Beginner's Guide

(to fill this page with a quick 5 to 10 min guide for people new to this concept)

(remember this is targeted to beginners, so will target more of the maximalist carry-on crowd >40L)

Travelling & flying with a ton of luggage usually means that you're stuck worrying about how to bring everything with you from one place to the next, and can't focus on spontaneous adventures.

However, most people usually bring WAAYYYY too much luggage and end up not wearing most of their clothes on the trip over. If you can cut down on the clothes and extra items you bring, you can painlessly cut down to a single carry-on bag.

Clothes
The easiest thing to cut down on is clothes. For a trip up to 1 week, pack around: This would be including the clothes you are wearing at the time. So it means you only pack 1 pair of pants and shoes, and wear the other pair.
 * 1-2 pairs of pants/skirts/dresses
 * 3-5 tshirts
 * 4-7 socks
 * 4-7 underwear
 * 1-2 dress shirts/eveningwear (if required)
 * 1-2 pairs of shoes
 * 1 ultralight down jacket (if cold weather)
 * NO jeans (heavy, takes up lots of space)

If it's anything longer than a week, ask the hotel for a nearby laundry, and do laundry there. OR handwash your clothes in the sink. OR get the hotel to wash it. Now you're good to go on indefinitely.

Toiletries
(to fill in)

They sell soap and shampoo everywhere in the world, and hotels give them for free.

Even the following are really optional, but you can bring small amounts of each if you buy those 100ml travel bottle kits: Try to reduce the makeup you bring. Many blogs have mentioned that this is where women usually have more items than men. (I leave this for a female to give better advice on)
 * Toothbrush
 * Toothpaste (small pack)
 * Body soap
 * Shampoo
 * Favourite shaver OR electric shaver

Electronics
If you're not going for work, leave your laptop. Bring only phone/ipad/tablet/kindle.

Bring the appropriate chargers. If possible, have your devices use the same cable & charger for charging.

Bring a travel adapter, and maybe a power strip.

Miscellaneous

 * A pen. Definitely bring a pen.
 * Packing cubes (help you organize)
 * Great backpack (choose from the recommendations on this site, or just buy a maximum carryon spinner)
 * Passport/ Identification documents
 * Flight ticket / travel details
 * Medication. If nothing special, then bring some paracetamol (painkiller) and loperamide (for diarrhea).

You're done!!
There. You're done! That should all easily fit in a 40L maximum carryon backpack. In fact, it should only fill part of the bag. And now you have space to buy souvenirs.