Vacations are about rest. Rest from routines, rest from employment, and, if you really want to relax, rest from stuff. Accouterments can make life quite lovely, but trappings have a cost. Personal effects are a responsibility. They need to be carried, tended, mended, washed, and appreciated. Leave excess encumbrances in the secure cupboards and drawers of your home and only accept the liability of a single carry-on bag.

Should you select travel minimalism, your first reward will be efficiency. When properly packed, rollies and their equivalents breeze through security, finding repose neatly above your seat. They follow you loyally from connection to connection and would never ask you to wait on them after a long flight.

But as you continue, you’ll also being to see that carry-on bags are carefree and impulsive. Should you opt to spend the day sightseeing before settling at your hotel, rolly tails behind you without any complaints. If you want to race to catch an earlier train, your single carry-on is ready to race on your whim.

And in reality, that single bag can even end up feeling luxurious. When you do unpack at your destination, you are free to stage your own high end boutique. With only a handful of impeccably selected items on the rack, your closet becomes a highly exclusive and elite event.

Post Script Answers to Anticipated Excuses

1. “But I have Kids”
   Get each of them their own carry-ons which they are capable of carrying themselves. School book bags are certainly acceptable.
2. “But I’m going to be gone for more than a week”
   I spent a month studying abroad in Europe living out of a single carry-on. Trust me, if my shoe-loving soul can do it, anyone can.

Come back promptly for the essentials of wardrobe clusters, the key to wardrobe minimization.

Need help assembling your travel trousseau…

Home bosom home, my passport is safely drawered with one more stamp to its experience and the contents of my luggage are indulging in a well deserved soak & swish.

Generous amounts of gratitude for the topic proposals. I feel confident we’ll be able to address them all ere long. But this very week, while its fresh with familiarity, we’ll plunge into packing a travel wardrobe.

And now: a nap, followed by a sweet potato & chile taco craving satiation.

Need help assembling your travel trousseau…