I've long been inspired by Matt Mullenweg and Tynan's gear posts and finally got around to writing one myself. I'm a frequent business traveler that cares a lot about the tools and gear I use. Earlier in my life, I was in to ultralight backpacking and have applied some of those habits to my work travel. I'm a strong advocate of traveling with a single, non-wheeled travel bag and currently use the Minaal Daily Bag that I wish I got in grey because the black fabric shows entirely too much lint/dirt. As you can see from the volume of stuff I bring, this get's fairly stuffed, but I love the ability to be able to slide it under the seat in front of me. As I typed this out, there were a number of items that I realize I don't use as much as I initially thought, so there's always opportunity to reduce weight/volume.
Note, the links below are mostly affiliate links to Amazon that I'm trying out for the first time. I expect about five people to read this, so it's more of an exercise in testing out how it works. If this bothers you, I'm sorry, and you can select the product, right click and search in your default search engine.
- Packing cube for my clothes - I have a handful of these that are so old that I don't know the brand, but two things matter: 1) it's small enough to fit into a bag designed for daily use and 2) the zipper fully goes around three sides of the fabric, allowing one to fully open it. This just makes it easier to pack for me. I could write a whole post on what clothes I use, but I currently prefer Mizzen and Main dress shirts, Aviator lightweight travel jeans and then wool stuff from Icebreaker. I have a small pair of shorts from Reebok as part of my workout kit, but don't feel strongly towards them. They are rolled into three sections (two dress shirts as a roll each with one roll for workout stuff) and that's enough to get by for a few days to a week.
- Hip band - I bought an off brand one from Amazon a couple of years ago after reading about them in a few places, most notably Dan John's newsletter. Since I can get low back and hip pain after being stuck on a plane for a long time, doing a ladder of reverse clamshells and hip thrusts really help relieve this for me. Sometimes I'll do a superset of air squats followed by pushups as a quick hotel room workout. Link
- Theraband - I might stop bringing this, but used to use this for shoulder rehab exercises. Lately it's just been sitting next to the hip band. Link
- Wool buff - besides the bag, the first thing on this list that came as a recommendation from Tynan's blog (well technically Tynan, but since he has no idea who I am, I feel odd making it sound like he recommended it to me personally). It is an excellent replacement for a knit hat or acts as a mask in a pinch. I still carry my own eye mask, but I guess you could use it for that as well. It weighs next to nothing and doesn't smell if you work out with it.
- Nubby massage ball - If I'm having trouble getting to sleep, rolling this under my feet for a while helps wind me down. I also generally have pretty tight arches so it just feels good. Link
- Matcha tea and decent instant coffee - I've traveled a fair bit with a travel sized aeropress, but it just doesn't feel like it's worth the space for me right now. Most of the time I will either buy coffee or make matcha. Every now and then when I'm desperate, I make hotel coffee. That mushroom coffee is surprisingly tolerable, but I probably won't buy it again.
- Random flight toiletry bag - I've grabbed a few of these over the years and this one works great for what I typically need. Discussed more below.
- Dell XPS 13, maxed out - while I'd love the X1 Nano with LTE or a snazzy M1 Macbook, the Nano didn't have the cellular card available to purchase and I have to do too much work in Windows to allow an M1. The XPS is great. It's small, battery life is pretty good and it's plenty powerful for my work.
- Logitech Keys to Go - this keyboard brings me joy. It's 1/4" thick, has great battery life and allows me to type quickly on my phone while on a plane. Paired with 23, it's a fantastic lightweight way of being able to type with more than your thumbs. I stumble a little bit when starting to type on it each time, but get used to it quickly. The only things I'd ask for with this is a full size version for my large person hands, coupled with the ability to pair to more than one device. I'd be psyched to use this with my computer if it were full size. Link
- Xylitol gum - sometimes I try to diet while traveling, sometimes I just like to be able to chew xylitol gum after eating. Either way, its great. Spearmint is my favorite. Link
- Levenger Pocket Briefcase - I use this to keep track of daily tasks and to take notes when it feels like a full size notebook would be obtrusive. After a few months of using it, I really like the footprint, but I’m wondering if I would have been better off getting a cover for small Field Notes sized notebooks. We’ll see if this lasts to next year. Link
- WD 1TB USB C SSD - I’ve had this for several years now and while I don’t use it often, it still feels wild that something so small can hold 1TB and be so fast. Link
- Carbon Fiber Money Clip - after iterating through Tyvek wallets, phone cases with card sleeves and the ever classy rubber band, I finally bought one of these that Tynan had been recommending for years. It’s nearly perfect. Light, stiff, adequate stiffness/spring. Link
- Rhodia mid sized (A5) notebook - I love Rhodia paper and have iterated through multiple types of their notebooks. I like the top wound because I’m a lefty and don’t have to write backward in the notebook for it to feel normal. I thought I’d like the ability to remove pages more than I actually do. Link
- Vivobarefoot Primus Lite Running Shoes - Since I’m almost always wearing my Vivobarefoot Ra II leather shoes for work stuff, I want the smallest possible workout shoe for my bag. This is the best I’ve found unless I just wear Earth Runners in the gym. I’m quite happy with these shoes so far, but am always wishing for thinner/lighter. Link
- Small Thermos from Taiwan - about ten years ago, I used to travel to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shenzhen for work. I think I bought this in Taiwan at a small store, but it could have been somewhere else in Asia. It’s still perfectly functional and has a lot of sentimentality every time I use it, but it’s heavy and I’ve come very close to buying Snow Peak’s titanium thermos many, many times.
- Medium sized original pack towel - I keep this with my coffee/tea kit, but don’t use it as much as I thought I would. It’s utility keeps it in the bag. Link
- Electric 300W water heater - I had the smaller size version for a few years, but stopped using it because it took so long to boil a cup of water. This one is bigger, but works significantly faster. I am so used to having it with me on trips that I forget that not everyone has one! As Tynan notes on his blog, you need to make sure the heater is in water before you plug it in. The heat transfer is significant, so if you don’t have a thermal mass around the heater, it destroys itself very quickly. Link
- Another airline toiletry bag - Used as my ‘sleep bag’ discussed below.
- Microsoft Arc Mouse - This is a new addition this year and I’m very pleased with it. I love that it folds flat for travel. I love even more that is what turns the mouse off. The Apple Magic Mouse is still lovely, but this thing actually brings me joy to use. Link
- 10k mAH Wireless charger/battery - another recommendation from Tynan. It’s great and I didn’t know how convenient wireless charging was until I bought this. It has a little phone stand on it too, so I technically could get rid of 23. Link
- Passport/COVID vaccination card - to prove my legitimacy.
- Cheap iPhone stand - paired with the Bluetooth keyboard, I can write to my heart’s content in any airplane seat. I’m not crazy about this stand, but it’s adequate, light and was cheap. You can find these in many places on Amazon.
- AirPods Pro - a lot of the internet has sung their praises. They are wonderful if you have an iPhone. I’d imagine they were great with a Mac as well, but the iPhone AirPods combo is the best. I use these little foam tips to improve fit and sound isolation.
- Pens! I carry two Lamy Safari fountain pens (blue and green ink), as well as a few Pilot G-TEC-C4 ultra fine pens in black and blue. The Pilots have replaced Muji gel pens for me and I’m new into the fountain pen game, but find more joy in them than I was expecting. I suppose that means I’m getting old. The G-TECs are wonderful for detailed writing.
- Aukey Omnia 65W 2 port charger - GaN charger that works great, but looks like it’s gone from Amazon. I was just looking for the smallest full power charger for a USB C computer that had an extra USB port. This continues to work great. I leave a USB C and a lightning cable plugged in.
- Plantronics Voyager Headset - If you’re looking for the best noise cancelling microphone on a headset, this is your ticket. That said, I find myself using this less and less because the AirPod Pros are just so good and convenient. I leave this in my bag if I have to join a call from my computer. I also really like that there’s a mute button on the mini boom. I didn’t like the stock earbuds, so I added this adapter to fit a better bud.
- My Frankenstein earbuds - these are Etymotic ER4P earbuds, connected to a Bluetooth driver with these little adapters. While active noise cancellation is badass and the AirPod Pros are wonderful, they can’t touch the noise isolation of Etymotic earbuds. I’ve had a few pairs of lower end Etymotics over the past few years and they are perfect for my use case. Small and light, but excellent isolation. I spend most of my time listening to podcasts, so while the headphone quality is nice to me, the isolation is more important. I put these on when flying or when I need to tune out the outside world. I converted to wireless and love them. Etymotic ER4SR Link
- Cables and dongles - I carry a few. USB-C to HDMI, lighting to HDMI, lighting to USB, micro-USB, a tiny Apple Watch charger, a tiny flash drive and a USB to UCB-C adapter. I don’t use the lighting ones that much anymore, but when I need to get an iPad screen up on a projector, this is literally the only reasonable option.
- Foam eye mask - These are cheap and break down over time, but I like how the foam structure keeps the mask off of your eyes. Hotel rooms and planes always have light creeping in somewhere. These help me block that out. Link
- Laser Lite Foam Ear Plugs - I’ve tried fancier or semi custom fit ones, but keep coming back to these foam ear plugs. If I want to block out the world and get some sleep, the combination of the eye mask and these plugs make all the difference. Actually read about how to put them in and they are far more effective. Link
- Small deodorant - I like this brand, as well as Smith’s Charcoal deodorant in the travel size.
- Magnesium, melatonin, vitamin D and electrolytes - who doesn’t like carrying powder and pills with them? The electrolytes are for the morning and everything else is for night time.
- Bronner’s toothpaste - apparently I only like my toiletry products in blue, but this toothpaste works fine, doesn’t have SLS and comes in a small package. Sometimes I mix it up and get the cinnamon kind.
- Lip balm - rarely used, but if I do need it, I want it in there.
- Sawed off Dollar Shave Club razor - this is my smallest solution for needing to shave. I’ll bring one of the razor cartridges, the sawed off and then just dry shave on my work trips. It’s not the most luxurious thing, but it’s small and light.
- Knock off ultra slim nail clipper - I’m not crazy about this, but I don’t want to bother with carrying full size nail clippers. Link
- Tweezerman scissors - Same situation as the nail clippers. I donated a pair of these at an airport in Botswana as I was going through security, but the rest of the time it’s been fine. Link
- Assortment of medication in a travel Advil container - I have some ibuprofen, Sudafed, Benadryl and things like that stored in the little tube. I rarely use it, but it’s very nice to be able to get to ibuprofen quickly if you have a crappy headache while traveling.
- Travel toothbrush - sometimes I’ll travel with my Sonicare, but the size just bugs me. Most of the time I bring one of these folding brushes. Between that and the flossers, I feel like I’m doing a decent job of taking care of my teeth. Link
There you have it, my first 'What's in my bag post.'