I have been gearing up for our trip to Dublin and Ireland and have been researching “packing light.” As I wrote in an earlier post  I really want to pack everything I’d need for our 16 day trip in a carry on and a purse. We are literally traveling on every type of transportation; planes, trains, ferries, you name it…we’re traveling on it, so the less I have to haul around, the better.

My research kept taking me back to my favorite: Youtube. (You can do anything with Youtube.) We have fixed our leaking freezer, our broken garage door, and our loud heater. Youtube for life!

That being said, of course I turned to Youtube for learning how to pack lightly.

Here was my favorite video for ebags:
Packing my ebags

Here was my favorite makeup blog:
“What to pack in your makeup bag,”

The most inspirational blog/video:
How to travel light

Here is my pinterest page of everything I collected on traveling light: http://www.pinterest.com/meganlogue81/packing-light/

Once I felt like I had done the proper research, gotten all the items I really needed, I was ready to do a trial run.

My first and hardest step was not bringing 1 million outfits. I am a chronic over-packer but every single site said “Pack 1 weeks worth of clothes, and do wash.”

So here’s a breakdown of my trial run for packing light, it was a huge success and hopefully helps you too!

From Left to Right: Carry On, Eagle Creek Shirt holder, Ebags (I didn’t even use the medium ebag.)

Step one for me was putting two of my 4 pairs of shoes in the bottom of the suitcase: (1 pair will be in my purse and I’m obviously wearing my other pair 🙂

 

Step 2: Picking out the shirts I was going to take. I have 10 tops total. Here they are hanging up and on the floor. I took all of these shirts, folded them and put them into the Eagle Creek Shirt Holder.

Here they are all in the shirt holder and in the suitcase. (I rearranged once more cubes were packed.)

 

Now for packing the largest cube..In my largest cube I was able to roll all the items and fit the following:

I also shoved some socks in there as well.

Next up: Small cube!

Without showing you photos of my underoos, I’ll just tell you what’s in here:

-24 pairs of underwear
– 8 Socks (I’ll need to add more socks)
-2 bras

All in that tiny lil cube. Rolling clothes is amazing.

Jewelry packer:

Here is everything in the suitcase. I had to play around with each one to make sure it would fit the best.

So to recap…all of this below

 

Packed into my carry on:

Oh yes, and I threw my laundry kit into the front pouch. Never even used the pouches on the suitcase lid.

Purse Packing: So onto the last and super important part, picking the right purse and additional carry on items.

I know it doesn’t look like all of this will fit…oooooo but it does!

 BOOM!

It’s all in there. The reason why, this amazing pillow rolls up small so you can throw it in your bag.

Here is a video of me rolling up the pillow so you can see how small it can get (I’m doing it one-handed so obviously it would be as small in my photo above if you use both hands.)

I posted a photo of my travel outfit on an earlier blog post but I’m wearing everything below, and carrying my trench coat.

 

I’m super excited that I was able to get everything into a carry on and purse and I plan to carry it all on the plane. I checked the airline website and measured my suitcase and it’s good to go. I’m sure I’ll be nervous, I hate being the person with a suitcase, but why pay for a bag when I packed efficiently?

I still have some space in my suitcase lid if I need to throw anything else in there, and I can easily lift the suitcase so weight wise it’s fine too 🙂

I’ll do some reviews of everything once we return in October. I just wanted to do a practice round.

Feel free to share ideas or tips, I don’t leave until mid Sept. so there’s time to improve!