This has taken me a little while to put together, but I think it’s been worth the wait. I give you: a women’s minimalist travel packing list.

How beautiful is that!

In addition, here is a calendar to help when planning:

So here’s how it works. You would start with the calendar. Fill in the dates and activities that you have going on for your trip. Start thinking about what types of activities and/or weather you expect.

For my upcoming trip, I have to go to a wedding. I need to plan a fancy outfit for the ceremony and reception. However, it’s a rainy time of year, so I also need to bring a rain coat and waterproof shoes. And I want to have some comfortable, casual outfits for traveling and chilling out with my family.

Once you have all of those considerations, start filling in the packing list. Actually write down what items you will bring. Focus on multi functional items (ie a scarf that can double as a shawl when it gets chilly).

Go back to the calendar and fill in the outfits that you will wear down to the shoes and accessories. See if there are any items that you only plan to wear once. What if you didn’t bring them? Is there something you are bringing that you could use instead? The point here is to eliminate any extraneous items. You only want to bring essential items, and hopefully they won’t take up more space than you have in your carry on.

The packing list is set up with black and grey items. Black items are essentials that should be brought on any overnight to three-day trip. For trips longer than three days, use both the black and grey items. This should get you to 5 – 7 days, and for any trips that are longer than that, you will probably have to wash your clothes anyway. This packing list is pretty comprehensive and should be enough to last you for multi-week trip if you pack efficiently.

I am going to fill out these forms for my upcoming trip and share them with you next week so you can see how these two documents work together.

What do you think? Is this helpful? If you use them, please let me know how they work for you!