It’s a real talent to travel with only a travel on suitcase.
It’s also sometimes a smart move, especially if cost is a factor to you—your flights will often be significantly cheaper if you don’t require checked in luggage. It also makes traveling more streamline and practically easier. It’s easier to move from place to place if you’re not lugging 30kg of your belongings around after you.
My first tip for packing just a carry-on case is be ruthless. Thing about what you really really need to take with you. I don’t take anything that I think I could buy if I was in a pinch and really needed it. Toiletries often take up so much space but really, where would you be going that you wouldn’t be able to buy a small tube for your time away once you arrived?
Edit your packing. Don’t pack the night before, if you pack a week before you leave, it gives you time to go over and revise what you’ll need. This means you have longer to remember to pack everything you need, and time to take out what, on second thought, you might not actually require.
Another thing to consider is obviously where you’re going and how long you’re going away for. You won’t necessarily need a whole weeks worth of different outfits, for instance, and if you’re going to be lying on a beach most days then the amount of space you’ll need for clothing will be greatly diminished.
The key thing when packing just a carry on is packing smart and really thinking about your travel context and what it calls for.