It is actually very easy to travel to my family’s place in just the Tom Bihn Night Flight travel duffle. I pack my merino wool T-shirts, a pair of leggings and a hooded shirt. Winter in Texas is flip-flop weather, and minimal toiletries mean that I can travel super lightly and easily.
My airplane outfit serves as arriving and returning clothes, and I wear my tennis shoes in the airport so that I can walk the 3 miles between terminals comfortably. (Note that I also a bring packable day pack to carry presents to everybody which then gets folded up and put in my bag for the return trip, or carries back presents that I was brought so it works out well in any case.)
In the main compartment I have some jammies (the blue tank and some ex officio black boxer shorts), three T-shirts; all merino wool, and my buff (just in case). Then I have my orange toiletries kit (dry products), purple REI mini towel, two Tom Bihn pouches with first aid stuff and fiddly bits. You can’t see them, but in the bottom I have my flip-flops for noodling around the house.
The silver thing is my iPad mini with a Bluetooth keyboard cover, a hairbrush and a banana republic shopping bag that has an elephant on it – so that obviously has to come with me ;).
The base layer packed:
And then the second layer:
Right before I go through security I tuck in my clear plastic plane kit that holds my earphones, phone battery, adapters, etc. that hangs on the tray table while I’m sitting in my seat. It fits in the area where the space is left.
The side pockets:
The right side pocket holds my electronics. In the pouches underneath my CPAP I have my wall adapter, the CPAP’s accessories, my phone charger cable, and any other cables that I might need on my trip.
The outside right pocket holds my wet toiletries that get pulled out for security at TSA. This little case from Daiso holds about six days worth of supplies for me.
The left side pocket holds socks and underwear, my packable day pack and any other thing that might need to be squished into my bag. It’s not overly full but it doesn’t have a ton of room left either.
Left outside pocket holds my slim wallet when I travel so that I can put my phone and it in my bag before I go through the scanner at TSA. It helps keep them organized and I don’t have such anxiety over losing my ID etc.
In general I’m usually over optimistic about what I will wear, but I actually did wear all of the stuff I brought this time (though given my druthers I would just wear this particular outfit the whole time):
Yes those are cat knees on my leggings and that Columbia hooded shirt is the best thing in the world, I’m having to darn the holes all the time because I’ve been wearing it for three years solid and it’s starting to wear out a bit. I will be sad when I can’t wear it anymore. I hope they come out with a good replacement!
(This outfit fits in the bag but I was wearing it so I didn’t pack it up to take pictures.) I have a pair of black pants and a shirt to wear on the plane and then I keep the Columbia hoodie either on me or tucked into the snap handle on the top of the duffle. The leggings get tucked into wherever they fit at the time.
I fly home later today so I can verify that this set up works really well since I’ve been gone for about a week now. The only thing I really feel I’m missing is my cats. But they don’t like to travel and don’t really fit into this bag. 😉
