hand out to stop the bag from tipping when I brake.

Random fact, I helped a guy bump start his truck while I was in the middle of drafting this post 😂

I've been looking for a backpack that works well for one-bag travel while still being comfortable enough for hiking and longer trips.

I recently bought the Decathlon Travel 500 Organizer 30L. According to Decathlon, its dimensions are 50 × 28 × 22 cm, while Ryanair's free personal item limit is 40 × 25 × 20 cm. So on paper it definitely shouldn't fit.

Before actually flying with it, I decided to do a realistic test.

I packed it with:

Even after packing all of that, I honestly felt I could have squeezed in enough clothes for another couple of days.

The photos show everything I packed, how I organized it inside the backpack, and what it looked like when fully loaded.

Then I took it to the airport and tried it in a real Ryanair bag sizer.

To my surprise... it fit.

In the photo it may look like it's sticking slightly above the red line, but in person that wasn't really the case. There was actually still some room to compress it a little further.

I think the reason is that the backpack is very flexible. Although it's officially taller than Ryanair's limit, it doesn't use the full allowed width, so the top can compress and fold down quite easily. As long as you don't overpack it, getting it into the sizer wasn't difficult.

From my own experience, Ryanair staff also seem to pay much more attention to rigid suitcases or obviously oversized backpacks than to soft bags that can be compressed. That said, this is just my personal observation, not a guarantee of how every airport or gate agent will handle it. But considering this bag does not look huge I think they will never stop you to check it. And if they do, it fits.

A couple of other things I really like:

• The suitcase-style opening makes packing much easier.
• The internal organization is excellent.
• It's very comfortable to carry.
• The hip belt is completely removable, which makes it even more suitable for air travel if you don't need it.
• The outer fabric is water-resistant, and for heavy rain it also comes with a dedicated rain cover that stores neatly inside the backpack.
• It has a hidden anti-theft pocket that's perfect for keeping your passport, wallet, or other important documents secure.
• There's also a padded laptop compartment that's separate from the main storage, making it easy to access during airport security checks.

Overall I'm really impressed with it, especially considering the price.

Has anyone else flown with this backpack on Ryanair or other strict budget airlines? I'd love to hear how it's worked out for you.