Pack Like A PRO | CARRY-ON ONLY for 2-Week FALL Europe Trip!

You clicked on this video because you're planning on a two-week trip to Europe and you've decided that you want to or you have to pack all carry-on and you're freaking out just a little bit about how you're gonna do it because you want to look great in all your pictures and you want to look great while you're there and you want to have great memories of your trip but can you do it when you're wearing the same pair of pants every day and you can't style your hair and you had to Well, I am not the most low-maintenance girl in the world. I usually pack a giant suitcase full of everything I'm gonna need, different outfits for every day, all my stuff so that I can look good in my pictures but recently I took a Rick Steves trip and on the Rick Steves trips they highly highly recommend that you pack carry-on because they don't want you crying in the streets when you're trying to drag a 50-pound suitcase five blocks on cobblestones or carry it up three flights of stairs in a hotel that doesn't have an elevator. So this was a huge challenge for me to pack carry-on. I didn't know if I could do it but I actually did it. I accomplished it. So in today's video I'm going to share exactly what I packed and how I packed for a two-week trip to France in October in just one carry-on suitcase and one backpack. So let's start with my top three tips for success when you're packing carry-on. Tip number one is to use the 5-4-3-2-1 method. I didn't invent this. This has been floating around on the internet for a while. I find it to be a good guideline even though I didn't follow it to the letter. So the 5-4-3-2-1 method basically says that you would take five tops, four pairs of pants or bottoms, three pairs of shoes, two layering pieces, and one extra piece like a dress or an extra jacket. But I think the basic concepts that the 5-4-3-2-1 method introduces is that if you're only taking five tops and three pairs of pants for a 12 or 14 day trip, you're going to be wearing everything multiple times. And that's kind of the one big thing that you need to get your mind around. If you're used to wearing something different every day or only wearing things once or twice on a trip, you're going to be wearing things three, four times on a two-week trip. And if that's okay with you, then you are definitely going to be able to pack carry on successfully. So later in the video I'll discuss how I adjusted this for my trip, which is of course something that you're going to want to do because everyone's trip is different depending on where you're going, the time of year, what you're going to need, what your preferences are, what you like to wear. So you can juggle it up a little bit. You don't have to stick to it exactly to the T, but it's just a good guideline to get you started. Tip number two is to always wear your bulkiest clothing and shoes on the plane. If you're wearing a big bulky fleece top like I was or you wanted to bring one, then that's what I wore on the plane. My biggest jeans, although I made sure they were comfortable, I wear them on the plane. And my largest pair of shoes I also wear on the plane. That is going to save you so much room in your carry-on suitcase. And then tip number three is to plan on doing laundry at least once during the trip. I think once is a good amount. Like you don't want to think about spending your whole trip doing laundry every night. You can find a laundromat or some hotels will do laundry for you. The thing about doing your laundry in your hotel room at night is there's not a lot of space for things to dry. And especially on a trip like with Rick Steves, you're moving around a lot. So you might have to pack soggy clothes back into your suitcase. So that didn't really appeal to me as much as just doing laundry once. I usually start planning my packing about 10 to 14 days before the trip. That way it gives me time to check the weather, check the itinerary on my trip, and also to purchase anything that I don't have that I'm going to need to squeeze things down into my suitcase better. Like if you don't have packing cubes, I recommend that you buy packing cubes. If you don't have tiny little bottles to decant some of your larger beauty products into, I recommend buying some of those. And I'll have links for those in the description box below the video, the ones that are my favorites. So this trip started and ended in Paris. So there was the city aspect and a fashionable aspect. And then we also went around to the northwestern portions of France for nine days on a bus. And that was a little bit more countryside, visiting chateaus and Normandy. It was a great trip. I'm going to do a separate video about the trip. This one is strictly on the packing for the trip. So I needed city clothes and kind of country clothes and the weather. It was going to be a high sometimes of 50 degrees and raining, which is super cold. Sometimes it would be up to like 64, 65 degrees, which was nice warm and sunny and beautiful. So I needed a whole range of clothing to cover me for anything that the weather threw at me and anything that the trip threw at me. So packing like this, you need to kind of build a capsule wardrobe, meaning that everything needs to mix and match and everything needs to color coordinate. All right, let's start in with clothes. I did try to use the five, four, three, two, one rule. I didn't stick to it exactly because for me, five tops weren't enough, but like four bottoms, I felt like were too many. So I did switch it up a little bit, but I did try to stay within it. Three pairs of shoes were too many, but I also packed two jackets, which might be too much for some people. I know a lot of people just want to pack one of those compressible puffer jackets. For me, that wasn't going to work with my aesthetic because the thing to think about is that most of the pictures you're going to take of yourself, you're going to be outside standing in front of something, you know, in front of the Eiffel Tower, in front of the Arc de Triomphe, in front of a chateau. That jacket that you're wearing all day, every day is going to feature prominently in your pictures from the trip. And I didn't really want to have the same jacket on every day. So I switched it up and I brought two jackets and a fleece top. So really, you could think of that as three jackets. That's what I did. And I would encourage you to just be true to yourself. And if that's what you want to bring, then that's what you should bring so that you will feel like you. Here's the inventory of everything that I brought on the trip, starting out with my travel outfit, which of course is my biggest, bulkiest clothes, one pair of wide leg jeans, a fleece pullover, my black booties, one long sleeve t-shirt, pair of socks, undies, and a bra. I also wear all the jewelry that I'm bringing on the trip on the plane. And all I was bringing was my three little statement necklaces that I always wear and my rings. Also brought and wore my Apple Watch. So I needed to bring a charger, but that was it. So for the clothes that I brought in my suitcase, I brought five scoop neck long sleeve tees in black, white, and gray. I also brought a pair of black wide leg pants. I brought another pair of jeans, so two pairs of jeans on the trip total. I also brought three sweaters, two gray sweaters, and a maroon sweater. I brought two jackets, a longer quilted water resistant jacket, and I also brought a fitted cropped leather jacket. I packed one pair of sneakers, pajamas, one lightweight scarf, six pairs of undies, six sets of socks, a curling iron, one tiny umbrella, and my dry toiletry bag. So for the outfits that I created using these pieces, the first outfit was my travel outfit. I wanted something that could keep me warm. It is going to be an overnight flight and you're going to want to get some sleep. So wear things that are really soft and really cozy. These jeans are great for travel because the denim is super soft. I also wore my booties on the plane. Make sure that you bring your most most comfortable shoes that are pre-broken in. These are my most comfortable walking shoes with the exception of the sneakers. So with this kind of a capsule wardrobe, you basically just rotate through the pieces. So I would wear the dark wash jeans one day, then the next day I'd wear the light wash jeans, and then the next day I would wear the black pants. And then with the sweaters, since I had four sweaters, I just rotated through them. Then I would just decide based on what we were doing that day which shoes I would wear. And I would also rotate around my jackets and scarves. If it was a really sunny beautiful day, I would wear a lightweight sweater, my leather jacket, a nice lightweight scarf. On the coldest days, I ended up wearing my leather jacket, topping it with my green long quilted jacket, and then putting on my heavier scarf. One thing that I didn't bring that I wish I had were gloves. So I bought a pair of little lightweight gloves. And the other thing I didn't bring was a hat. So I bought a baseball hat so I had that to wear also when it was raining. I was so happy to have an umbrella. And I gotta say the people on my trip who had umbrellas were generally warmer, drier, looked better, and were just happier throughout the day because they had an umbrella. I used one big packing cube that fit exactly the large lid portion of my suitcase. And I just laid most of my clothes in there. Then I used a another smaller packing cube that fit about half of the other side of my suitcase. And in there I put in more of my accessory clothes, undies, t-shirts, pajamas. I put my sneakers inside the suitcase and I stuffed them with socks. The other things that went in my suitcase were my dry toiletry bag, umbrella, and my curling iron. Always be sure to weigh your bag before you go on the trip when it's fully packed so that you know that you can lift it up to the overhead bin. My fully loaded suitcase weighs just 24 pounds. The suitcase is my base carry-on bag. This is a nice lightweight suitcase. It's been all over the world with me and my daughters. We dragged it on cobblestone streets. It is a little bit bigger than the standard carry-on, but I've never had a problem with it anywhere. And the backpack that I carry is this pink backpack. It matches my suitcase. I like a backpack versus a tote. It just gets heavy and so I like to carry it over my shoulders. So that's why I prefer a backpack. Then the last thing that I brought was a handbag. I don't wear a crossbody when I travel. I just feel like with a crossbody your hands are free. You kind of forget it's there. Sometimes your crossbody rolls around to the back. That's a really easy place for pickpockets to get at it. I prefer a handbag that is like under my armpit and I keep the zipper in the front so you know it's always right here. Into my handbag goes my RFID wallet with my passport and any money and credit cards, a pen, some lip glosses and lipstick, an emery board, a little baggie with Tide to Go pen, Advil, Dramamine, and sleep aids for on the plane, some flossers, a mask, a granola bar, my toothbrush, toothpaste, and flossers, a little box of throat lozenges, and my Touchland hand sanitizer. Instead of bringing my one big toiletry bag that I usually travel with when I check my bag, when I'm traveling carry-on I pack two separate toiletry bags. These are the toiletry bags that I bring and I bring a dry bag and a wet bag so that I keep things separately so I can get the wet bag out for TSA, put it separately in the bin if they want to see it. This is everything that I take with me in my dry bag. This one packs in my carry-on suitcase. I usually bring some individual packages of eye masks, my retainer cleaners, my HRT patches, alcohol prep wipes for applying my HRT patches, band-aids, my deodorant, Bod Pods shower wash in their little tin, my setting powder, my blush, sleep aids, flossers, toothbrush, eye drops, emery board, and root touch-up, stick bronzer, a couple of q-tips, contact lenses, supplements, my comb, and my wonder cloth for washing my face. Almost forgot my little handheld magnifying mirror because sometimes the hotel doesn't have one and I can't put on my makeup without one. In my liquids bag I put in my skincare, my Anshe's Actives. Gives me an eight-step skincare routine in two little bottles. Sunscreen, Clinique take the day off cleansing balm, Oribe shampoo and conditioner, the foundation I'm taking for the trip, say slip tint, my hair mask and face wash, estrogen face cream, hand lotion, concealer, overnight lip moisturizer. I always bring my travel brush set so that I have makeup brushes with me. It comes with five brushes but I add another two. Then I put in a Natasha Denona mini palette, a mascara, eyeshadow, crayons, two eyeliners, and here's everything I put in my backpack. My noise-canceling Bose headphones go in the bottom, my travel blanket scarf goes in the bottom as well, my makeup brush set, my pack of charging cables, my liquids bag always goes on the top for easy access at TSA, my laptop charging cable, my power adapter, my laptop and my iPad, empty water bottle goes in the side pocket, glasses case, sunglasses, a compact shopping bag, face masks, and my airplane pillow attaches to the outside. One of the hardest things to figure out for this trip was how I was going to style my hair because I use the Dyson Airwrap. The Dyson Airwrap is not usable in other countries, it's not dual voltage. Most hotels will provide a blow dryer but that means you also need then a round brush and I've just never been good at round brush blow drying my hair. I can't work the two hands at once. I will usually just rough blow my hair and then I bring a flat iron or a styling iron that I can use. So the one that I usually bring is the InStyler. Unfortunately I don't think InStyler even sells this anymore. If I let my hair air dry it'll be completely frizzy and then I want to tame it so I love this tool because I can straighten it or I can curl it. You could do the same thing with a regular old straightening flat iron if you can use a flat iron to curl your hair. That would be the ideal because that's going to be the smallest footprint. You can get a dual voltage one and then you can bring it with you and then you can have straight hair or you can have curled hair. Another great thing to bring would be something like the Wavy Talk. This is one of my favorite hairstyling products. I believe it is dual voltage. I can take it from frizzy to nice and straight. I can flip the ends. I can do a little bit of a curl. I can't really do my beachy waves using it. That's why I like to bring the InStyler. So that is what I brought. So if you've got a trip planned I'd love to hear where you're going. Love to hear all about it. I love travel plans. I can't wait to hear yours. So that's it for today's video everybody. I hope you found it helpful and informative. If you did go ahead and give it a like. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. As always I thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate your watching. I hope you have a great day and I will see you in the next video. Take care everybody. Bye-bye.