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Things I Won’t Travel Without

October 20, 2011 By Jillian

Recently another traveler told me that getting rid of everything to travel was liberating. Unencumbered by possessions he was free to live his life and go, do, be wherever he pleased.

The idea of liberating our possessions is by some completely terrifying to some and exhilarating and exciting to others. I admit to regularly flip flopping on this issue, some items I’m terrified to leave behind and others I’m excited to purge. I traveled around the world with a small carry-on sized backpack. As time went on I got rid of more and more until I felt as though I had truly reached my minimalist breaking point. That’s when I joined the terrified to get rid of things camp.

We’ve written extensively about what we traveled with, the gear, the miscellanea, the clothes, what we kept in boxes for two years, and what made it around the world with us. We’ve also blogged about our fear of losing those last few possessions and the emotional attachment we came to feel to objects. We’ve written a lot about stuff– what is our obsession?

As we pack for another travel adventure, I’m smile to myself as I see the first few items go into the bag. Here they are:

Steri Pen, Water Purifier. My adoration for this product can simply not be described. It is without a doubt the #1 object I’d recommend to any traveler going anywhere for any amount of time. As my grandma says, without health you have nothing!
Sarong. Versatile, from a sheet to a skirt to a towel, this rectangular piece of cloth is a must.
Med Kit. We did leave this behind once and lived to pay the price. It’s like an American Express card, never leave home without it!
Ex-Officio undies. Our little secret at first, but these are the most comfortable for travel – even if it’s 10 hours in an airport.
A Hat. If you’ve ever squinted in bright sunlight to read a sign you know what I mean.

Is that all I really need? Maybe I’ve crossed to another level of minimalist travel. What are the first few items in your bag?

Did you pack that?

June 23, 2011 By Jillian

Have you ever put something down and not even remembered touching it?

That happens to me a lot, I instinctively move something or put it away, but don’t even realize I’m doing it. This means sunglasses and random objects are usually not always where I think they should be or for Danny where he thinks they should be.

On the road I was always worried about losing things. Mostly our passports and cash, but also just little things like our laundry line and sunscreen. Ridiculous, I know. Surely every market had twine, but it wouldn’t have the cool little clips and small neoprene pouch that our fancy shmancy seatosummit one had. We might be able to find sunscreen, but it wouldn’t be the waterproof 30SPF oil free kind from home that we love.

Somewhere along the road of selling it, quitting it and giving it away I got very protective over those precious few items in my backpack.

So we developed a stuff survival system. DEFT- Drying, electronics, food, toiletries- the things that would most likely be left behind. We double checked as we left the room. “Honey did you pack____?” I’d say. Things were tightly put away in pouches, our backpacks fit together like puzzles, everything only fit one way which made it a lot easier to know when something was missing. But not everything.

Somethings were lost along the way.

Actually quite a few things, especially as time went on. Towards the end of the trip we stopped paying so much attention to our stuff, perhaps because we knew the end was in sight. From a rather expensive rain jacket in China to yes, a laundry line left hanging at a campground in Africa, many of those precious few items were left along the way. And you know what, at the time, we missed them. We had truly packed down to our essentials, there was hardly anything in that pack I didn’t use on a daily or weekly basis. But losing them didn’t ruin our trip. (Although I think Danny would disagree about his raincoat!)

The stuff I was trying to protect really didn’t matter. It made us more comfortable, but when I couldn’t buy contact solution (for the record ONLY Ethiopia) I just did without. In the end we both came home with packs smaller than when we left. Not because we lost so many things, but because we realized we could do more or the same with less. We let our stuff go and you know what, it was rather empowering.

Packing for a big trip? Check out our youtube video on packing a backpack!

Packing for South America

July 13, 2009 By Danny

Our time in the USA quickly came to an end and yesterday we began our trek through South America. While we spent most of the time being stuffed with delicious food (there goes the weight we lost from Central America), we also spent an inordinate amount of time at outdoor equipment stores like REI. In fact we went to two different REI’s in the Atlanta area. After four months of use a lot of our equipment had either failed or begun to fail on us so it was time to exchange and resupply. We’ve added a number of gear reviews to the website if you are interested and as always you can get an up to date list of our pack contents on the gear page.

We traded out clothes that weren’t cutting it, mostly things that were easily torn or didn’t live up to the rigors of travel. For Danny this was a few shirts and a pair of pants. Jillian traded out some undergarments and shirts, added a travel dress and took out a pair of capris.

Because so many people have asked about what is in our packs and how much we actually have, we made a video of how to pack a backpack that will give you a visual of how things fit.

Farewell D.C.

February 28, 2009 By Jillian

I know we were supposed to give you Part 2 about how we made this trip a reality, but somewhere between our last day of work, packing up and moving, and saying good bye, Part 2 got pushed back a few days. We promise, part 2 is on its way.

We’re finally off! Last night was our official going away party in DC. I’m not really sure how to describe how it felt to have so many people help send us off. It was incredible to have everyone (ok our DC people) there and I will admit their enthusiasm was contageous. As the night grew on, the feeling, at least for me, became more somber as one friend after another said good bye. Over the next few months and potentially years, we are going to miss celebrating weddings, engagements, new jobs, new homes, new babies, not to mention birthdays and holidays. Some of the people that came to say good bye are new friends, some very old friends, but for both groups saying good bye was just as hard. I’m not much of a crier, but if someone else gets going I can’t stop. At least we did it all at once!

As if a big party wasn’t enough to get us excited and admittedly a little anxious about becoming unemployed and homeless (my favorite phrase from last night’s party!) , we packed up our final belongings today and hit the road. Well…. that’s not entirely true; a great number of our belongings were forcefully dumped on others or trashed. It is amazing what two people can cram, hide, and stuff into 575 sq. feet! My apologies to Jamie, Brian, Becka, Drew, Alicia, Falcon, Andrea, Alexis and Aaron who I refused to let leave empty handed. “Take this lamp to remember us by!” All jokes aside, today was a long, long day. Our feet hurt, our backs are achy and if I see another black trash bag I’m going to scream.

I’ll admit, I cried after everyone left our empty apartment this afternoon. As Oprah says, it was ugly cry. [Author’s Note: Danny confirms…ugly cry] Trying to calm me down, Danny offered to reverse our course and give up on the trip…he knew what my answer would be. After enumerating the reasons to stay: no job, no apartment, no dream, no travel (wow there are just so many reasons to stay!) I had to turn down his tempting offer. We’re off, next stop family roadtrip.

Packing up

January 17, 2009 By Jillian

The declining economy and enticing post-holiday clearance sales have us spending too much money on clothing and gear for the trip. Case in point – last weekend we went to REI’s winter clearance sale. Bought two softshell technical jackets, 3 pairs of wicking undies (in cute colors!), 2 SIGG aluminum water bottles and steri-pen attachments. The total? Around $200! The savings? Around $200! That was definitely exciting, I mean who doesn’t love to save money?

Besides purchasing fun gear and clothes, we’ve also begun packing up our apartment. The question is what can’t we live without? What is irreplaceable to us? As we packed up the first load to send to my parents in Philadelphia I realized how much stuff we have. Stuff, that’s exactly what it is. It’s junk that somehow along the way we needed. Books, sculptures, picture frames, etc.. just stuff. Ortigia We’re opposites when it comes to stuff- I’m a chucker while hubby is a pack rat. You know the types: the chucker who throws out EVERYTHING without regard for its sentimental value, and the pack rat who saves EVERYTHING without regard for its lack of sentimental value. Fortunately we’ve struck a balance in our few years of marriage, but it is still amazing how much STUFF we have!

Going through old boxes can be a painful trip down memory lane. Boxes of old love letters, yearbooks, dried flowers, pictures of friends you never talk to anymore. Boxes of stuff that was important when you put it away, but now 10 years later you can’t remember why you saved it. Case in point, my junior prom picture frame. (I just found that my prom pictures are still online! I’m not telling you where, but oh my god!) The prom gift my Junior Year of high school was a photo frame with weird glittery starts in it and a cheesy saying at the bottom. This piece of acrylic, tacky and obscene as it may be, was so incredibly important to me that I boxed it up for 7 years. I wanted to keep it forever. Going through a box of high school memories last weekend I came across this frame and immediately put it in the “chuck” pile. It got me thinking though. Packing this box several years ago, this cheap frame meant something important to me. Full of pictures, frames and yearbooks, it became clear that I was desperate to hold on to my high school self. Two weeks after I started college the twin towers came down. It was needless to say, a difficult time to be a college freshman in DC. I remember feeling like everything was changing, and I guess in many ways holding on to this stuff was my way of holding on to the past. Years have gone by and thankfully, a stronger more confident me threw that frame away to be recycled into someone else stuff.

What is something you can’t live without?

Things I Won’t Travel Without

Did you pack that?

Packing for South America

Farewell D.C.

Packing up

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