This is a series of posts about ‘how to live out of a backpack’ as a vagabond, minimalist, nomad, expat, traveler or for everyday life as a lifestyle.
COMPARTMENTALIZE //
A walk inside the home of a genius will reveal a chaotically organized mess but inside their briefcase you’ll discover an immaculate system of order.
It’s best achieved by compartmentalization; placing items within each similar type of item together and separated from non-similar items to OCD levels.
In regards to packing my backpack to live out of it, I leave nothing mixed and everything within a separate bag or container within that backpack.
The most obvious separation technique is clothing / gadgets / equipment / footwear / toiletries.
While those are probably naturally compartmentalized anyways, you should go deeper into subcategories.
I use the various sizes of Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes to divide my socks, underwear, pants and shirts like placing them in their own “drawer”. So my backpack is as organized as a wardrobe and becomes a mobile closet.
Even if you neatly place all your clothing together in your backpack, you’ll still have to deal with rummaging and the nuisance of having to remove everything to get to that one sock or shirt. Having each type of clothing in its separate bag will solve those problems.
Furthermore, deeper clothing separation will be more hygienic. Underwear and socks never touching your shirts or pants. Dirty laundry can be isolated by placing them in a plastic bag when needed.
Although these additional bags and containers will slightly add more weight to your overall haul, it will greatly increase space by compressing mass.
Even if you unpack the entire contents of your backpack, this high level of compartmentalizing with inner bags will make repacking incredibly easy and efficient.
As suppose to shoving, shifting and compounding each individual item into your backpack every time.
[The backpack I live out of is the FAST Pack Litespeed.]
How to Live Out of a Backpack:
Compartmentalize
11 Comments
You do have a knack from packing, just by looking at those photos. It’s a system I’ll be utilizing , thanks for the idea.
The plastic bag laundry idea is so obvious but brilliant!
What are those survival, trauma and tool bag things? Can you elaborate?
I don’t know why i never thought about doing this, seems so obvious now.
I love that backpack. I just got the FAST Pack EDC version and considering it’s a lot bigger than your model, I’m wondering if you can do some sort of packing list for the next post.
you should explain how much of each article of clothing you bring on your never-ending vacation or how you wash them and whatnot im nearly there on the preplist to wing it on world travel i just need to know a few small details of everyday vagabonding.
Who makes those little bags? The Eagle creek ones look different. Thanks for all the excellent information!
I have seen a lot of people’s backpacks they live out of. Most look like hybrid campers and I was going that direction, but after seeing your style it transformed my way of thinking. You make it look amazing.
I am following your lead. You have it figured out.
What is in the black case below the canisters?