When traveling for a 3-days vacation, how much clothing do you need to bring? How about a week long vacation? How about a month?

After years of lightweight traveling I can confidently answer that a week’s worth of clothing is all you need to travel no matter how long you are going to travel for. If you have enough clothing in your luggage for a week, then you are able to travel indefinitely. And this is how I can travel for a month and more with a carry-on backpack.

The secret to this is: Laundry

I and my friends used to joke around whenever someone is going on a vacation. “I am bringing souvenirs.”

“What is that?”

“Dirty laundry”

It makes sense for a shorter trip because you probably want to pack the available time to tour and do tourist activities. But when you have a week or more, you can travel in a slower pace. And rather than packing a lot and bringing back a pile of dirty laundry, you can set aside a time every week to wash your laundry.

Most travelers are staying in a hotel in a city. And if you have traveled enough to several cities you will soon realize that even the smaller town has a coin laundry service, or a laundry service that takes your laundry by weight.

A checked baggage fee for AirAsia’s flights is $5 to $40 one way. And if you have excess baggage during check in they charge you $10 per kg. Meanwhile coin laundry services cost $3 to $5 per load, with a capacity of 10 kg.

Monetary consideration aside, this also allows you to travel lighter and longer. In my experience, whenever I need to wash my clothing it only weighs 2 kg most of the time. That means if you are traveling as a couple or in a group you could even combine them into a single load if you want to.

Minimalist Lifestyle

So far we have been discussing about having a week’s worth of clothing in the context of traveling. But the same lifestyle can also be applied to your daily life. This rings most true when you are embracing a minimalist lifestyle.

One key aspect of minimalism is by being mindful of your possessions and considering if the benefits or purposes of the stuff you have are worth the resources to maintain them, be it in time, space, financial, or mentally, or physically.

When applied to clothing, it may actually be easier to do. One way to do it is by knowing how often you are comfortable doing laundry. Let’s say it’s once a week. Then add one or two more days to it. So you could have 8-9 days worth of clothing at any time and that is enough. If you could do it twice a week, then you may need even less clothing in your wardrobe!