Packing a minimum of clothing

[Sculptor]

https://www.outsideonline.com/2164711/going-light

[Kirk W]

You could save a lot of space by spending your time mostly in nudist parks! 

One thing that is quite obvious of this fellow is that he may live small, but he carries a well-filled wallet. Evidence of that is his choice of the most expensive travel trailer built and read what he spent on clothing!

Quote

• 2 jackets: The Castelli Idro ($350) is the lightest, least bulky waterproof jacket money can buy. The One Gore Thermium ($400) is warm enough for sub-freezing mountain weather, despite its gossamer feel.

 

He spent more on two jackets than I spend in a year on clothing! Adding it all up, he spent $3200+ for all new clothing to save space! We just hit the road with mostly the same clothing that we always wore. 

[TheLongWayHome]

Modern "journalism" and getting paid for product placement - product placement marketing. $165 for a pair of shorts ~ about the cost of my life time buy of shorts!!!!!

[sandsys]

But, this article is so old many of those products are no longer available. Still the concept is valid for when you are replacing worn out clothing--buy high quality so you won't have to buy it again. Ever for most of us.

Linda Sand

[Sculptor]

Kirk, I should not have posted in 2 places.  Thanks for being a good sport about that.

Many comments are spot on about the crazy expensive clothing this "journalist" (marketeer) has at his disposal.  Either way I look at this, I see a way to cut back on what I need.  If I adopt half of the approach and get baggy shorts and wear them as I bicycle to a formal wedding somewhere, I have accomplished the "keep it simple" lifestyle.

If I take it another step, I can buy the wardrobe at realistic prices, MANY TIMES over and over again.  I have newer clothing most of the time that will last about as long maybe longer.

Maybe I could wrap myself in a giant silk handkerchief and that would be my multi-purpose garment?  (and I mean GIANT)

 

[Kirk W]

One thing that we did was to go with layers for cool weather wear, rather than keep any heavy coats. But we did have more than two sets of clothing and I don't believe that would be practical for full-time living, no matter what one spent on the two sets. 

[sandsys]

I'm with Kirk on this one. For outer wear I wore a windbreaker over a Polar Fleece jacket with a hat and gloves to the evening fires in the desert. The windbreaker alone was good in rain. The fleece alone was good in the 50s if there wasn't a lot of wind. I learned a lot about layers and ventilation back when we were cross-country skiing.

Linda Sand

[Vladimir]

With all due respect the guy is seriously over packed.....

I spent the summer of 1976 bicycling 2000 miles through Europe with an extended stop in the former Soviet Union.

So here was the clothes list as I remember it.

3 pairs of socks. Bicycling sneakers (shoes), plus sandles. Three sets of underware. One pair of bicycling shorts, plus one pair of jeans. 3 shirts (2 t-shirts), including one rugby shirt with long sleeves, and one small nylon rain jacket. No hat, still had all my hair at that point.

Given all the new technology in clothes today....it is real simple to put together a minimal clothes package that would cover almost all circumstances in RV travel and take up very little room. I would replace all my cotton with fleece and merino wool. For RVing in colder weather I would replace the bicycle gloves with fleece gloves without fingers.

With the bicycles, we had to do laundry EVERY DAY. It really was the underware. That is really the trade-off. Do you want to do laundry everyday??  These days I pack for seven days. I end up doing laundry on day 5 or 6 which is usually when the gray and black tanks need to be dumped. So it usually is a RV park with laundry at that time.

 

 

[sandsys]

17 hours ago, Vladimir said:

One pair of bicycling shorts, plus one pair of jeans.

So what did you wear while doing the laundry?

Linda Sand

[Vladimir]

Well, it was Europe.

The jeans took forever to dry, but fortunately 1976 was the year of the great drought in Europe. I believe it only rained once in the three and half months. When I was in the cities and wearing jeans I always tried to get a zero day so they would dry  before I had to wear them again. But there were times they went on "damp". 

With today's fabrics it would be a piece of cake.

[bruce t]

You guys obviously don't travel with a wife!!!!!

The amount of clothes carried is always proportional to the amount of storage space.

 

 

[Darryl&Rita]

On fly-in work assignments, we're usually limited to 2 bags, each max. of 50 lb. One bag is tools, so do the math on what I'm allowed for clothes, laptop, meds, etc. for as much as 3 weeks at a time.

[Kirk W]

On 8/9/2017 at 10:15 PM, Vladimir said:

I spent the summer of 1976 bicycling 2000 miles through Europe with an extended stop in the former Soviet Union.

In 1978 we took our family (5 of us) and joined another family to spend 12 days traveling the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area on horseback also taking very limited clothing since we had only 1 pack horse. I don't know that I'd care to do that again and I know that I wouldn't want to make the lifestyle.

[sandsys]

20 hours ago, bruce t said:

You guys obviously don't travel with a wife!!!!!

The amount of clothes carried is always proportional to the amount of storage space.

I AM the wife! My last RV was a custom built conversion van. My closet was 24" wide with one shelf and one hanging rod. All my clothes, including shoes and outerwear, were in that closet. Being female does not REQUIRE you to have an extensive wardrobe.

Linda Sand

[bruce t]

Oh dear. Sorry Linda Sand. I guess this forum is way too serious for me. In this current world humor is in sort supply. Seems it's getting shorter.

This will be my last post on the SKPs forum. Seems folks are way to sensitive for me.

Regards

[bigjim]

Don't be too sensitive yourself Bruce T.  A lot depends on how you read it. I actually found both your and Linda's posts  as kind of funny. Especially in relation to each others posts.  I will say yours wasn't real new and mea culpa I have probably said the same thing in the past. And Linda fess's up that out of necessity she requires a "larger" wardrobe. Heck my brother seemed to think he needed and extensive wardrobe when he was a teenager. 

OK now lets make fun of Kirk for not wanting to be a cowboy.

[sandsys]

22 hours ago, bruce t said:

Oh dear. Sorry Linda Sand. I guess this forum is way too serious for me. In this current world humor is in sort supply. Seems it's getting shorter.

This will be my last post on the SKPs forum. Seems folks are way to sensitive for me.

Regards

I do sometimes get upset by what I perceive as negative generalities. Guess I should have included some smiley faces in my response. Like right after the word "wife". I suppose this is where I should include some negative comment about sensitive Australians?  

Linda Sand

[Vladimir]

On 8/13/2017 at 5:50 AM, Kirk Wood said:

In 1978 we took our family (5 of us) and joined another family to spend 12 days traveling the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area on horseback also taking very limited clothing since we had only 1 pack horse. I don't know that I'd care to do that again and I know that I wouldn't want to make the lifestyle.

I actually packed MORE clothes if I had a horse to carry it ALL.

Europe was a piece of cake since it was NOT work. Even now, after all these years I have to remind myself...your NOT in the middle of somewhere.....you can buy clothes or wash in a laundry if needed.

So I had plenty of time to wash clothes every night in Europe.  After working all day I never wanted to do the laundry. Most times when I was working laundry was all I brought in and out. I always made sure I had clean socks. That was more important than anything else.

For Linda....it is not the clothes that woman bring, but the shoes.

Though one time I was working with a couple of female Foresters in the backcountry. So I helped pack in extra food and get them started on the assignment. I was unpacking one woman's pack to get at the mapping equipment and there was a 20 lb book. It was important to her. At least, it wasn't shoes.

[sandsys]

20 hours ago, Vladimir said:

For Linda....it is not the clothes that woman bring, but the shoes.

I guess I'm not really female.   I wear my Crocs 99% of the time. I do have a pair of sandals I wore to a funeral while fulltime RVing and I have my water aerobic shoes. And my slippers. Is that too many?

Linda

[Pat & Pete]

1 hour ago, sandsys said:

I guess I'm not really female.   I wear my Crocs 99% of the time. I do have a pair of sandals I wore to a funeral while fulltime RVing and I have my water aerobic shoes. And my slippers. Is that too many?

Linda

Linda , you're such a fashionesta . LOL  

[Vladimir]

18 hours ago, sandsys said:

I guess I'm not really female.   I wear my Crocs 99% of the time. I do have a pair of sandals I wore to a funeral while fulltime RVing and I have my water aerobic shoes. And my slippers. Is that too many?

Linda

No hiking shoes? No wading shoes" No skiing boots?? No x-country boots?? No winter hunting boots?? No Uggs??

All of those don't really count as shoes....it is just the things with those pencil thin heels that I never understood.

[sandsys]

2 hours ago, Vladimir said:

No hiking shoes? No wading shoes" No skiing boots?? No x-country boots?? No winter hunting boots?? No Uggs??

I'll admit to having most of those in the past. But I no longer "hike" or ski nor do I spend much time outside in the winter. So, all of those have gone away. But I never did have Uggs. Canadian Sorrels, yes.

Linda

[eddie1261]

On 8/7/2017 at 8:34 AM, Kirk Wood said:

You could save a lot of space by spending your time mostly in nudist parks! 

Okay, you'll have to trust me on this one, but NOBODY wants to see my fat ass in a nudist park.....  In fact if I did that, they would pass a collection bucket to buy me clothes.

[sandsys]

20 hours ago, eddie1261 said:

Okay, you'll have to trust me on this one, but NOBODY wants to see my fat ass in a nudist park.....  In fact if I did that, they would pass a collection bucket to buy me clothes.

I don't participate but I've been told that those who do are the least judgmental people in the world.

Linda Sand

[packnrat]

keep the same things on till they stand up by them selves. then go to a thrift store, or second hand. get "new" to you all clean and ready.

save big on laundry soap.

 

hay, i take a bath once a month, wither i need it,

 

or not.