6.5 YEARS OF FULL-TIME TRAVEL (Everything We Pack & Own)

We are finally doing it today. We are going to show you everything that's in our suitcases, which we have lived out of for six and a half years. Also, a portion of this video is sponsored by Neutrogena. But more on that later. Before we dive into things, quick story time. On January 11, 2016, we packed up a carry on suitcase and boarded a one way flight to Tokyo for our one year trip around the world. Six and a half years later, we are still living out of suitcases, but we have never made a packing video. We had come up with every excuse there is for why it was a bad idea. Like, for the longest time, I didn't feel like I knew anything that everybody else didn't. Like I was still figuring things out, like my stuff. Plus, it just seemed like a really boring video. But then, like a lot of other people traveling Europe this summer, our bags got lost on a flight. Pretty much everything we own is in these bags and no one seemed to know where in the world they were. And we couldn't even find anybody who cared.

Literally nothing. No one knows anything. It's such a mess.

I had fully prepared myself to never see this bag again.

So when we finally got the call.

So they are at the airport.

Yeah. Yeah, they are at the airport.

Reunited at last.

It really gave us a whole new appreciation for our stuff. So almost losing these bags is what finally inspired us to make this video. So let's start with the basics.

So weird.

We each have one overstuffed suitcase on wheels with majority of our belongings and one extremely heavy electronics backpack. Some version of this has pretty much been our setup since day one. First, we'll show you what's in our suitcases and we'll get to the backpacks later. We're doing our first baggage. Here we go, Ma.

Very strategic way. I have to open this so nothing falls out.

Drives me nuts. They literally build this bag so you don't have to worry about this isn't and it's not okay. Look how easy this is.

Okay, that was only because I'm carrying half of your stuff.

There's already a lot of finger pointing going on here. I want to start with the newest thing that I've added to this bag. And it has been an absolute game changer. This came about because of the baggage loss. But this is an Apple airtag.

What did we ever do without it?

It's $30 and it's like the best travel insurance you could ever buy for yourself. You can literally your bag is at all times.

You could be In a completely different country and know where your bag is. And that's exactly what happened to us. But we didn't have this. It was a total mess.

Wasted so much time at the airport going to check and see if our bag was there.

We didn't know they'd been sent back to Tennessee.

Had I had an airtag in my bag, I would have known that my bag was still in Germany when we were in Finland.

Okay, good start.

I feel like if you take nothing else away from this video, we had a good start.

Do not sit with my legs crossed like this.

Oh, no, it hurts. Do you want to sit on a pillow?

Okay, great.

The thought of making this video was a bit overwhelming because if you added up every individual thing in our bags, we have, like, 5,000 things. So I asked Instagram for some questions, and we're just going to start by answering as many as possible until we just get warmed up.

We'll go rapid fire, Give you a lot of good stuff at the very beginning.

Okay, here are questions.

Question number one. How much do your bags weigh?

The answer to Kara's is the maximum amount.

I think 22 kilograms is the max. And I hover around that.

Oh, only five pounds over.

Sweet.

That sounds good. No, it's not. Mine is somewhere between 30 and 35.

Keep in mind, I'm carrying lots of Nate's stuff.

No, I think you're carrying one of my things.

Are you kidding?

Oh, those shoes don't count.

What do you mean they do.

You own a house. Where do you keep all of your belongings? The thing about underwear is that's the one thing you can't go without. I can rewear pants. I can re wear shirts, but as soon as I run out of clean underwear, we have to do laundry. So having a lot of pairs of underwear allows you to go longer without having to do laundry. Kara takes this to the absolute extreme.

23. I only have 24.

24. You can literally go a month without washing clothes.

I do all the time. I don't know what you do.

This is kind of disgusting. But if I'm doing a workout, like, if I'm in a consistent running routine, I might re wear the same dirty pair of underwear, knowing that I'm just gonna go get it sweaty.

I don't know.

Is that disgusting?

I mean, we do that with our workout clothes too. Like, I pretty much have a designated.

Gross outfit for a second. When you put it on, it's like, oh, this is disgusting. Then you're working out, and you're sweating in It. And it would have been gross anyway.

Favorite leggings.

Let me see.

I have tried every legging on the planet, and I've landed on two pairs of Lulus.

Something you pack that you don't use.

I just never take the time to do it.

This is a medicine kit. It's actually an old airplane amenity kit that now has medicine in it. And I would say this is a all pretty much. Just in case you have a medicine kit.

Yeah.

Why are we both carrying?

Because, Van life ruined me. Okay. What's the oddest, most surprising thing you travel with? That's a necessity.

This Ziploc bag is our coffee kit. I carry it, but it's really because Kara has a problem. So inside of the coffee kit is this little collapsible pour over. You can buy these little filters all over the world. So we just keep some of those in stock. And then if we have any leftover coffee, we're moving from place to place. It also goes in this bag guarantees that we always have a way to make a coffee when we travel. It looks so gross in this bag, but. Omg, Kara, I love all of your black crop tops. Where are they from?

People do ask me this all the time.

I'm like an influencer, and people ask me this all the time.

Are you talking about this black crop top from the Gap or this black crop top from Kohl's? This black crop top from American Eagle. This cashmere black crop top from J. Crew. It's very similar.

Soft.

Or this black crop top that's Nike. I have two more that aren't black. These are from Target. Oh, where's my Amazon? 1. Okay, there are four questions that we got over and over again because we're so popular.

No, everyone asks us this all the time.

No, there are four very controversial questions. You're either one or the other. There's no in between. Trip.

We'Re gonna call this segment versus this versus that. What everyone wants to know. Packing cubes versus none.

I'm not saying that my way is better. I'm just saying it works better for me.

I can appreciate that. I am pro packing cubes. And you can tell because this one.

That one especially.

It's embarrassing.

I don't even think that's technically packing. That's just like a mesh bag.

What's the difference? That.

Good question. I'm just, in general, in life, not a very organized person. So I don't like having to pack in general. But then having to pack stuff into packing cubes and make it more Organized. It just feels like it takes up so much more time. Packing cubes are like having to pack twice. To be fair, I do have one packing cube. This is where I keep all of my underwear. I will say another drawback to packing cubes is that it mashes all of your stuff into this confined area that sometimes bulges out. And it can actually be harder to shut your suitcase if you have this and then the toiletry kit that ends up on top of it. You just can't.

That's if you don't know how to do it right. Okay. I feel like this brings us to our next verses. Because if you don't know how to pack, then yes, packing cubes can feel like your stuff is taking up more room. So let's talk about rolling versus folding. It depends on what it is. I think there's a middle ground here, for example.

I would agree with that.

Yeah, yeah.

See, in my packing cube, I roll.

Nate, you're so organized. I've never seen that before. I'm so proud of you.

Thanks.

These denim shorts. Denim is big and bulky. Why does anyone wear denim?

I don't know.

Anyway, these shorts rolled is pretty big. Like it would majorly.

That's how it looks when I try to use packing cubes.

It doesn't. It's not a nice. If it's folded that is paper thin, no problem. So I try to organize my stuff based on how big it is. Same with this fair job hoodie.

Check it out. Folded hoodie and denim shorts. Like they're not even there. Rolled. I probably didn't need to do this with two different examples, but I mean, that's massive.

I'm actually learning something about you right now.

Really?

We've traveled together for six and a half years and I could not have told you whether you rolled or folded your stuff. And here are all my shirts.

My bone just rolled on the wood floor, not rolled. Next up, rolling suitcases versus backpacking.

Let's go all the way back to 2016.

When we started, we had a bag that allowed us to do both.

Remember these guys?

You could either roll it or you could unzip the back and little backpack straps would come out and you could carry it. We carry those bags for an entire year around the world in 30 different countries. And I think we used the back to pack straps like five times. So that was like a year long experiment where we realized that we roll our bags a lot more than we carry. So after that, we just decided to get the best possible rolling bag. I will say if you're going on a specific trip, you might make a different decision. There are two countries that come to mind where I really regret it. Having a rolling suitcase. That would be India.

This is the most chaotic place I've ever been.

And Cuba. Cuba is a place that may be better to be backpacked.

That brings us to our last versus carry on versus checked bags.

I actually don't see both sides. There's a right and a wrong answer. This summer, if you're traveling, there is a right answer, and that is carry on. But we're already in Europe. We already have all of our stuff, and it weighs way too much to carry it on, so that's not an option for us.

Oops. We just realized that we're late for a quick business call, so let's consider this like a halftime break. Go get a snack, go to the bathroom, make a coffee. We'll be back in just a second.

Okay, let's get down to the details. Let me show you exactly what's in my bag.

I know that sounds boring, but we're going to make it super quick.

Already seen these. Underwear, dirty clothes, bag. I have two pairs of shoes. I have always had two pairs of shoes. After traveling for six and a half years, there is always a pair of tennis shoes and sandals in my bag.

We've been wearing ons for a few years. Nate's run a few marathons, and I think they're cute.

Normally these sandals are chocos, but I'm trying something new with the Birkenstocks.

I've pretty much worn Birkenstocks since day one, and I've now converted Nate.

I didn't like the chacos because the straps, when they got wet, they took forever to dry. And I said I this would be fast. That's all I'm going to say about that.

And Nate's tacos just smell so bad.

Now let's get to the clothes.

All of my clothes fit in these two bags.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 T shirts, which is probably too many. Mostly black, because, like I mentioned, I.

Have a lot of black tank tops because that's what I like.

I didn't set out one day to decide, like, oh, I'm just going to dress in all black all the time.

It just happened. And it's bonus points if it's moisture wicking.

At some point, I got a black T shirt, and I was like, oh, this doesn't show sweat, it doesn't show dirt, and it just looks kind of nicer than all the other colored T.

Shirts that I wear.

And then that's the T shirt that I always hoped was clean. And so I bought a couple more of them. And then I was like, oh, I have all these white T shirts now. What goes with black? More black. And before I do it, 80% of the things in my suitcase were black.

So black is just easier. I used to wear colors, I really did, but black is the new me.

The worst part about having so much black is everything looks the same. When you're going through your suitcase trying to find something, you're like, wait, is that.

It's literally a black hole.

I have this one sweater, other side of this one. Workout shorts. These are kind of my grody shorts. I was talking about before.

Grody equals gross and dirty.

This is a matching jogger set from Biore. When we lived out of a van for a little while, I got pretty spoiled with how many clothes I got used to just having. And this was one of the things. Basically when we moved into the van, we went from living out of a suitcase this big to having a space quadruple the size, and I got really spoiled. So moving out of the van and back into my bag has been a continual adjustment.

This next section is what I like to call specialty shirts. This is a sun shirt. After having skin cancer cut out the top of my head, I'm prioritizing sun safety a little bit more these days. I have a fancy short sleeve shirt. Fancy long sleeve shirt. I use the word fancy very loosely.

One of my favorite pairs of pants. I got them at H and M at least four years ago and have had them with me ever since. They look better than workout leggings or denim shorts, but they're also just so comfortable, so it feels like cheating. I have a pair of bike shorts. I tried to get on the bike short train. Probably gonna leave these at home next time. This is another thing that I got spoiled in the van was having dedicated jammies. Overalls are a new addition to my wardrobe. I find them very cute, but they're gigantic. So it's a sex. But the good news is I don't feel like you ever really have to wash enough, do you?

Yeah. Random pair of socks just floating around because it happens sometimes. Pair of sweatpants.

I try to have one, like, dressy outfit, like a long, flowy romper kind of like my pants. So I guess I have two dressy outfits. I just end up wearing this every time we have to dress up, and it works out. I feel like I've really learned that Nobody really pays attention or cares. It's hard to remember that sometimes. And every time I go home and pack, I get this, like, almost social anxiety of, like, I need to look cute. Really, no one cares. They're all feelings that you put on yourself. I don't know, maybe it's just me. Maybe people do talk about how I wear the same thing every day, but I've gotten to a point where I don't care and it's fine.

Some point. Somebody asked us the ridiculous thing that we were carrying in our bag, and I forgot about this. This is. How do I put this? I have an emotional connection to these jeans and a dream that will probably never come true. These are my favorite jeans I have ever owned. I wore them for, like, three years straight. These were the only long pants that I had. Like, nice pants, nice ish pants. And now, as you've probably seen in several videos, because I keep wearing them. Oh, wow. My dream is one day I'm gonna find someone to stitch this up for me and I'm gonna start wearing these again. But for now, I've just been carrying them around the world for months, and this is a very big item to commit to just carrying around in my suitcase. In the meantime, the best replacement I found is these cuts pants, which I'm actually really coming to like. They're like a cross between sweatpants and dress pants. You can get away with dressing fancy in them, and you can also fly in them because they're super comfortable. Also have two pairs of khaki shorts. Probably one too many sweatpants shorts. Definitely don't need these, but they are comfortable.

I don't really know why I'm still carrying this. I packed this exact pack towel in my first suitcase in 2016. It's just one of those things I can't let go of.

This is a new addition to my bag that I'm not proud of. It's a bunch of random cords, GoPro mounts, and a lot of other electronic things that won't fit in my bag.

This is my bathing suit packing cube swimsuit, 1, 2, 4 tops. In the early years, I only traveled with one bathing suit, but this is another one of my favorite items. When I bought it, it was called a sarong, but I mean, it's literally just a cotton piece of fabric with some little cute doodads on the end. I wear this as my swimsuit cover up, but it can also be a scarf if it's cold or if you're traveling somewhere where you're required to, like, cover up or cover your head and your shoulders. I mean, it's just like a multi purpose everything. I'll bring it to the beach as my sarong, but then it doubles as a towel to lay on or just a towel to dry off with if I ever need one. Actually bought another one in Mexico, but the crabs ate it when we were living in Panama. Oh, and in this bag is my cute little hat for some protection. I have a purse in here. I don't ever carry it. Probably shouldn't have this anymore. This is good for me. I'm learning the things that I need and don't need. Thinking of things I probably don't need. I have tote bags for some reason. I have this giant box of masks even though we don't need those much anymore.

Yay.

Ag one bottle.

This is the one thing that Kara carries around the world for a.

No, no.

Are you kidding me?

What?

I have all car AG1, which I make you every single day. I carry your entire dirty clothes bag all the way here. Two different flights.

I'm just saying.

So one thing we learned about packing for a bunch of different climates because sometimes we're in cold climates, sometimes we're in hot climates. And whatever we have in the suitcase has to work for both. Is that a puffy jacket and a raincoat will keep you super warm because this works as like a wind layer. And then this is your insulation. And you can easily be comfortable in legitimately freezing weather in these two layers.

I do always have dry shampoo. I try not to use it that much because it is one of those things that's kind of hard to find. Hairspray. I've always carried a little like day pack. We go on a hike or something. It's pretty much the only time I use toiletry bag.

Before I open this, I should say this is one of the very few things that has been in my bag since day one.

This is my OG travel bag. I also have carried it since day one, but mine is in terrible shape. Probably because it's not black. I've also had about a million things bust in here. All of the waterproofness is coming off.

Yeah. Feel a little embarrassed to admit this because I always thought these were for girls.

Loofah is non negotiable for me because.

It dries a lot faster than a washcloth and and doesn't get disgusting.

Washcloths are just so wet.

Kara tried to convert me for years and then eventually I gave it razor deodorant. What's this called? Comb. Sometimes There's Q tips in here right now. There's not toothbrush. The sad state of my brush that I was traveling with six and a half years ago from day one, the handle fell off. But I still use the head of it and it's a lot lighter.

I have one of these jade rollers, essential oils, retainers, nail file, couple extra ponytails, deodorant, chapstick. And if you watched our Q and A with Sailing La Vagabond not too long ago, you might rem. Remember the question about how I deal with my menstrual cycle on the road. I love my David cup.

So hair gel that I don't use very much anymore because most wear a hat. Toothpaste.

These are random hair products that I got talked into buying when I cut my hair at the salon. Sunscreen, flossers, face wash. And last but.

Not least, there's another one of these floating around this apartment somewhere. This is a goo tube.

Is that what these are called?

This is another thing that's been in my bag for six and a half years. These are pretty amazing because you're at a hoax hotel or maybe an Airbnb that has some leftover shampoo or conditioner.

You know, like a big pump in the shower. You just kind of fill it up. So this has like 50 different conditioners in it.

I'm proud of that. I'm just saying it happens and that does it for what's in my bag.

Is that really all you have? Oh, these are life changing. I used to carry makeup wipes. Which one aren't very good for your skin and they're not very good for the environment. As soon as I learned about these microfiber towelettes, I never went back. They're magic. I've kept the little dividers in my way back. Workout bands. I really love doing Nourish Move love on the road. I'm running really low on AG1 recycled plastic. Anytime something is wet or soiled, I like to keep one of these around to stick in in case we have to like pack up and go somewhere before something's dry. This side has 50 fair drop stickers in case anybody wants one. Oh, this is sad. This is my very small jewelry collection. Was a terrible idea. I think that's all for me. Wow.

That's all you travel with?

It's really not that much. One last thing before we wrap up our suitcases and move on to our backpacks. It's really easy to stress out before a big trip with the what ifs. What if I Forget this or that or what. If I run out of my favorite this or that and I need more. And I really feel like the biggest thing I've learned is everybody uses most things. If you run out of shampoo, most people wash their hair, you're gonna find shampoo. If you forgot your razor, most people shave something. If your flip flop breaks, most people wear flip flop. It is so rare that we need something and can't find it wherever we are. The fastest way to overstuff your suitcase is to pack all of the what ifs. Here's my advice. If you're packing and you have this one thing and you're on the fence and it's a what if, stop for a moment, think, can I buy this at my destination if I do need it? If the answer is yes, don't packet, because most likely you're not going to need it.

Okay, last but not least, our backpacks. Honestly, if that entire suitcase went away right now, I would be totally fine. If this bag disappeared, I don't know what we would do. Let's start with the bag itself.

Honestly, I saw it on an Instagram ad and we got them and we've been carrying them for the last, what, four years?

What makes this bag perfect for us is it's separated into two main compartments. The bottom half is all camera gear. It's like a gear place with lots of padding. And the top half has this roll top.

The best part is that you can access this compartment from the back. You can load it from the top.

Boom.

Boom. Everything is just here.

I'm sorry to interrupt. How do you sit like this? This hurts my foot bones so bad.

This whole thing actually comes out as well. I think so.

It does. It's velcroed in, but you can remove the entire bottom. I think they call it a camera cube. And then it can just turn into like a normal backpack, which we've used that feature a few times when we've taken these bags hiking.

Well, I'll start with the outside. This is like a little secret pocket. I usually keep my passport down here because nothing can spill on it. It can't, like get mixed up with other things and have that panic moment where it's like, where's my passport? It's just always in here. It's the only thing that's in here, and it's actually not in here. There's also a zipper on the front, which I only use for paper.

Pretty much.

Instead of buying souvenirs, I keep paper memories.

So you kept your Ryanair printed out ticket.

I've kept all my tickets ever. One day we're gonna have the coolest, like, wall of tickets. That's pretty boring. Let's get to the good stuff. Okay. Oh, no.

Laptop pocket in the back. 2 Eurotin GoPros 3. We just had to buy that one since our stuff got lost and we needed it for the wife carrying championships.

This is our older Sony camera. We upgraded, but we. We decided to keep this one as a backup.

We pretty much have a backup of everything at this point.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I've gone on a journey recently of external hard drives. I currently have these three, four, five. Somehow, after editing videos for six and a half years, nobody told me that this type of hard drive can crash very easily. And then it happened. And that's when everyone told me about these beauties. Essence SSDs, lots of hard drives. This is like half the weight in my bag.

Half the weight in my bag is our drone setup, which is a very old Mavic 2 drone that I just assume I will crash. And I. I want to upgrade, but at the same time, I know as soon as I upgrade, I'm gonna crash that drone. So I'm waiting until I crash this one and then I'm gonna buy a new one.

What happened? We lost the drone.

I thought I was finally gonna get to get a new one when we were in Canada with Eamon and Beck, and it's not how we found it and it was fine, but yeah, this. This weighs a lot and takes up a lot of room in the backpack. But for what we do, totally worth it. Honestly, I do think I will probably have back problems from carrying this backpack. I bet this backpack weighs as much as my suitcase because everything in here is just like heavy bricks.

No, we have sore backs every travel day.

I think we're just out of shape. The shoes to not be there. The case.

True.

Yeah. We got really old out of shape. Or we just carry that much more stuff.

No, we got old and soft during COVID and now we actually do have more stuff. So it's a combination computer charger, phone charger. This is a bag. Like, I just kind of got sick of opening this and cords just being everywhere. So I've just kind of.

It's almost like a packing cube. Some would say.

Oh, my gosh. It is like a packing cube.

Lav mic so you can hear us when we're on an airplane.

About 12 credit cards that I don't even know if they work. GoPro batteries extra SD cards.

These are two things that are very special to me. I have been carrying this converter. What's this called?

Surge protector.

No. What is this called? It's a.

What is a plug called? With extra outlets.

What is this called?

Power strip.

Power strip.

I have carried this power strip and this converter since day one. Converter can be bought anywhere. I'm pretty sure they don't sell this power strip anymore though. I bought this on Amazon. I should. We should start a company that brings this back. It has four outlets on it. So you plug this into your adapter and then you have four US outlet and it's so tiny. Oh, I thought of something that I left in my suitcase that I've also been traveling with since day one. Oh, I'm an old man.

While he's doing that, I also have an extra microphone. Microphone. Because we're professional. Like that sunglasses case. That's hard. This is actually something we learned the hard way. This can get smushed. Keeps them sick.

Before we left to travel, I wore big cotton bulky boxers and I was like, I'm a traveler. Now I have to be more of a minimalist. So I went on Amazon and I bought 10 new pairs of underwear, which is a horrible idea. Don't buy new stuff to go travel. But this random Amazon brand called 32 Degrees. Cool. I've had 10 of these pairs of boxers in my suitcase for the last six years and none of them have holes in them.

That's pretty crazy.

That's all.

Have you done everything in the bottom of your bag?

Yes.

I actually have a toothbrush in here. I don't usually have this, but you.

Know, since our experience when we are flying on the airplane, I always bring a sweatshirt. Same. Nothing worse than getting on an airplane. That's like a six hour flight and it's freezing and you don't have any way to keep warm.

You can pretty much guarantee on travel days no matter what the weather is outside. We're wearing tennis shoes, pants, a short sleeve shirt with a long sleeve shirt. Just in case. It's just worth it.

I have two of these giant.

Power banks.

Power banks.

I think we're getting tired.

We're getting close to the end.

I always carry this gigantic water bottle in my backpack. It's a huge bottle, but I've just learned that if I have a small bottle, I won't drink as much. This is 32 ounces and I try to drink four a day.

This was one of those things that we bought for the van that ended up Creeping into our travel. Never had those before, but now we can't go without them. You're supposed to be carrying one of.

Those, by the way. Okay. I always travel with my makeup bag. It's one of those things that I actually would be really sad if it got lost with our luggage.

I think the only thing I have left of interest is these headphones. They are over earth noise canceling headphones that are absolutely gigantic. When you think about the little bit of space that we have to carry everything that we own. I've thought about leaving these so many times.

I only wear these on long flights, not even, like short. Like, if it's less than four hours, I'm just wearing my AirPods because I don't feel like getting these out.

It brings me so much happiness to get on an airplane and all the craziness that's going on around me can be happening. And then I just put these on and I'm in my own little world.

Another tote bag.

The key for us staying on the road is enjoying travel days. And please help me enjoy travel days.

I only put this in my backpack because my hair looked really bad. I think that's all.

I think we just made a packing video.

We finally made a packing video.

A weight. Lift it off of my shoulders.

Seriously.

I feel like once every couple months we're like, we should make a packing video. And then we think about it for a while and then we don't do it. And now we made a packing video.

You now know every single item that we own.

Still not sure that this was a great idea. Could have been the most boring video we've ever made.

We'll see.

It all feels so normal for us. Like, this has been our life, so none of the things that we do or things that we have feel special.

Hopefully you learned something if you learned.

Something so that I don't feel like I've wasted my time for the last few hours. Would you let us know down below? Like, what was the best tip? Like, what was the most surprising question thing? What was either the most helpful or the most surprising?

Or if you're a loofah or a.

Washcloth person or do you roll or fold? Cherry on? Both. Cherry on. Carry on or check. These are the answers that I want. Are we done? Can I not sit with my legs crossed anymore?

I think we did it. Thanks for watching. If you made it this far.

This.

Is what we have to do when we don't use the power strip instant potatoes we found at our Airbnb.

Exhibit A.