The Things They Carried - Backpacking light


(Anyone else a Tim O’Brien fan!?)

Living and traveling with a minimalist is not always easy, but let’s just say that I knew from the start—15 years ago now—that checked luggage was a non-starter with this guy.  To put things in perspective, his weekend bag doesn’t just fit in the overhead bin, but also under the seat in front of him. “If there is a washing machine where you’re traveling…”

Over the years we have adopted a packing routine:  I pack for me and the kids within a reasonable limit (still no checked bags EVER); he rolls his eyes and then we move on with our lives.  When we first started planning this trip his ideas were much different about how much we would bring, but I think the list below represents a good compromise.  Still, I’m sure that as soon as he actually sees all of the crap that he has been forced to carry there will be hell to pay.

Clothes wise, packing for 3 months—or a year for that matter—is generally the same as packing for a single week vacation.  In Toddoo-Minimalist-Land, this of course means 3 days worth of clothes, a small bag of toiletries, and one pair of shoes or flips in addition to what you’re wearing.   For me however, the goal is to get through at least 4 days without laundry - this means about 6 outfits for each of the kids.  No matter how hard I try, I always seem to overpack (always forgetting the golden rule - you can literally find anything that you might need in even some very remote towns, and usually at a fraction of the price that you would pay back at home).  And, as we almost exclusively stay at AirBnBs, we always have access to laundry.  

Apart from extra clothes, kids do require some essential items - namely carseats.  We knew there would be points of our trip where we would rent a car and renting 3 carseats would 1) blow our budget very quickly, 2) be super gross (we know this from past experience) and 3) the daily surcharge basically pays for the seat itself in 6 days.  We own and in the past have traveled with all 3 of our super heavy Diono carseats and there was no way we were going to drag those monsters abroad.  After much research, we settled on Bubble Bums for the two older kids; these are inflatable booster seats sold on Amazon for $22 and are good for 4+ years / 40 lbs kids.  When deflated these seats are the size of a small toaster and are light enough for the kids to carry themselves.  For Z, who was too little for the Bubble Bum, we found a light and foldable high-back booster seat that is good for 30 lbs.  This actually works great because we can place her in the middle and the two older kids can lean their heads against her seat when napping during long car rides.  We also went back and forth about bringing a stroller,  It is safe to say at this point that Todd is glad I won that argument.  At almost 3 years old Z is a HUUUGE complainer, and still loves to take her naps.  The stroller has been great for keeping her happy during our days of exploring. On really really challenging walks we are both able to give a shoulder or piggy back ride to each of the other kids.   We borrowed our neighbor’s light weight MacClaren Volo, which collapses easily, is light to carry, and has a convenient shoulder strap.  



Everything fits in our backpacks with the exception of the stroller and Z’s booster.  Obviously T and I are carrying the majority of the load across his 58 liter and my 48 liter back-packs.  These bags can hold quite a lot and most importantly they fit in overhead compartments on the airplanes.  We are able to check the stroller and carseat at the gate, therefore completely avoiding baggage claim.   The two older kids have 18 liter packs that weight 5-7 pounds at most, and little Z carries a 12 liter bag that is around 3 pounds.  Each kid carries ALL of their own clothes and some toys / entertainment items.  Check out a picture of Lincoln’s gear - yep, that’s a fully inflated small soccer ball!  



So here is the list…

Technology
  • 2 iPhones and 2 13-inch laptops so that we can continue to work during the trip
  • 3 8-inch Amazon Fire tablets and 3 sets of headphones for the kids.  The debate is still out on whether or not these were necessary as the flight to Europe had kid movies and T doesn’t allow them to be used outside of flights or long car trips.   It also could not have been just one or two tablets because the bickering and fighting is worse than any benefit of short periods of silence.   These take forever to charge, so all 3 charge cables came with us.  
  • 1 wall socket converter, one laptop cable, 2 phone cables and 2 pairs of adult headphones. 
Entertainment - holy smokes, I need to definitely toss a lot of this stuff
  • 3 coloring books
  • A set of 20 or so coloring pencils
  • A notebook
  • 7 thin paper story books - it has been nice to have these at bed time but we have also discovered books on tape so we could have left these at home and will probably start shetting these soon.  
  • My small book of Soduko puzzles - in true minimalist style I rip out completed pages. 
  • 5 super thin Russian homework books so that we can “pretend” to continue our Russian lessons while away.  
  • 1 small kid jigsaw puzzles
  • 3 tiny stuffed toys - these were a must
  • 1 plastic knife and multi-use toys (Lincoln’s favorite toys - because how could he have ever survived 3 months away from these - LOL)
  • 1 tiny travel chess set and one UNO junior card game - out of this list these were Todd’s only request.  These get used quite often - I hate it when he is right! 
  • 1 size 3 soccer ball, and a rubber frisbee we picked up in Barcelona -they’ve been great.
  • 1 Diabolo given to us by our friends from Germany - a fun item
Kids Clothes and Shoes
  • Each kid has a hat and a pair of sunglasses although this is constantly in flux as we play the loose/replace game
  • Each kid has a pair of sneakers, a pair of crocs and a pair of sandals.  The sandals are more of a nice to have and could have totally stayed at home as we feel that we can navigate any environment or activity either in crocs or sneakers.  But these are light and it’s always refreshing to put on something nice when going out to dinner at night. 
  • Each kid has one sweatshirt, one long-sleeve shirt and one pair of pants for cold nights.  In the last month these have been used maybe 2-3 times so while these are essential we have not had a need to use these much. There has been absolutely no need for a jacket - even the rainy nights are very warm in Europe during the summer.  
  • Each kid has one pair of pajamas.  Again these are nice to have and have only be used 2-3 times.  The nights are hot and normally they sleep just in undies -or naked.  
  • Each kid has 6 summer outfits - either dresses or a shirt/short combo
Mama T Stuff
  • A small bag of make up that I rarely use but is nice to have
  • A flat iron - Todd has lost the fight on this one
  • One sweater and 2 hats
  • 1 pair of flip flops , 1 pair of nicer sandals and one set of sneakers.  I have yet to use the sneakers but we have not done much hiking yet
  • 3 dresses, 4 tops and 5 bottoms (2 shorts, jeans, light weight pants and leggings.  Obviously this is way more pants than I need and its way too hot to wear jeans even at night.  
  • Small bag of cheap jewelry - left all my nice stuff behind
Daddy T Stuff
  • a pair of flip flops and a pair of slip on shoes
  • one hat and one light sweater
  • 5 short sleeve shirts and 4 pairs of shorts
  • 1 pair of pants that have not been used in the last 5 weeks
Swimwear
  • 1 swimsuit for each kid plus an extra girls swimsuit that the girls rotate between them
  • 2 small rubber pool darts -for diving practice
  • 3 goggles
  • 3 swim shirts, which limit sun burns and saving time on applying sun cream
  • 1 set of blow up arm floats for Zoya - essential and these pack down into nothing
  • 2 swimsuits for mom and 2 swimsuits for dad 
Toiletries 
  • Obviously everyone has a tooth brush
  • 2 toothpastes (one adult and one kids)
  • 1 deodorant - yep, we have been sharing for years
  • 1 razor for mom and a small electric travel razor for dad
  • 2 small bottles of lotion
  • Small pack of make up remover wipes
  • 1 bag of floss sticks for the kids and 1 pack of floss for adults
  • one nail file, one kids nail scissors, one cuticle scissors, one tweezers
  • a small pack of pads/tampons that I picked up here
Medicine Bag
We could have done without this and instead just bought items as needed, but it’s nice to have   
  • we have a thermometer - its way bigger than necessary but its what we had and we didn’t want to buy a new one.  This has already been used plenty! 
  • a bottle of kids aspirin and an adults aspirin
  • 2 rash cremes that our kids use and one small bottle of vaseline
  • tummy medicine
  • swimmer ear medicine because K always gets those
  • a handful of bandaids
  • one small pack of thread and needles which is not used much but extremely helpful to have
During the move days, we are quite a sight and get a lot of inquisitive stares when all 5 of us are walking down the street with our backpacks on.  Still it works great and at least we are mobil!   


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