The One Suitcase Challenge
All of your belongings must fit into one suitcase and one backpack. Preferably, the suitcase is small enough to work as a carry-on.
Suitcase and surf bag, 2022.
The idea for the one suitcase challenge came to me in the first half of 2020. I moved to downtown Las Vegas for work, and had been locked down in my apartment for three months. I had just moved back to the U.S. after spending 10 years living in Japan and the UK, and I was ready to start exploring more American cities.
From June 2020 to February 2024 I traveled to more than 20 cities in the U.S., Europe, and Japan with a single suitcase and backpack.
Why?
After three months in lockdown, I was ready to hit the road. My journey would look different than most in 2020. Instead of getting a camper van and visiting national parks, I decided to ditch my car and explore new cities. Limiting my belongings to a single suitcase and backpack was convenient and saved money.
How?
The suitcase should be small enough to work as a carry on for domestic flights. Checking in bags can add significantly to travel costs and you risk losing all your belongings if a bag is lost in transit. Generally, I would store enough clothing to last for a week in my suitcase with a few extra pairs of socks and underwear. My backpack would house my laptop, a book or kindle, a sketchbook, and other small things like chargers.
Advantages?
I travel frequently and I prefer to travel light. Doing so makes it easy to get around in cities, especially during raining days when I have to walk for miles. The other benefit is cost. Keeping my belongings down to a suitcase and backpack requires me to forego superfluous things that I don’t need on a daily basis. Having a carry-on size suitcase also cuts down on travel costs significantly, sometimes more than half. It’s incredibly liberating. I find that I tend to think about objects more often in terms of weight and size. If I want to buy something, or if I look at something that somebody else has acquired, I think wow — that is heavy or large or I can never fit that in my suitcase without getting rid of something.
Challenges?
The biggest challenge is laundry. Unfortunately, decent laundromats are few and far between (particularly in U.S. cities) to the point where I have to consider laundromat locations when choosing accommodation. A surprising pain point is gifts. Every holiday comes the ubiquitous wave of books, gadgets, clothing, and other items. Despite begging for nothing, or a digital gift card, it’s difficult for friends family to accept.
Gear?
My workhorse suitcase is a Solgaard carry-on that I received as a gift in 2020. It’s a hard shell case, which I tend to avoid, but after thousands of miles it’s held up. I used a Gregory backpack for about six years, and it was fantastic. Currently I’m using an expandable Solgaard backpack that is convenient when I need extra space.
When to expand (and how to bring it back)
When I first began my one suitcase journey I had a small car. It was unfortunately the only way to get around in most U.S. cities at the time. However, by the end of 2020, I got rid of the car and started traveling to cities where I could get around on public transit. There was also a period of about four months in Boston when I moved into a studio apartment and acquired some furniture. Upon moving out, I sold all of the future and returned to one suitcase. Living out of one suitcase indefinitely was never the point — my objective was to ensure I could go back to one suitcase at any time, even if that meant getting rid of everything. I also keep 1-2 stash bags with family on different sides of the U.S. with an extra change of clothes, shoes, and surf gear.
Where I am now
It’s now February of 2024, and I’ve just left a small apartment in Tokyo to make my way back to the U.S. for a few months. My belongings increased slightly, but by the time I left I was back to one suitcase and one backpack.