Many of you, and not all of you women, have asked how we could possibly travel with just one carry-on suitcase. And, to be honest, I wasn’t sure how we would either except that we knew that if we really needed something we could get the local equivalent wherever we travel.  So the packing list, for clothing at least, came together easily.

Based on our housing, we needed to last roughly 12 days between places with our own laundry machines. So 14 days of outfits seemed a safe bet: 5 pants, 1 skirt, 1 hiking skort, 4 day dresses, 2 dinner dresses, 14 short sleeve tops (mine: 5 cotton tanks, 5 silk tanks, 4 cotton t-shirts), 2 long sleeve, 2 sweaters, 1 raincoat, 14 days of undergarments, 2 pj, swimsuit and hat. Simple heels, water shoes, tennis shoes/chucks, Toms, Havianas. The girls and I followed this list. Andy streamlined further, bought technical clothing and may need do more laundry than the rest of us.

A note about the clothes I chose…the RTW in Easy Ways blog I read had a funny post by the father.  He was sick of the things he packed and couldn’t wait to replace his clothes; he felt that he needed to get his groove back and look sexy again.  That stuck with me.  I tried to pick things that I would have worn at home rather than the “travel clothes” that might take up less room but leave me feeling like I left my personality behind.  We will see, perhaps sensible will trump sensual.  But then again…