Traveling lighter

I've spent a fair bit of time over the past few days thinking about how and what to pack for traveling, and sometimes it seems like too much time. Compared to some people, I don't travel that much. I may well be putting more time into thinking about it than I will ever recoup. Why bother?

The main reason, of course, is that traveling lighter means carrying less stuff, which is easier, less tiring, and less stressful in trying to get my stuff somewhere. A second reason is that I often don't really need everything I bring anyway. I carry quite a few things "just in case", and those cases rarely happen. Even if they did, I could almost certainly deal with the situation.

And, perhaps in a strange way, optimization problems are fun, at least for some of us. The challenge of doing more with less is intriguing, even if it seems trivial.

Last year I replaced my backpack--one I had been using for more years than I can remember. The one I got is smaller, and intentionally so. When I decided on it, after considerable research and looking at backpacks, I imagined my experience was likely to be: first, I'd be very happy with it almost all the time; second, I'd be occasionally annoyed that I couldn't put another book, magazine, or small set of papers in it; and third, I could get along with that extra stuff just fine. And pretty much, that's been how I feel about it. When I took all the regular items out of the old backpack, many of them didn't go in to the new one. In a way, right now I'm just going through the same process.

Also, Tom Bihn has some really nice bags, backpacks, and travel accessories.