Travel Versions of Your Favorite Home Appliances (and one cool doo-hicky)

I'm a sucker for blog posts and books about travel tips and hacks. Mashable's recent "11 Travel 

versions of your favorite home appliances" offers a couple of good, and several goofy, ideas.

If you've read my e-book on the topic, you know I'm a fiend for 1-bag packing. Carry-on only, no checked luggage. But it would be cool to arrive at your beach destination with a suitcase that transforms into a bbq grill, right?

This tiny portable humidifier is so cool and so ingenious I almost want one. Even though I've never said to myself "gee I wish this hotel air were humidified."



But this one, this is a potentially useful thing:  a portable sonic toothbrush. I actually miss my electric toothbrush when I'm on the road even though my tiny collapsible travel brush gets the job done.



Finally there is this phone charger caddy. I don't see myself stashing one of these in my bag but seriously what a cute doo-hicky.

Even in the tightest of spots

Just arrived last night on a direct JetBlue flight from Savannah to Boston. Super easy on/off with my 1-bag.

However, last week I had a weird Lansing to Savannah flight with two connections (Detroit and Atlanta). That meant getting on and off 3 flights, and it's the only time I think seriously and fondly about checking luggage. But here's the thing:  if I had checked luggage and if there had been any delay or missed flights (both Detroit and Atlanta were super-tight running-to-the-gate connections), I might well have arrived without my stuff.

On 2 of those 3 flights, there was space in the overhead for my E-Bag Motherlode (which I heart). On the tiny plane I boarded in Lansing, however, the overhead was the size of a glove compartment. Remarkably, even on that small plane I was able to shove the bag beneath the seat in front of me. And because it's a black bag, it's not apparent that the bag is sticking out a bit. Just try to look comfortable and absorbed in your reading - so far this has worked for me.

tl;dr = one year into it, I'm still loving this 1-bag travel thing.  Get more tips and ideas in my e-book!

Got back last night from a 10-day trip (Boston to Phoenix to Newark and back to Boston) with just the one bag.  Hotel laundry is super easy in Arizona - everything's dry in a couple of hours. 

I was a bit nervous last night boarding in Group 5 (the last group to get on the plane) but did find overhead space for the bag.  As I mention in the book, the great thing about this way of traveling is that if you absolutely must, you can stash the bag under the seat in front of you. Not a lot of room for your feet but it can be done.

So check it out - cool pic of oranges in a coffee shop in Jerome, AZ, a shot of Arcosanti (architect/philosopher Paolo Soleri's weird and cool acid-dream habitat vision), and the outstanding peak of the trip - a hike up Bear Mountain near Sedona. 

An altruistic motivation for 1-bag travel

One of my favorite flights was a business shuttle between Washington DC and Boston several years ago. The flight was almost entirely businessmen who carried nothing but a thin valise and a folded copy of the Financial Times.  They lined up dutifully and orderly as their boarding zones were called, slipped onto the plane gracefully and quickly, and took their seats quietly.

On the other hand, some of my least favorite flights included great numbers of first-time or infrequent air travelers, including many families returning from vacations with bulging carry-on bags, sombreros, stuffed animals, boxes of lobsters and bags of cookies.  Traveling to and from college towns, I’ve endured long waits while the crew assisted students with bags of (apparently dirty) laundry, overstuffed computer bags, and musical instruments. In my book "A Guy's Guide to 1-Bag Packing: Minimalist Travel Secrets That Save You Time and Money," I review several motivations for you to consider minimalist one-bag travel. Saving you time, saving you money, and increasing your travel options if you need to make last-minute changes, for example.

But there is an altruistic motivation for packing light as well. When you’ve planned carefully and packed efficiently, you’ll be lightning fast getting on and off the plane, in and out of your seat, and in and out of the overhead. So, do it for yourself, or do it for the guy in front of you or the family behind you.

The Magic of Making Up

Hotel "hacks" - how minimalist travelers get the most out of their hotel room

Hotel room “hacks” is a life hack genre all to itself.  Here, I’ll share my favorites:

• Use a binder clip to create a hotel room blackout for sleeping in late.
• Use the Scientific 7 Minute Workout I mentioned above for a no excuses quick workout requiring no equipment.
• If you practice yoga, you may have struggled with squeezing a yoga mat, even a “travel mat”, into your bag. This mat is amazingly thin - folds up to the size of a Newsweek magazine. Because it is so thin, you’ll need to use it on carpet rather than hard surfaces.
• When my sisters and I were kids, we thought hotel swimming pools were awesome. And we were right! Take advantage of this great low-impact cardio workout (I travel with goggles and this only slightly ridiculous swimsuit. I admit I wouldn’t wear it around anybody that I actually know, but it adds almost zero weight to my bag and it’s perfect for this purpose). Jumping in the pool even briefly is also a chance to disconnect and literally wash off the stress of traveling for out-of-town business. Check out this Huffington Post blog about our “blue mind” - the mental health benefits of being in or near the water.
• For shorter trips, like a week or so, use the hotel room laundry method I sketched out earlier. If you’re traveling longer than 2 weeks, take advantage of hotel laundry service at least once; this is available in nicer hotels and sometimes you can even get a 12 hour turnaround.
• Dump everything from your pockets into a collapsible bowl or the Tom Bihn Travel Tray - I have used both and have found that the bowl packs a bit flatter and lighter. The point here is to have one place, one container, where coins and hotel room key and phone and other easily misplaced items can be scooped up quickly when you are packing up.
• Snatch those awesome plastic laundry bags from the hotel room closet – great for separating dirty clothes from clean, or for transporting wet stuff back from the beach, or for safeguarding fruit or food items that might spill out in your bag.
• Your hotel ice bucket provides a nice mini fridge for keeping yogurt and hummus fresh overnight. According to this quasi-scientific investigation (and my own experience), a bit of water and ice in the bucket provides a quick solution to chill beer (or the little free bottles of water some hotels provide).
• Hotel room keys which use NFC technology (these are the cards you tap in order to unlock the room, not the ones which you swipe like a credit card) can be rewritten with Android phones, and assigned tasks specific to your typical hotel room stay. Then, simply tapping the hotel card to your phone will automatically set an alarm, turn on Wi-Fi, dim your screen, or any other tasks you might assign it.
• I was initially hopeful that my tiny little Chrome Cast device would allow me to access Netflix and other video content on my hotel television; my experience thus far has been that I simply cannot connect the device to the hotel Wi-Fi in order to communicate to my phone or tablet. But because I use the Samsung All Share hub to display PowerPoint slides from my phone to an LCD projector, the device is always handy (smaller than a deck of cards, and lighter) for streaming content from my phone to the hotel television. Many of you will pack an iPad or thin laptop, and find it agreeable to simply watch movies with that device.
• Increasingly, hotels are providing decent (if not free) internet access. But I do pack a tiny mini router which has proven useful on a couple of occasions to boost a weak hotel Wi-Fi signal. This device requires an Ethernet connection, something which some newer hotels no longer offer.
• Rather than purchasing Wi-Fi access for multiple devices, pop in a wireless USB adapter to create a hotspot from your laptop or other USB enabled device.
•  As another incentive to get down to the hotel gym, note that many decent hotels offer free fresh fruit in their workout facility. No need to eat crap when you travel.
• Most hotel rooms provide an iron and a junky ironing board - but you can avoid ironing altogether by taking advantage of that usually super steamy hotel bathroom. Before you start your shower, bring wrinkled clothing into the bathroom on a clothes hanger, then shut the door while you shower and shave; most wrinkles will fall out with the heat and humidity.
• At their worst, hotels can be noisy strange places that smell funny. At their best, they can provide a mini retreat – an occasion to pull back from your daily routine, reconnect with yourself, rest, and renew. Without any of the typical trappings of home around you – yard and garage and things to do – your hotel can actually be a quiet sanctuary. Personally and professionally I have a huge booster of journaling. Sketching out experiences and thoughts you’ve had over the course of the day, checking in at a deeper level regarding your goals and your values, thinking about next steps and plans, noting where you are in your most important relationships at work and home and community. You don’t actually need a paper journal to do the work of “journaling” (I do a lot of my journaling in Evernote), but if you agree that there is something organic and raw about putting actual pen to actual paper, a great travel journal is one of these super thin Moleskine cashier journals. I’ve always got one handy when I travel. I have also been known to put my thoughts out onto hotel stationery, then stuff it in my bag and pull it out later only to wonder “when was I in Lawrence Kansas?”
• I have no idea where you could possibly buy one of those tiny little sewing kits they provide in some hotel rooms. The next time you’re staying in a decent hotel which provides these little kits, go ahead and snag one and make it part of your regular travel gear.
• If you stay in different hotels over several days, you’ll eventually find that you have completely forgotten your room number. A simple solution here is to use your phone to take a photo of the room number. A somewhat more complicated solution – because you first have to master this strategy – is to use a system like Ron White’s “skeleton mnemonic” which assigns the numbers zero through 9 to a location on the human body and allows users of the mnemonic to remember sequences of numbers. 
•  A small roll of duct tape may be a worthwhile investment of space and weight in your one-bag travel system – it fixes everything, or at least holds it together until you get back home
• The hotel lost and found box has been a lifesaver for me on more than one occasion when I’ve misplaced a phone or laptop charger. Stop by the front desk and tell them what you’re looking for and ask if you could take a look through the stuff that previous guests have left behind.

So there you go, a list of my favorite hotel room hacks and travel tips.  

Get more like this at Amazon in my book 

A Guy's Guide to 1-Bag Packing: Minimalist Travel Secrets That Save You Time and Money.

My "1 weird trick" to keep protein in my on-the-road diet

As a rule, food is heavy and bulky and generally a ridiculous thing on which to waste precious ounces and cubic centimeters. However, as I confess in my "Guy's Guide to 1-Bag Packing: Minimalist Travel Secrets That Save You Time and Money,"  I routinely travel with coffee and a bit of powdered milk, in addition to trail mix or granola bar for in-flight nourishment. 

And one more food item that I include every time I travel is peanut butter. But peanut butter is heavy, right? And you’re limited to 3 ounces or less in airports that still hold to the whole liquid and gel rules right? 

Right and right. That’s why I pack the very weird, and slightly controversial among nutritionists, product known as powdered peanut butter. I toss a couple of ounces of the stuff into a zippered plastic bag and use it for nutritional emergencies – remarkably frequent occurrence when traveling. An example of a nutritional emergency is an urge to order in-room pizza at 10 PM. Or expensive hotel breakfast at any hour. 

Just mix the powdered peanut butter with a bit of water (careful with the proportions) and you have a reasonable facsimile of an all-purpose high-protein food which, when combined with banana or whole-wheat tortilla or whatever else you can get your hands on, makes for a decent meal in a pinch.

Get more minimalist travel tips right on your Kindle! 

Stuff to avoid packing

Hairdryer - I don’t remember the last time I was in a hotel room that didn’t have one, and many guys maintain a short haircut which really doesn’t require this huge unnecessary device.

Shampoo – If you don’t mind hotel room toiletries, you can skip packing soap and shampoo.

Coffee press or water heaters – at this point even low-end hotel rooms are equipped with what is admittedly pretty low-end coffee, but if you’re not too picky you might just go with what they offer rather than weighing yourself down with your own supplies. For me, coffee is pretty essential, so just to be confident I pack along a few Starbucks instant coffee packets. Easily the best instant coffee out there, and works for hot or iced coffee in a pinch. I also pack Ziploc with about a quarter cup of powdered whole milk. I didn’t know this stuff existed until my first trip to Australia a few years ago, and it’s so much better than the powdered coffee “whiteners” provided in many hotel rooms.

Camera – unless you are a professional or devoted amateur photographer, the awesome camera in your smart phone is probably plenty good for most of your photography purposes. My phone actually has a campus about 10 times as crisp as my first digital camera which I thought was so awesome at the time.

Books – I used to imagine that during my traveling I would plow through three or four dense books, and would typically return with 8 pounds of books that I packed and never once opened. Just load up your Kindle – or even better, Kindle app on your phone – in advance with zero extra weight. Maybe my guide to 1-bag travel is a good place to start!

Computer – before you reflexively pack a laptop, ask yourself whether all of your tasks for this trip can be managed with just your phone. I can do a PowerPoint presentation, respond to emails, and even do some light word processing using just my phone.

Laundry Bag - the dry sack that I’m recommending for your hotel room laundry also works great, on the way home, as an airtight dirty laundry bag. Alternatively, use one of the plastic laundry bags in the hotel room for this purpose.

Workout equipment – I have traveled with my exercise bands and TRX equipment, both of which provide great hotel room workouts without taking up a lot of space. I have also done a few in room workouts using the ValSlide - it’s an idea which seems great on paper, these things pack light, and are versatile enough for upper and lower body exercises. But I can’t say I really ever loved it enough to make it a regular part of my travel workout. And anyway most hotels have decent, although not great, workout facilities where the creative guest can put together a decent full body or cardio workout. 

A jump rope takes up almost no space, and dedicated runners will probably get in their workouts outdoors (ask the hotel concierge or other staff recommendations for jogging routes to the hotel). 

The “Scientific 7 Minute Workout” was kind of a craze a couple of years back, but fads aside it is actually a really good bodyweight workout requiring no equipment (and which actually takes about 8 minutes to complete). 

With any luck at all, you’ll have the hotel pool completely to yourself – on occasion, let your workout be a few quick laps. Even with one-bag packing, I find that it’s easy enough to always have a pair of swim goggles handy.

Gifts and souvenirs - I see a lot of tourists boarding flights with bags full of gifts and trinkets from places they’ve visited. It’s really nice to think of others on the road, and it feels good to bring home something special from an exotic location. But most of this stuff can be purchased online during your travels, or immediately upon your return home. A lot of the really cool cheaper souvenirs I have seen in my Australian travels were actually, according to the fine print, manufactured in China. Purchasing those gift items in Australia, and packing them back home with me, seemed like a remarkable carbon footprint when you think about the journey from China to Australia and back home to central Massachusetts.

It’s easier to simply have it drop shipped from the source. And you can still present these gifts with comments like “they eat this stuff at every meal over there and I thought it was weird at first but I really came to like it, so I thought you might like to try it as well.” Or “I always think of you when I see snow globes, and this Louvre snow globe might look great on your piano.”

However, if you run across a really singular or handmade item that strikes you as the perfect gift for someone-bag home, ask the vendor if they can mail the item for you so you don’t have to pack it. Alternatively, pop into the local post office and mail it home yourself. Having mailed about 10 pounds of gift items (and an extra pair of jeans which I never should’ve packed in the first place) from Australia to the US, I can warn you that this option is not cheap and should be reserved for those really special items. At the time I was convinced my nephews really needed those boomerangs.

You know what makes a really light souvenir? Remembering that the word “souvenir” is actually a French verb meaning “to remember,” a postcard sent back to friends or loved ones from your travel destination is affordable, pretty easy to locate in almost any locale, and adds no weight to your one-bag minimalist travel system. If you will be traveling within your home country, pack stamps in advance to save time during your travels - just drop the postcard off at your hotel to make it super easy.

And if you’re thinking of purchasing an item for yourself, consider this: research described by Harvard Business School’s Michael Norton and University of British Columbia professor Elizabeth Dunn indicates that, for the purposes of personal happiness and well-being, our money is better spent on experiences than on material goods.

Get more awesome travel tips and 1-bag packing ideas by checking out my 

"Guy's Guide to 1-Bag Packing: Minimalist Travel Secrets That Save You Time and Money."

How do 1-bag travelers manage plugs and chargers?

This is a category where many guys could likely shave off a pound or two. I think it was during my third trip to Australia that I realized I didn’t actually need that heavy voltage converter.  Voltage transformers are heavy, plug adapters are light and if you’re only going to one country you’ll just need that one type adapter. Many laptop chargers have the transformer already built-in (and as will note in the next chapter, you might not need a laptop anyway). 

Travelers with electric hairdryers may well need a power transformer, but as I will recommend in the next chapter, a hairdryer should be the very first thing you remove from your packing list. Before you toss in that weighty power transformer for an international trip, take a look at the electronics you’ll be packing and read up on the voltage in your destination country to be sure you’ll actually need it.

But do pack a plug adapter if your destination country uses differently shaped wall outlets than those used in your home country. You can buy these in advance - they pack really light - or you can pick them up cheaply once you arrive to your destination.

Take a look at your various electronics, and if two or more use the fairly universal micro USB adapter, you don’t need redundant and heavy chargers. And remember that most television sets in hotel rooms have USB plugs somewhere along the side or back of the device, and these can be used for charging in a pinch. 

More than a few one-bag experts recommend packing a travel surge protector - it takes up a bit of space so use your judgment on this one. It is not essential, but I do pack this light travel strip which also includes USB outlets, and at times it has proven convenient in older hotel rooms with insufficient outlets.

For years, I carried one of those immersible water heaters for boiling water in hotel rooms. I stopped packing this doodad when eventually I realized that almost every hotel room has a coffee pot which does the same thing.

How about you?  How do you stay connected while keeping it light on the road?  Share your ideas and tips here, and go check out my 

Guy's Guide to 1-Bag Packing: Minimalist Travel Secrets That Save You Time and Money - it's at Amazon.

What are the best toiletry options for minimalist travelers?

This is where you can really save a lot of room and weight. Where possible, pack dry versions of toiletries. They pack lighter and they last longer, so you can pack just the amount you need. Examples include tooth powder rather than toothpaste, and “crystal” deodorant rather than gels or roll-on.  I’ve used a couple of these solid deodorants which were ineffective, or irritated my skin, before I discovered this awesome one while traveling in Australia.  Highly recommended.

This will vary from airport to airport, but as recently as 2 months before this writing I have been asked to remove my liquid and gel toiletries into that little 1 quart plastic bag. When you pack dry versions, you don’t need to separate them along with the wet stuff.

Why limit it to 3 ounces?

Somehow, over the past several years, the 3 ounce bottle has become the standard for on flight toiletries. That’s actually way more than you need of many products. Save tiny shampoo bottles from hotels and repurpose these to carry smaller amounts of product. One of my favorite travel hacks in the past couple of years – don’t remember where I saw it first – is using a contact lens container to pack tiny amounts of liquid product. I use the right side for moisturizer and the left side for hair paste.

Not that razors and toothbrushes take up a lot of space, but in the spirit of packing as compactly as possible, I use collapsible travel toothbrushes and this tiny razor which actually uses regular size blades.

Many hotels will provide you with sample sizes of toiletries that you have forgotten to pack, but in my experience the shaving cream product they typically offer is subpar. It works in a pinch, but it’s not a great shave. The look and feel of this stuff suggests that it might actually be hair conditioner. Interestingly enough, many minimalist travel devotees recommend hotel room conditioner as a substitute for shaving cream. Try it, your mileage may vary. 

Something that has always bugged me about tiny containers of shaving foam is that it’s almost impossible to determine how much product is left, so you get a surprise mid shave. I was super optimistic about ultraportable shaving oil – and the prospect that you only need a few drops to get the job done – but in my experience these products gave me a worse shave even than hair conditioner. My favorite solution here is to fill a tiny hotel shampoo bottle with shaving cream from the guys at The Art of Shaving. Even their travel size bottle is way too much for most of my trips, so I save space and weight here by packing just what I’ll need.

If you like to wear cologne, you may have struggled with how to bring your favorite scent along on your travels. A fantastic solution is this tiny (holds about 1/10 of 1 ounce) bullet shaped refillable spray bottle, designed specifically for this purpose. It’s easy to fill, and mine hasn’t leaked in about one year of use.

If you plan to travel from more than one week, especially if you are on the hairy side, you might tuck one of these tiny trimmers into your bag. No sense in letting eyebrows and nose and ear hair get out of control.

Pro Tip:  Put together an ultralight first aid kit in a small Ziploc bag. In addition to any of your regular prescription medication, you might include melatonin or other sleep aid, aspirin or other pain reliever, and something for indigestion. Adhesive bandages and a small amount of antibiotic ointment are also first aid essentials. If you plan to hike upon arrival, a bit of moleskin packs easy and can be blessed relief. In the very unlikely chance that my hiking will leave me stranded, I thought this super tiny water filtration straw, a Mylar blanket, and waterproof matches. Avoid off-the-shelf first aid kit which are often housed in a bulky lasting clamshell type container, may include stuff you don’t need.  Rather, pack the first aid items which are important for your unique activities and travel style.

Get more travel tips and 1-bag packing secrets in my e-book, now available at Amazon!

A minimalist wallet for minimalist travelers

I started using the “as seen on TV” Slim Clip wallet for beach vacations when I only wanted to have a few bills and credit cards in my pocket. My reasoning was that I didn’t want to carry around a dozen supermarket savings cards, piles of receipts, and loyalty punch cards while wearing light summer shorts. 

Then, at some point, I wondered why I would ever want to carry all this junk around with me. Moreover, it was around the same time that a chiropractor friend of mine suggested the big lump in my pants pocket is not good for my long-term back health and comfort. At this point, The Slim Clip is my only wallet, and I don’t miss the weight and heft of my old one.

Get more tips and secrets of 1-bag travel in my e-book - it's available at Amazon for cheap (or for free with Kindle Unlimited!)

The 1-bag traveler in winter

Departing from, or arriving to, a colder destination typically involves packing heavier items. Wear the heaviest boots and coats and bulky caps on board the flight, then remove them and store them in the nooks and crannies in the overhead storage. 

Additionally, there is winter wear which can be packed almost as easily as lighter summer wear.  I almost always pack my onion skin North Face jacket.  It’s super thin, packs down to almost nothing. Toss it in your amazingly tiny Sea to Summit Ultrasil packable day pack (I love mine  - packs down to nothing when you’re not using it but expands to a decent size and super comfy and strong pack for day hikes)  and you’re ready for outdoor temperatures down to the low 40s or so.  My jacket came in a hideous orange.  This North Face jacket appears to be out of production at this time, but something like this Montane featherlight, or this EMS jacket, would likely serve the same purpose.

While an onion skin windbreaker is sufficient preparation for the cooler wind gusts, preparing for really cold outdoor activity requires a bit more hard-core winter gear.  A good waterproof shell like the EMS Helix (packs pretty light can also wear this on the flight) and an incredibly packable down jacket or “sweater” will be sufficient preparation for all but the most extreme outdoor cold activity.

What's your favorite easy-to-pack winter and technical gear?  

Share your tips here, and read more of mine in

"A Guy's Guide to 1-Bag Packing: Minimalist Travel Secrets That Save You Time and Money" at Amazon!

MMA Workout

What are the key principles of 1-bag travel?

A great resource for minimalist travelers is the site One Bag, One World: News, Reviews and Community for Light Travelers.  One post in particular makes it clear that 1-bag travel is not for everyone, and lays the groundwork for traveling light. The authors offer these 7 principles:

1) Pack only those items you really need.

2) Don't pack any of the items you usually bring along “just in case.”

3) Each item you pack should pass this 2-step screening:

• “do I really need this?” and 
• "will I use it enough to justify packing if for the entire trip?”

4) Don't count the days and pack underwear, t-shirts, etc., for that number of days.  Learn the fine art of hotel-room laundry.

5) Pack clothing appropriate for 1-bag travel.  Quick-drying, wrinkle resistant, and easily mixed/matched with other items to create multiple sartorial combos.

6) Pack just enough toiletry items to get started -  then replenish as you travel.

7) Everything you pack should fit in 1 bag small enough to stash in the overhead or the seat in front of you.  And the bag should be wheel-less (read why here!)

“One bag travel is not about the bag. It’s not about the packing list. It’s about the mindset.”

Check out my e-book on the topic, A Guy's Guide to 1-Bag Packing: Minimalist Travel Secrets That Save You Time and Money, now available at Amazon!

photo:  freeimages.com

Elegant? No. Flexible/easy/efficient? Yup.

Just got back from doing a few ADHD workshops around Maryland and Virginia.  Boston to Baltimore, then returned Dulles to Boston.  Outbound flight was a smaller plane with shallow overheads, no way my old rolling bag would have fit.  Saved myself  a few minutes by not waiting at Carousel 3 for luggage. Was able to change my return flight super last minute - not something I could have done if I'd checked luggage.

Guy at one of my workshops did say "Wow, that's a big backpack!"  I explained that it wasn't actually a backpack but was the entirety of my luggage and he did a quick eyebrow-raise and "oh."  

The takeaway:  1-bag packing is not the most sleek or elegant way to travel, but it is the easiest and most efficient, and allows for maximum flexibility.

Why wheeled bags are not recommended for ultralight travel

The super helpful blog OneBag.com was the first place I encountered any resistance whatsoever to the almost-universal acclaim for wheeled luggage.  Wheeled bags are the greatest thing since sliced bread, right?  Saves your shoulder, easy to navigate around busy airports, frees up one hand, great place to stash a computer bag?  How could you argue against all this?  Well this article - combined with my own experience - convinced me.

Here are my favorite 5 arguments against the wheeled bag, paraphrased from this post at OneBag:

• wheeled bags are heavier
• the bulk and configuration of the frame actually takes up room inside the bag
• wheel bags are not collapsible for easy storing or squishing into weird overhead spaces
• awkward on escalators - especially non-functioning escalators, when your only recourse is to pick the wheeled bag up like it's a refrigerator or a recalcitrant 4-year-old child and carry it up/down the stairs. on buses, trams, and other public transportation in many parts of the world
• lots of fragile parts to break - if your own experience, if you've replaced luggage it was probably because the collapsible handle broke

"...Merely adding wheels to a typical bag design increases the weight by 75% and .decreases the carrying capacity by almost half. "

Check out my Guy's Guide to 1-Bag Packing: Minimalist Travel Secrets That Save You Time and Money for more hacks and tips!

photo:  freeimages.com

Hotel room laundry tips for the minimalist traveler

This seems as good an occasion as any to talk about hotel room laundry. The same principles apply for campsite or youth hostel laundry as well. 

Common strategies include washing these items in the bathtub, while you shower, or the more efficient bathroom sink method. I’ve used the bathroom sink method, especially for shorter trips, with great success. I carry along a rubber sink stopper for this purpose; hotel sinks rarely have a tight-fitting stopper.

For longer trips, a more efficient method – it almost rivals machine washing – is the dry sack laundry method. You may be familiar with the heavy dry sacks from a kayaking adventure some years ago. But newer versions of the dry sack, for example the Sea to Summit Ultrasil model (I use the 8 liter model, a medium-size) is a superlight, waterproof, and eminently portable makeshift wash basin.  

With either the sink or dry sack approach, you can use hotel shampoo or – my recommendation – powdered detergent which you’ve prepacked in a Ziploc bag (a quarter cup can last a couple of weeks).  Place a few dirty clothes and a bit of detergent in the dry sack, fill with warm water, seal it off and shake vigorously for a couple of minutes. Drain the water, and then repeat the process once for shampoo and twice for powdered detergent to ensure rinsing. Remove each item from the dry sack, gently wring out excess water, and place the wet clothing on a towel. Roll the towel and squeeze tightly. You can find plenty of YouTube videos in which practitioners of hotel laundry craft which recommend stepping on the towel to further blot excess water; this is my approach as well. 

Using hotel clothes hangers, distribute the damp items around the room, near a vent or window, and allow them to dry overnight. 

Many one-bag aficionados recommend travel clotheslines. I have used a couple of models, and although not essential, I usually carry with me a small latex clothes line (it looks like a string of intertwined rubber bands). I have used it occasionally, for example in hotels with those weird theft proof clothes hangers which are essentially useless for this purpose.

How to handle stains and other accidents? If you typically check luggage, the solution is to have “backup” shirts and pants and even a spare pair of shoes. One-bag packing doesn’t give you that luxury and assurance. More than a few minimalist travelers swear by those stain remover wipes to handle these kinds of surprises. I keep a couple in my own bag – they take up almost no space and have saved me on a couple of occasions as I don’t typically have “backups”.  And along that line, I also toss in a couple of these shoe wipes to keep myself looking presentable.

Get more 1-bag hacks and travel tips in my e-book at Amazon!