Among the more common questions we’ve gotten when we tell people that we’re traveling for an entire year is how we’re packing. Well, it’s one of the most common questions people have asked me. I assume most people are asking Sophie some variation of whether or not she’s truly considered the magnitude of how questionable her choice to do this with me is.

My favorite variation of the packing question comes in the form of insinuating that we must be bringing about nine fifty-pound checked bags each. Those of you who know us well are aware that this isn’t how we travel, but are probably still confused how we manage to pack a year of our lives into a backpack (or two).

As we’re on the eve (or rather the morning of) the start of our big adventure, I thought I’d bring you all along on my (frantic) packing.

The Backpacks

The stars of the show are my two backpacks. My primary one is a 40L Osprey Farpoint backpack that I acquired after I destroyed my shoulders while schlepping my 35L Cotopaxi backpack all over Peru. The Osprey was recommended to me by Sophie who will be bringing the 40L Osprey Fairview that she’s had for over 10 years. The two patches on mine are courtesy of John (who gave me the orange one), Nancy (who sewed on John’s patch for me), and my mom (who won the Polar Plunge patch in a raffle) - a pretty elite group of people.

A 40L backpack is plenty spacious, but it’s not like one of those big hiking backpacks that backpackers use.

The smaller of the two backpacks is an LL Bean Stowaway backpack that serves as a personal item on the myriad forms of transportation we’ll be taking and a day pack for when we’re out and about. It packs into itself with great difficulty, though it probably won’t see much of the darkness of its interior pocket for the next year.

Packing isn’t simply a matter of tossing all of our stuff into our backpacks and setting off into the sunset. All of our clothes are well organized into packing cubes. We both use Peak Design packing cubes, which we love because they have a separate compartment for dirty laundry.

You have literally no idea how much of a life saver this separate compartment is.

Clothing

Speaking of clothing, I have to imagine that this is the section that most people are wondering about. Usually when discussing clothing, people tell us something along the lines of “I need to have options” when it comes to packing for trips.

We definitely have to have options as well. While we’ll generally be in warmer climates, our year long trip will take us from the sweltering humidity of Southeast Asia to the bitter cold nights of the Himalayas in Nepal to the incredibly mercurial weather of Central Asia.

So now is the part where I shock you by telling you that my daily wardrobe for the next year includes five shirts, two sweatshirts, and four pairs of pants. What is even more wild is that the pants are actually two sets of the two kinds of pants and four of the shirts are exactly the same.

Shirts

The shirts are four black Smartwool Merino short sleeve T-shirts. Merino wool is the name of the game when packing light. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a synthetic material that dries quickly, wicks sweat, and doesn’t smell after multiple wears. If you’re familiar with this particular shirt, my guess is that your name is Bob.

The fifth shirt is actually also a black, short sleeve Smartwool merino shirt, except that it has a collar for when Sophie takes me to “the nicest restaurant in Almaty” to celebrate my birthday.

If I get cold, I have a Patagonia R1 daily wear fleece and a Smartwool (are you getting the feeling that I suffer from a bit of brand loyalty) thermal merino base layer.

Pants

I have four pairs of pants with me, and, shockingly, none of them are made by Smartwool.

Two pairs of pants are made by Outdoor Research. They are incredibly light. I wore these when Sophie and I went to Iguazú Falls in the jungle along the border of Brazil and Argentina. Despite being long pants, they’re great in the heat and humidity.

The other two pairs of pants are hiking pants made by Prana. They’re a little heavier, so they’ll likely be doing most of the work covering my legs in Nepal and Central Asia.

A lot of people who travel long term out of a backpack believe that you should not use any colors that aren’t black or some derivative. My personal philosophy is black shirts and pants that are different colors. I did have a pair of green Lululemon pants that didn’t make the cut since I was running out of space.

Since Smartwool (plz sponsor us) is feeling left out of this section, I do have a Smartwool base layer for my legs in case I get really cold.

Socks & Underwear

Despite not having published (or even finished writing) this, I could hear a lot of you loudly asking what we’re doing about socks and underwear.

In my backpack, there are 8 pairs of socks, all of which are made by Darn Tough. I don’t exactly have a plan for how to exchange a ripped sock if I’m in rural Kyrgyzstan and plan to be in rural Kazakhstan a week later, but you know, it’s nice to know I could do something. Four pairs of the socks are low cut, while four of them go up to my ankle.

I have twelve pairs of underwear with me. Two of which are made by Under Armor and used more for running (which I shockingly plan to do during this trip), while ten of them are made by Uniqlo. The nice thing about the Uniqlo underwear is that it packs very small and dries incredibly quickly in the event that I need to wash my underwear by hand in a pinch.

I expect that about half of you think that the number of pairs of underwear that I have is way too low while about half of you are surprised that it’s that high. I suspect that Anna Peng is probably wondering if we’ve planned for the likely scenario that we s**t ourselves ten times in one day.

Other Clothes

Besides these daily clothes, I have swim trunks, men’s yoga pants (so not the skin tight ones) that double (or primarily function as) pajama pants, another Smartwool shirt that I exclusively sleep in, and a workout outfit (one shirt and one pair of shorts).

I also have two hats, which are both machine washable, as well as a rain jacket and my Cotopaxi puffer jacket.

As for shoes, I surprisingly have three pairs of shoes with me. One pair of Chacos (ever since Patrick got me into having a “personal floor” with me wherever I go), a pair of Merrell hiking boots (so I neither die in Nepal nor embarrass myself when Joyce asks me to hike upon returning), and a pair of Brooks running shoes.

Electronics

While other travelers are going on their eat, pray, love journeys and having a digital detox, I am decidedly not doing that. I will be accompanied by electronics.

Mostly, I’ll be bringing my phone, a smartwatch, my 2020 Macbook Air, an e-reader, and a refurbished Gameboy Advance that Jeff lent me after telling me that I should play A Link to the Past. I promise that last part is true.

I also have my earbuds, two travel adapters, a power brick, and about 65,000 charging cables. Surprisingly, all of that fits nicely into a small electronics pouch.

Camera Equipment

I’d like to think that most of packing list is at least a little bit thoughtful and slightly light. My camera setup is decidedly where my emotions got the better of me.

I am actually bringing two cameras. One is a tiny Sony RX100 that can fit into my pocket. In a world where I’m smarter, this is the only camera that I would be bringing. However, I’m also bringing a slightly larger Sony A7C, which is not too bad on its own, except that I’ve decided to pair it with a gigantic one pound zoom lens. It looks pretty silly, but takes great pictures.

Both of these fit into a small Peak Design packing cube, along with SD cards and straps. I also carry spare batteries for each of them, though they very inconveniently use different types of batteries.

Lastly, I have a small GorillaPod tripod that can hold either camera. Again, not the most optimized of setups, but no one will be able to claim that our trip didn’t happen because we will absolutely have pics.

Odds and Ends

We both have a bunch of tiny (hopefully) useful things in our backpacks.

• An LL Bean Toiletry bag for containing the multitudes of toiletries we’ll go through and my toothbrush, razor, etc.
• A first aid kit for all of the small emergencies that we hopefully won’t have.
• Two collapsible Hydropak water bottles. You gotta hydrate if you don’t want to die-drate. One is used daily and the other packs up super small and is primarily used for extra water on hikes. As well as a small lifestraw attachment.
• A head lamp for overnight hiking trips.
• A few Field Notes notebooks, including one Chicago-themed one, since my sisters would have to go across the world to tell me that I don’t deserve it because I’ve never lived in the city.
• A rainfly that covers my big backpack, especially useful since we’ll be going to Southeast Asia.
• An 8-liter dry bag for the same reason.
• A big towel because hostels. And a small towel because hikes.
• A foldable tupperware because also hostels.
• Reusable loop earplugs and an eye mask because also hostels again.
• Padlocks because, believe it or not, also hostels.
• A small blanket that folds into the smallest pocket imaginable. Keenan knows what’s up.
• A laundry bag for… you guessed it! Laundry.
• A few Moto Tags, which are Google’s less great answer to Apple’s air tags.
• A handkerchief that belonged to my grandfather!
• Two small koalas acquired from two separate pre-departure trips to Outback Steakhouse the first featuring Chris and the second featuring Bea and Robbie.
• A passport since none of this would matter if I didn’t have that.

And I’m sure I’ve left off a few rather important items, but you should get the gist!