CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

Packing is an incredibly serious ordeal, especially when you have to carry your life on your back for nine months or more. This list took me months to perfect and I tested it out (in almost its complete form) during a week-long family trip to Ocean City in October. It’s funny, because my backpack was more full for about four days in New York City than it is now, on a nine-month-plus trip.

Clothes

• 3 t-shirts
• 1 long sleeve
• 3 sports bras, 1 bralette
• 3 pairs shorts
• 1 pair zip-off pants
• 1 pair leggings
• 10 pairs underwear
• Period underwear set
• 6 pairs socks
• 1 sweater
• 1 spring jacket
• 1 sleep shirt
• 1 pair sleep shorts
• 2 swimsuits

I bought two Dri-Fit Nike t-shirts and brought along a t-shirt from our Ocean City travels to serve as my three t-shirts. I agonized over bringing a tank top but just couldn’t find one I’d really like. For a long time, I planned on bringing four t-shirts, but finally decided that my sleep shirt could double as an actual t-shirt if I ever needed it to. My pair of zip-off pants was a brilliant purchase as I was able to cut a pair of pants and a pair of shorts and replace them with just these. Plus, they weigh almost nothing. My sweater is polar fleece and therefore pretty light and not very bulky and I brought my spring jacket which also folds down really flat.

Shoes

• Running shoes
• Plastic Birkenstocks

I initially bought Vessis for this trip but found that they hurt my feet and slipped on my heels too much for comfort. I traded them in and wound up buying trail running shoes from Adidas which are supposed to be water resistant. They’ve got great grip, which should come in handy with some of the hiking I have planned, and the water resistant is the whole reason I tried Vessis in the first place. Hoping they work!

I bought a pair of Birkenstock-like sandals that are just plastic and therefore really light for walking around the hostels and beach days. So far, so great!

Toiletries & First Aid

• Combo shampoo and conditioner
• Extra conditioner
• Body wash
• Face wash
• PackTowl
• Loofa
• Hair ties
• Anti-chafe cream
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush
• Deodorant
• Retainers
• Small pack disposable razors (to start)
• Hairbrush
• Band-aids
• Tylenol, Naproxen
• Eyeglass wipes & eyeglass cloth
• Travel-size hand sanitizer

Buying a little loofa and bringing it with me travelling was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. My backpack has two mesh pockets for holding water bottles (and other things) so I stuff it inside one of those pockets after giving it a good shake to get off excess water and it dries up beautifully. It’s a fantastic little slice of home that takes up no space and adds no weight.

Electronics

• iPad (in its case) & charger
• iPhone & charger
• Apple Watch & charger
• Travel adapter
• Earbuds
• Portable charger
• USB sticks (3 x 128GB)

I know that this trip is going to have a ton of photos so I got 3 USB sticks for Christmas, two of which are dedicated exclusively to pictures and one of which has a few movies from home loaded onto it as well as space for photos.

My travel adapter is universal, off Amazon, and has literally every country. It has USB and USB-C connections which is super handy because I can plug every cord into it at once.

Miscellaneous

• Sunglasses
• Glasses case
• Gum
• Tube sock for period cramps
• Earplugs & extra earplugs
• Deck of cards
• Water bottle
• Nose plugs
• Little blanket
• Spare packing cubes

In other words, the little things. ‘Earplugs & extra earplugs’ refers to literal noise-softening earbuds for sleeping. I bought the Loop Quiet earplugs as recommended by Nomadic Matt. I have a couple overnight buses and lots of different hostels to stay at so I decided to get these for the extra help sleeping as needed.

I bought two packs of multi-sized packing cubes and each pack came with a large, medium, and small cube. I wound up using one large cube, one medium cube, and both small cubes so I’m left with a large cube and a medium cube that aren’t being used at the moment. I’ve brought them along to serve as laundry bags and other storage as needed.

My little blanket is a little square piece of one of my baby blankets with little trim around the edge to help bind it together. I couldn’t take anything bigger on this trip, but desperately need that little piece of home and I just love this. It’s small and weighs nothing, but it means the world, especially since my Mom and Dad both worked to put it together for me – and a special shoutout to one of our neighbours, who showed them how to do it.

Important Documents/Items

• Passport
• Photocopy of passport
• Travel insurance information
• Driver’s license
• Money belt
• Credit cards and debit card
• Big lock & luggage locks
• Health card & printout
• Cash for countries

This right here is the really important stuff. Since I’m backpacking, it is one hundred percent necessary to have a combination or key lock for lockers in the dorm. I’ve used mine since arriving in Hawaii, although I will also say that I feel quite safe leaving a fair amount of stuff out in my dorm, and I’m hoping that continues in other places as well.

I hope this list helps you with your packing! Keep checking back for updates on how this list is working for me.