OneBag Travel

Thoughts on One-Bagging

I stumbled onto the OneBag communities on YouTube and Reddit while researching Carry-On Only travel packing options. We had a trip coming up and I didn't want the hassle of checking bags or carting luggage across the city to our accomodation. I'd been thinking we'd take a small roller bag each, but discovering people talking about reducing to a single backpack for even greater mobility was a lightbulb moment.

It was also a huge mind-shift for me. I'm a serial "just-in-case" person, throwing in all kinds of extra items "just-in-case" we might need them. One-bagging is the opposite to this - thought has to go into every item you pack and every item you leave out. There is no room for those "just-in-case" extras.

Considerations

There were a couple of considerations I took into account before deciding to OneBag this trip:

• Our accomodation had a laundry and I could wash and dry every night if I needed to.
• Our itinerary included enough downtime that there was time to do laundry when required.
• We had no super fancy outings planned, so the same casual wear would work for almost the whole trip.
• We expected to be travelling on foot between trains, flights, and accomodation, so travelling light would be a sensible decision.
• It was urban travel, so anything we forgot or needed was likely to be available within a 5 minute walk of our accomodation.

One thing I didn't worry about was the length of our trip. In this case it was 9 days, but what we packed would have worked for 3, 9, 30 days, or even longer.

Technically only my son OneBagged on this trip - while he had a small sling bag he had space to stow it in his backpack, reducing him to one bag only. For me it was more like 1.5 bagging, as I carried a medium sized sling bag that I couldn't stow in my backpack.

What did we pack?

Outfits

This took a bit of trial and error, and a few packing test runs to get right. We started with 5 outfits each (yeah, waaaayyyyy too many) and pared it down to 3. This was 3 tops and 3 long pants. One outfit to wear and 2 to pack. In addition we both added a slightly dressier shirt/blouse to wear to the theatre and I had a light scarf/shawl.

Other clothing

We packed 5 sets of underwear each and 5 pairs of socks. We also packed a sleepwear outfit and a singlet in case the weather was cool (it was). I included a pair of leather flats that could be dressed up as an alternative to my sneakers. We both had a hat, and were wearing a hoodie, belt, and sneakers.

Packing strategy

We each used a small and a medium packing cube. The medium cube held two outfits, the spare shirt/blouse, scarf, singlet, and sleepwear. The small cube held underwear and socks. They fit nicely into the backpack and there was a gap down the side to slide shoes, or a smaller bag.

We also had a wetpack each, packed with travel sized bottles and tubes. Mine was slightly larger and included a zip bag of basic first aid items - painkillers, bandaids, spare asthma puffer.

A tech pack held our chargers and cables. My son had a cheap version of the .... that we got from Temu. I used a padded Lihit pencil case from Officeworks. In addition we each had a small set of binoculars that we stashed in the larger of the bag's interor mesh pockets.

The laptop sleeve held a waterproof envelope of backup printouts of our itinerary, reservation, and ticket details.

Everything else we had went into our sling bags.

The Bags

The Backpack

You can read more about the backpacks we used in my Cabin Zero Adv 32L Backpack review.

The Sling Bag

I used a very basic light sling bag from KMart/Target. It had drawstrings on each end that made the bag smaller or larger. I used it in the smaller, more crescent shaped size and it was still quite roomy. It wasn't the greatest bag, having no structure meant it was a little uncomfortable against my hip when full. It cost me a whole $6AUD though and fit well crossbody under the backpack, so no complaints!

How did it go? What would I pack different next time?

No room for extras

The bit about being able to buy anything we forgot and needed was so true. We had to pick up a few things at the supermarket - including Deep Heat for a sore neck, decongestant for a sick kid. It also turned cold in the first few days we were there and we ended up buying a windbreaker and an extra jumper each to wear on a day trip up into the mountains.

This had an impact on our packing though - there was no spare room for these items on the way back. On our second last day I posted a parcel of items home. This included our third outfits, a bag organiser I'd used in my sling bag that turned out to be more annoying than useful, a couple of books, and the extra jumpers we'd bought.

It was also frustrating not having room for too many souvenirs or other shopping, particularly when we were located in such a great location for shopping outlet and specialty stores. On the other hand, we spent less money than we could have - it went on experiences rather than things.

Clothes are heavy

Proper travel clothes would have made our bags much lighter than some of the items we packed, but we used what we already had. Also I love my jeans. Even if they're super heavy and a pain to get dry. Lighter travel clothes are definitely on my "to buy" list for the next trip though.

Reduce duplicates

I took my tablet as I find it's larger screen is easier on my eyes than squinting at my phone. It ended up adding a lot of weight to my sling bag though, and to be honest I didn't really need it. It duplicated the functionality I already had on my phone and little ereader, so I could easily have left it at home.

Another item I wouldn't bring again is my waterbottle. It's only small and it is better for the planet than bottled water, but it didn't stay cold and on the travel days it just got in the way. Cold bottled water was available everywhere we went and it would have been far easier to do what my son did and just buy one when needed and responsibly dispose of the bottle after.

The mobility was fantastic!

Our first travel day was taxi -> train -> short walk -> airport -> flight -> airport -> short walk with escalators -> train -> longer walk with stairs and bumpy footpaths -> accomodation. Having only a backpack and a small sling bag made this so painless. Nothing to check, nothing to collect, nothing to worry about losing. Everything fit easily into the vehicle, the space between train seats, the plane's overhead lockers. Walking was fine as the bags weren't too heavy, and being on our backs meant the weight was balanced and our hands were free.

The final part of our trip on our way home was a mad dash from the airport across to the train station. The first travelator was out and then there were stairs to climb. I doubt we would have made the train in time if we'd had our roller cases instead of the backpacks.

Will I continue to OneBag (or 1.5 Bag) travel?

This trip was a real game-changer and I'm definitely a convert. In fact, now that I have an idea of what worked and what didn't, I plan on packing even more strategically next time and getting my bag's weight down further.

OneBagging won't be the solution for every trip though. For example, if I'm off to a work conference, need multiple dressier outfits and more than two pairs of shoes, have limited time and access to do laundry, and know moving between transport and accomodation will be smooth, then it may be easier to go the traditional route and take a larger, checked bag.

For these more relaxed, sight-seeing trips - it's the best thing though!

Further Resources

• r/OneBag - The r/onebag community promotes urban travel with the philosophy of carrying less.
• r/HerOneBag - Women and LGBTQIA+ specific travel essentials for one bag city travel.
• r/ManyBaggers - This sub is full of discussion and reviews of different bags.