One of the constant struggles that I face is what do I take with me when I want to, say, go to a coffee shop, or the library for a few hours. Realistically I could take everything, I mean my bag has room. I could also take just my laptop, that would likely cover me as well and would be as minimal as I could get.
It’s just a few hours, why is it so hard to decide what to bring?
Part of my struggle is that I don’t like to move things in and out of my bag. I like to get everything setup in the bag and then leave it there — don’t touch it — just keep it in the bag until I need it. Because I don’t like to swap things in and out, I like to have my bag ready for a short trip to a coffee shop or a longer trip while traveling for work or pleasure. My bag should always have the necessities in it for either.
So I took everything out of my bag and spread it out.
That’s quite a bit of stuff, and I’ve stared at that picture for a long time. I wanted to make it more minimal, but still versatile enough that I don’t have to add or subtract from it as I prefer.
The first thing I realized was that I was carrying some really odd shit, here’s the full list of what I have in that picture:
- Twelve South Compass Stand
- iPad Air w/ Smart Cover
- Leuchtturm Notebook
- Retro 1951 Pen
- FiftyThree Pencil
- Keys
- Cash
- GORUCK Wire Dopp
- 2x Lightning Cables
- Thunderbolt Cable
- USB 3.0 Cable
- USB Micro Cable
- USB Mini Cable
- Lightning to USB Adapter
- Finger Nail Clippers
- Power Adapter for USB Hub
- USB 3.0 Hub
- Bluetooth Keyboard Adapter
- USB 3.0 Flash Drive
- Monoprice Battery Pack
- Retina MacBook Pro
- DDC Stuff Sheath with Field Notes and small Moleskin inside
- LaCie 1tb Thunderbolt Drive
- Some Mail
- Keycard, and file drawer keys
- Chewing Gum
- Backup pocket knife
- B+W C5 Headphones
- Hardgraft Box Case with Business Cards
- Apple Screen Cleaning Cloth
- GORUCK GR1 Field Pocket
- Fujifilm X100T
- X100T Lens hood
- Lighting SD Card Adapter
Whew, that’s quite a list, and as I said I needed and wanted to make it smaller.
After staring at that photo for a bit I decided on a two pronged approach: shrink the kit, and replace some of the older gear if needed.
Here’s the new kit:
- Fujifilm X100T
- Retro 1951 Pen
- Hardgraft Box Case with Business Cards
- GORUCK GR1 Field Pocket
- X100T Battery
- DDC Stuff Sheath with Field Notes and small Moleskin inside
- USB Micro Cable, 2″
- Lightning Cable 6″
- Lightning Cable 8″
- USB-C to USB Adapter
- Samson Go Mic w/ USB Mini Cable
- ANKER Battery Pack
- Finger Nail Clippers
- Apple Earpods
- GORUCK WireDopp
- Apple iPad Air w/ Smart Cover
- Leuchtturm Notebook
- Keys
- Apple MacBook
Originally I was carrying 34 items with me everyday and everywhere I went. Now I am down to 21 items, with many of those taking up less space. Only the battery pack got heavier, but it also holds a lot more power so I call that a wash.
I could have stopped there, but as I wrote about in my review of the GORUCK 15L Shoulder Bag:
And I think that’s where my issue is: the size of the 15L is not a compelling enough reason to use it over the GR1, and I was banking on the fact that it would be compellingly smaller.
I also wanted to tackle that problem I am facing with the recent changes of a few notable things in my life:
- My everyday gear list is a lot smaller
- You might have noticed I moved from a 15″ MBP to a new MacBook
- I have two trips coming up where I know I will want to carry a bag with me, but DO NOT want that bag to be the GR1 for varying reasons (that’s a topic for another post).
So I also slimmed down from the GR1’s 26 liter to the GORUCK Bullet Ruck which is 10L. I’ll do a full review of that later, but my thinking is that I want something more mobile like a nice shoulder bag, but that is still a backpack and large enough on my back to not look foolish.
We will see how this gear setup fairs long term, but I am committed to carrying far less crap with me everyday and suspect I will be pruning my list even further as time passes.