February 4, 2026 • 24 mins
Show Notes: Worldschooling Q&A – Episode 20
Worldschooling Podcast Episode Title: Episode 20: What Worldschooling Packing Essentials Do We Need?
Hosts: Astrid & Clint, creators of The Wandering Daughter
Episode Summary: In this episode of Worldschooling Q&A, Astrid and Clint answer a question every traveling family eventually faces: what packing essentials do we really need for long-term worldschooling travel?
Drawing from more than four years of full-time travel across 18+ countries and six continents, they share how their packing philosophy has evolved toward minimalism, sustainability, and practicality—without sacrificing comfort or mental well-being. They discuss how most items can be purchased locally, why quality matters for frequently used gear, and how to avoid overpacking out of fear.
Astrid and Clint walk through the systems that keep them organized on the road, including capsule wardrobes, packing cubes, and reusable storage solutions. They also highlight often-overlooked safety and health items they never travel without, such as carbon monoxide detectors and water purification bottles, along with the tech gear that supports work, learning, and downtime as a traveling family.
If you’re preparing for long-term travel, slow travel, or full-time worldschooling, this episode will help you pack smarter, lighter, and with more intention—while still leaving room for the items that bring joy to your family’s journey.
🎧 Ready to dive in?
👉 For the full worldschooling podcast show notes, resource links, and a complete episode guide, visit: https://thewanderingdaughter.com/episode-20-worldschooling-packing-essentials
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I am, I guess, less picky aboutthat. I do a capsule wardrobe,
but it's more that I will just wearthe same clothes four days in a row
and then I'll change.
Some of us do like to look a little bit.
Different every day. Thisis world schooling q and a.
I'm Astrid, creator of the WanderingDaughter. As a traveling family,
(00:23):
we've spent four years travelingfull-time to over 18 countries and six
continents. Wherever we go,
we try to learn as much as we can aboutthe countries and cultures we visit.
While we didn't coin the term, welike to call this world schooling,
using the world as ourclassroom. Each week,
my husband Clint and I will answer onequestion about world schooling and share
(00:45):
our experiences of traveling the worldwith our kids ready to get started?
Great. Let's dive in.
So for today's question,
we are answering what packing essentialsshould we bring for long-term travel?
(01:08):
Oh, this is a fun run. I likegeeking out on gear. You.
Do. You do.
And I think that actually that thefirst point we have to make is if
you're traveling, you got to focuson being as minimalist as possible.
And some families are waymore minimal than we are.
There are definitely families outthere that are able to travel only with
(01:28):
backpacks. So no check gear.
Anything like that carry on. Only.
We are not that way. We basically,
each member of the family has acarry-on backpack and a checked luggage.
So.
That's kind of how we travel. But otherthan that, we still stay pretty minimal,
I think for the most part.
And we try and choose itemsthat will last and that are made
(01:52):
sustainably, just it's not so thatit's good for the environment too.
Yeah. Maybe you can expandon that a little bit,
because sustainability I thinkis one of our family values.
So what does that mean.
To us? Well, so things thatare, as much as we can,
we try not to buy thingsmade out of plastic,
but you can't always escape that.
(02:13):
But things that are alsogood quality made or
companies that we feel likeare good for that treat their
employees well, and theyhave good environmental practices and things like that.
I mean, we could go into awhole conversation about fast
(02:33):
fashion and the retail industry,
but this is not the topic of this podcast.
We do a whole episode on justsustainability stuff that we break.
Us.
To. But yeah,
we're happy to answer any questionsabout some sustainability or
sustainable things that we travel with.
But going back to thetopic of minimalism though,
(02:55):
I think there's a fear when you travelthat I have to bring everything that
I'm going to possiblyneed. And so that's really,
you have to be able to balance.
That. Yeah. Let me give you a totalinsider tip. Total insider tip.
Every place in the worldhas clothing shops.
Every place in the world has somesort of pharmacy or drug stores where
(03:17):
you can buy Tylenol orthose types of things.
And every single place in the worldhas kitchen type of equipment.
So whatever you feellike you have to bring,
chances are you can find thatin the locations you need. Now,
it might not be the brandor things that you like.
But.
So for example, we travel with just,
(03:38):
I think a bare minimum of medicationis just the medication that we actually
take. For example. I take beyond that,
I think most of the things wekind of just buy as needed.
And then we'll carry them withus, and then if we run out,
we will buy more the equivalentof it in another destination.
I think the thing that we have to balance,
(03:59):
and then this kind of fallsinto the sustainability too.
If we're constantly buying new bottlesof shampoo in each place or new
bottles of laundry detergent, then
that's going to be not sustainable.
So some things like weswitched to bar shampoo
(04:21):
where it doesn't use upplastic bottles and stuff,
but then you can findthat in most places now,
health specialty health.
Stores.
Or something.
Or we do bring along the sheet detergent
sheets instead of buying a new bottle of
detergent, laundrydetergent, wherever we go.
(04:44):
So you got to balance out the minimalism,but then also the sustainability too.
Yeah.
That's a good point. Yep.
So let's talk about the actualitems that we bring with us.
Besides some of those things,
what are some items that we bringthat are related to keeping us
organized?
Yeah, I think the twothings we use a lot are,
(05:08):
they're called STAs.
They're basically siliconeversions of Ziploc bags.
Those are helpful for all sortsof things. We put games in there.
We put electronic gear, we put toiletries.
We use them for food storage when we'restaying in a location for leftovers,
that kind of stuff.
Packing.
Cubes. We have a ton of packingcubes. We use them for clothing.
(05:31):
We use them for electronics.We use them for dirty clothes,
all sorts of things weuse packing cubes for.
And it's nice.
The thing we like about packing cubes isthen each member has their own packing
cube.
And.
Then that stays organized. Andthen when we get to a location,
we just take the packing cube outof the bag and put it in the closet.
And you don't have to worry about let'sunpack everything and put it in the
(05:55):
drawers. No, I'm just throwthe pack and keep it there.
That's a quick little tip forlong-term travel too, is unpack,
when you get there, it'll help youfeel like you're settling in. But yeah.
What about just the qualityof gear? I think sometimes,
especially when you'regetting ready to travel,
things are already so expensiveand you want to try to cut your
(06:19):
budget as much as possible.
What is something we don't budge onreally for that we want high quality that
we're willing to spend money on?
Yeah, that's a good point.
There are some things likeI buy my clothes at Goodwill or at the thrift store,
but when there are thingsthat I don't want to skimp on,
(06:39):
such as a backpack or shoes,
those are things that we're goingto be using every single day.
So we want to make sure that theyare going to be good quality,
that they're going to besturdy and last for a while.
Because the worst thing isyou have a bag that falls
(07:00):
apart after maybe two weeks and
you're planning, or you're planningon going on a two year trip,
that's money that you wastedbasically on that bag.
So we went over in a previousepisode of our favorite
backpacks to go travel with.
(07:21):
So feel free to listen tothat and get your own tips,
but yeah. Yeah.
I think Jack is probably another thing.The reason a lot of this stuff
costs money or costs a lot of money isbecause there's little details that these
manufacturers add to their things.
So whether it's better zippers orbreathability or lightweight fabrics,
(07:43):
all these things matter.
I want to buy nice jeans becauseI literally wear the same,
I do capsule packing a lot. I mean,
we all do capsule packingto a certain extent,
but my capsule packing is basically onepair of shorts and one pair of jeans,
and then I will wear jeanslike four days in a row,
(08:04):
and then I need those jeans. So ifwe're staying a year, for example,
I'm literally wearing thosejeans for 11 months out of the
year and they need to hold up. Yeah.
Well, what about things thatare related to health or safety?
What are some things that we travel with?
(08:26):
Yeah, there's a few things that wetravel with that's kind of critical.
I think the first thing, going backto what we said originally about,
there's pharmacies in everywhere.
I know some families travelwith full first aid kits.
We don't keep that space inour bag for that kind of thing.
We'll travel with a little sewingkit and then just some band-aids.
(08:49):
But beyond that, we'll spy in store.But I think the one I'll talk about,
I think is the carbonmonoxide detector. And this,
I think often people are caught off guardwhen we say this item is on our list.
And the reason it's on our list isbecause when we first started traveling,
there were a couple stories of outside,
(09:10):
say like United Statesand Canada, for example,
carbon monoxide detector is actuallynot mandatory in a lot of countries.
And so when you're in a region,
we were in a region in Mexicothat was actually colder.
We were there during the winter.
So the knights got pretty cold downinto the 40 degrees Fahrenheit. And so
(09:31):
a lot of times what people will try todo is have space heaters to keep the
space warm.
The problem is a lot of thespace heaters are propane field,
and so that creates gas emissions.
And there are stories of people basicallypassing away in the middle of the
night because they've basically hailed gasOr some sort of carbon monoxide.
(09:53):
And we stayed in a place in, I don'tmean to pick on Mexico. We love Mexico.
Absolutely.
Those guys have happened in any country.
We stayed in an apartment where
the host didn't tell us, I don'tthink they thought to tell us,
but they didn't tell us thatthe way the hot water heaters
(10:14):
are in the apartments,they emit emissions.
They have emissions that comeout. So as they're running,
and so the way this one specificallywas in this little cabinet area that we
were supposed to keep the cabinetsopen so that it would air out.
We didn't know that. And so the cabinetswere closed. We all took showers,
(10:35):
so it kicked on to reheat all the water.
And I was working fromthe apartment that day,
Astrid and the kids hadgone out to a museum,
and I noticed I started kind ofgetting lightheaded and then checked,
I think the carbonmonoxide detector went off.
It was like beepingperiodically throughout the day.
And then noticed it was pretty high.
(10:57):
And so I actually left the apartmentfor a while to kind of air out.
And then that night we came back and itwas clear there was no carbon monoxide.
It seemed like it was pretty okay.
And then we went to sleepin the middle of the night,
the alarm went off and it wasreally high, incredibly high.
At a level where if we hadstayed there for an hour,
(11:19):
it would've been fatal for all of us.
So we, not to sound overdramatic about it,
but that's pretty scary.
And so we ended up having found a hotelin the middle of the night, went there,
and then the next day wefound out about this cabinet.
You're supposed to keep open andit vented and all that stuff,
but that's the kind of stuff.The one we have is really small.
(11:41):
It's like the size of twodecks of cars. It's very.
Covered. So you can buy thosebatteries anywhere in the world.
It was like $30 on Amazon.
Light is a feather. It'sreally light. So we're like,
there's no reason for us not to travelwith it. So that's one critical.
What's another thing thatwe travel with a lot.
We have a water bottle thathas a built-in purifier.
(12:03):
The company is called Grail,
which we have been using them since 2018.
That's G-R-A-Y-L?
Yeah, G-R-A-Y-L.
And what it does isit's able to filter out,
and they say 99.9 or 99% of
(12:23):
the toxins, pathogens that arein water so that you can make it,
it can be drinkable. And inmost places that we travel to,
we don't know how safethe drinking water is,
but we don't want to take chances on that.
And so we'll always bring a grail with us
(12:44):
if we're able to buy,
and we don't want to buy theplastic single use plastic water
bottles everywhere we go. Sothis is a good alternative,
a sustainable alternative. We'lljust pour tap water, filter it,
and then pour it into our own personalwater bottles or just drink out of that
water bottle or whatever.
(13:04):
But in some countrieswill have the huge gallon
jugs of water that youcan buy at the store,
and then that getsrefilled when it's empty.
But if we're in a area where we'renot staying there long enough that
it makes sense to buy one ofthose, or it's just not available,
the grail bottle isalways so helpful for us.
(13:27):
I think one of the things that, there'stwo instances, I think we use it a lot.
We use it for toothbrushing water.
Yeah, brushing your teeth.
Yeah, because we don't want to use the.
Tap.
Water. The expensive, well,we don't use tap water.
We don't want to use theexpensive bottled water. Oh.
Yeah, yeah. The.
Refilled water that we buy, it'snot that expensive. But still,
we don't want to use that water,the drinking water for that.
So we'll use it a lot oftimes for brushing our teeth.
(13:49):
And then also we'll bring it when we'rein a country where we know that the
water's not safe to drink.It's not audible water.
Then we will just carry the waterbottle with us so that we can refill it
throughout the day and drink. And plus,
even in places like say Italy,
where they have all those fountainsthat you can refill your water bottle as
you're walking through the cities,
(14:10):
we'll still filter it throughthat just to add an extra,
because the other thing,
it also reduces things like travelersdiarrhea and stuff like that.
So it's just helpful.
And then the last health relatedthing that we always bring is a scale,
a very small, I think it'sprobably this big travel scale.
(14:32):
And not only does it help us justwe love to eat and we love to,
it's a helpful way to keepus in check of like, oh yeah,
let's make sure we're stayingfit while we're traveling.
But the other thing is then we canuse it to make sure our bags are
not too heavy. Airlines will havetheir weight limits and stuff,
(14:54):
and I hate carrying those.
The bag scales where youhook it and it always breaks.
At least this hasmultifunctional and it use. Yeah.
That makes sense.
What about technology?
This.
Is your favorite topic.
I know we're a little bitof a tech family. I think we have, between all of us,
(15:15):
we have multiple phones, multiple tablets,
multiple game devices,multiple laptops for sure.
And we also enjoy watching tv.
And so we travel with, one of the thingswe travel with is a low Roku stick,
which is, I know Googlemakes one, Amazon makes one,
(15:35):
but it's basically just a streaming stick.
That.
We use at home. But weactually travel with that.
We bring that where we go so that wehave all of our kind of channels that we
subscribe to. As part of that,
we also travel with a travel router sothat I can run A VPN if we need to on
that. But that's a different topic.
But all those devices require chargers.
(15:57):
And.
They require cables, and they require.
Adapters.
Adapters, especially if you're incountries where the plugs are different,
right.
And like converters too.
Converters sometimes power converters,depending on what you have.
I travel with electric razor because Icut my own hair and trim my beard and
stuff. So all those thingsrequire that. So over the years,
(16:21):
I've kind of paired that stuff down,but I try to keep it in one case,
all those extra chargers.
Another thing we travel a lotwith are battery packs for.
Portable batteries.
Because a lot of timeswe'll be out walking.
Portable charger. Yeah.
Portable chargers. If we're out walking.Japan was a good example of this.
(16:42):
It's really hot.
So then our phones got really hotand it just burned battery faster.
So then having these portable batterypacks is really helpful. But yeah,
I think I could do a whole thingon technology in general. But yeah,
that's the quick answer.What about clothing?
Always.
My suggestion is to find clothesthat are going to be versatile and
(17:04):
multifunctional in different areas.
You mentioned somethingabout a capsule wardrobe.
I think that's really helpful too.Things that are interchangeable.
So mix and matching things like a shirtcan be worn with three different types
of bottoms, a bottom, like a skirt,
or can be wore with fourdifferent types of tops.
(17:24):
That way you can vary youroutfits a little bit more.
I am, I guess, less picky aboutthat. I do a capsule wardrobe,
but it's more that I will just wearthe same clothes four days in a row,
and then I'll change. Well.
Some of us do like to look alittle bit different every day.
Now if we're hanging out with familiesand they see me multiple days in a row,
(17:48):
I will change. So at leastI look a little different.
But I think the thing aboutclothes is it's easy to
want to try and pack for
a month, make sure we have amonth's worth of clothes. Actually,
you only need a week's worth ofclothes because then you do laundry and
(18:08):
then you've got it washed. Somaybe like a week and a day in case
somebody,
in case we don't have a laundry unitin the place that we're staying,
we have to drop it offat a laundry facility.
Then you at least have a couple clothes.
We very max only travel witheight changes of clothes.
(18:31):
And.
That takes into play. It's notlike it's eight pants and couple.
Again, it's the capsule mindset. Yeah,eight outfits. Eight outfits. Yeah. Yep.
Okay.
Let's talk about items thatare not necessarily essential,
but are essential for our family.
Yeah, please go ahead.
(18:51):
I was going to say
it's okay to bring something that is alittle bit superfluous or a little bit of
what I call a luxury item,if it's something that is important for your family.
Yeah.
We talked about in previousepisode about a family of ours or a
family friend that we know, andthey would travel with board games.
(19:12):
That was one of their family values.
That's their essential item.
Yeah.
We knew another family friend where theywould travel with snorkel gear because
they snorkeled a lot, and theyjust rather have their own gear.
So that's one of the things thatthey would set aside. So for us.
What are some of the things thatwe used to or we would travel with?
(19:33):
Yeah, I would say so for me,when we first started traveling,
I played guitar pretty regularly.
And when we first started traveling,I didn't bring a guitar or anything.
It's huge. They're bulky. And I don'tknow. We were in Mexico for I think,
two months or something, and then Iwas like, I need something to play.
(19:54):
I'm getting itchy. I justneed something to play.
So we found a ukulele when we were inGuadalajara and we bought a ukulele.
And we've traveled with that ever since.
This time around when wetravel again for Christmas,
Astrid got me a travel guitar.
So we're going to travelwith a little travel guitar.
And so that's kind of one of the bigluxury items that I travel with. Yeah.
(20:15):
What's.
Something else that we travel with?
Oh, coffee is an important part. Andso when we were traveling full time,
we had a camping French press,
because not every place would havecoffee. I think this time around we can,
we travel with, what isthat? The silicone pour.
Over. Pour.
(20:35):
Over.
Cone. Yeah, silicone cone. Yeah.
Yeah. Our son was really intoHot Wheels for a period of time,
and as part of his checked bag,
he decided he wantedto have a full race car
track that you can takeit apart and stuff.
But that was his must haveitem. And he was like,
(20:57):
I'm willing to carry it with me too,because I needed to have it. And yeah.
And our daughter was, for a longtime, it was like a bunch of Barbies.
That.
She would carry up. Yeah.
Barbies. Yeah. I think be okay with
aim for minimalism,
but also give yourself some grace to have
(21:19):
other things that aren'tnecessarily essential,
but will be good for your mental health.
And books are essential for us too.But we do those all through devices,
so we do only eBooks.
EBooks, yeah. Oh, I wantedto add one thing too.
This is something that wewould always do right before,
especially when we weretraveling full time.
(21:41):
But right before we leave a place,
we go through and do a purging exercise,
go through each of ouritems and say, okay,
is this something we want tokeep or should we leave behind,
keep or throw away? And.
There are things that we buy almostevery time that we get to a new
(22:03):
location if we're going to bethere for a month or longer.
One is some sort of art set.
So our daughter usually travels. Ourdaughter is, she's really into art,
so she draws, she paints, soshe travels with some markers,
but we'll also find paintsat a local art store.
And those are something thatwe don't want to travel with,
(22:26):
but we'll usually just rebuy every time.
There are things like thatthat we do rebuy every time.
And there's a couple kitchen thingsthat we bring, like a knife sharpener.
We.
Just got to the point where we gotsuper tired of dull knives all the time.
We have these wax wraps instead of wrap.
(22:46):
Wax wraps. Yeah.
Yeah, that, that's a wayto cover things. So yeah.
Some of those items, likethe eco-friendly ones,
I list in on my website,
I have a article about our favoriteeco-friendly travel products.
And then if you're curious aboutany of the travel products that,
(23:06):
some of the travelproducts we mentioned here,
I do have a few articles aboutessential items for traveling with kids.
Cool. Yeah. Anything else?
That's it. Alright. Wellthat's all for today.
Thank you for joining us on this episodeof World Schooling q and a with Astrid
and Clint.
Be sure to check out the show notes forany links we mentioned in the episode
(23:29):
and visit my website,
the wandering daughter.com to divedeeper into world schooling and family
travel.
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(23:51):
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(24:13):
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Until next time, happy travels. Bye.
I am, I guess, less picky aboutthat. I do a capsule wardrobe,
but it's more that I will just wearthe same clothes four days in a row
and then I'll change.
Some of us do like to look a little bit.
Different every day. Thisis world schooling q and a.
I'm Astrid, creator of the WanderingDaughter. As a traveling family,
(00:23):
we've spent four years travelingfull-time to over 18 countries and six
continents. Wherever we go,
we try to learn as much as we can aboutthe countries and cultures we visit.
While we didn't coin the term, welike to call this world schooling,
using the world as ourclassroom. Each week,
my husband Clint and I will answer onequestion about world schooling and share
(00:45):
our experiences of traveling the worldwith our kids ready to get started?
Great. Let's dive in.
So for today's question,
we are answering what packing essentialsshould we bring for long-term travel?
(01:08):
Oh, this is a fun run. I likegeeking out on gear. You.
Do. You do.
And I think that actually that thefirst point we have to make is if
you're traveling, you got to focuson being as minimalist as possible.
And some families are waymore minimal than we are.
There are definitely families outthere that are able to travel only with
(01:28):
backpacks. So no check gear.
Anything like that carry on. Only.
We are not that way. We basically,
each member of the family has acarry-on backpack and a checked luggage.
So.
That's kind of how we travel. But otherthan that, we still stay pretty minimal,
I think for the most part.
And we try and choose itemsthat will last and that are made
(01:52):
sustainably, just it's not so thatit's good for the environment too.
Yeah. Maybe you can expandon that a little bit,
because sustainability I thinkis one of our family values.
So what does that mean.
To us? Well, so things thatare, as much as we can,
we try not to buy thingsmade out of plastic,
but you can't always escape that.
(02:13):
But things that are alsogood quality made or
companies that we feel likeare good for that treat their
employees well, and theyhave good environmental practices and things like that.
I mean, we could go into awhole conversation about fast
(02:33):
fashion and the retail industry,
but this is not the topic of this podcast.
We do a whole episode on justsustainability stuff that we break.
Us.
To. But yeah,
we're happy to answer any questionsabout some sustainability or
sustainable things that we travel with.
But going back to thetopic of minimalism though,
(02:55):
I think there's a fear when you travelthat I have to bring everything that
I'm going to possiblyneed. And so that's really,
you have to be able to balance.
That. Yeah. Let me give you a totalinsider tip. Total insider tip.
Every place in the worldhas clothing shops.
Every place in the world has somesort of pharmacy or drug stores where
(03:17):
you can buy Tylenol orthose types of things.
And every single place in the worldhas kitchen type of equipment.
So whatever you feellike you have to bring,
chances are you can find thatin the locations you need. Now,
it might not be the brandor things that you like.
But.
So for example, we travel with just,
(03:38):
I think a bare minimum of medicationis just the medication that we actually
take. For example. I take beyond that,
I think most of the things wekind of just buy as needed.
And then we'll carry them withus, and then if we run out,
we will buy more the equivalentof it in another destination.
I think the thing that we have to balance,
(03:59):
and then this kind of fallsinto the sustainability too.
If we're constantly buying new bottlesof shampoo in each place or new
bottles of laundry detergent, then
that's going to be not sustainable.
So some things like weswitched to bar shampoo
(04:21):
where it doesn't use upplastic bottles and stuff,
but then you can findthat in most places now,
health specialty health.
Stores.
Or something.
Or we do bring along the sheet detergent
sheets instead of buying a new bottle of
detergent, laundrydetergent, wherever we go.
(04:44):
So you got to balance out the minimalism,but then also the sustainability too.
Yeah.
That's a good point. Yep.
So let's talk about the actualitems that we bring with us.
Besides some of those things,
what are some items that we bringthat are related to keeping us
organized?
Yeah, I think the twothings we use a lot are,
(05:08):
they're called STAs.
They're basically siliconeversions of Ziploc bags.
Those are helpful for all sortsof things. We put games in there.
We put electronic gear, we put toiletries.
We use them for food storage when we'restaying in a location for leftovers,
that kind of stuff.
Packing.
Cubes. We have a ton of packingcubes. We use them for clothing.
(05:31):
We use them for electronics.We use them for dirty clothes,
all sorts of things weuse packing cubes for.
And it's nice.
The thing we like about packing cubes isthen each member has their own packing
cube.
And.
Then that stays organized. Andthen when we get to a location,
we just take the packing cube outof the bag and put it in the closet.
And you don't have to worry about let'sunpack everything and put it in the
(05:55):
drawers. No, I'm just throwthe pack and keep it there.
That's a quick little tip forlong-term travel too, is unpack,
when you get there, it'll help youfeel like you're settling in. But yeah.
What about just the qualityof gear? I think sometimes,
especially when you'regetting ready to travel,
things are already so expensiveand you want to try to cut your
(06:19):
budget as much as possible.
What is something we don't budge onreally for that we want high quality that
we're willing to spend money on?
Yeah, that's a good point.
There are some things likeI buy my clothes at Goodwill or at the thrift store,
but when there are thingsthat I don't want to skimp on,
(06:39):
such as a backpack or shoes,
those are things that we're goingto be using every single day.
So we want to make sure that theyare going to be good quality,
that they're going to besturdy and last for a while.
Because the worst thing isyou have a bag that falls
(07:00):
apart after maybe two weeks and
you're planning, or you're planningon going on a two year trip,
that's money that you wastedbasically on that bag.
So we went over in a previousepisode of our favorite
backpacks to go travel with.
(07:21):
So feel free to listen tothat and get your own tips,
but yeah. Yeah.
I think Jack is probably another thing.The reason a lot of this stuff
costs money or costs a lot of money isbecause there's little details that these
manufacturers add to their things.
So whether it's better zippers orbreathability or lightweight fabrics,
(07:43):
all these things matter.
I want to buy nice jeans becauseI literally wear the same,
I do capsule packing a lot. I mean,
we all do capsule packingto a certain extent,
but my capsule packing is basically onepair of shorts and one pair of jeans,
and then I will wear jeanslike four days in a row,
(08:04):
and then I need those jeans. So ifwe're staying a year, for example,
I'm literally wearing thosejeans for 11 months out of the
year and they need to hold up. Yeah.
Well, what about things thatare related to health or safety?
What are some things that we travel with?
(08:26):
Yeah, there's a few things that wetravel with that's kind of critical.
I think the first thing, going backto what we said originally about,
there's pharmacies in everywhere.
I know some families travelwith full first aid kits.
We don't keep that space inour bag for that kind of thing.
We'll travel with a little sewingkit and then just some band-aids.
(08:49):
But beyond that, we'll spy in store.But I think the one I'll talk about,
I think is the carbonmonoxide detector. And this,
I think often people are caught off guardwhen we say this item is on our list.
And the reason it's on our list isbecause when we first started traveling,
there were a couple stories of outside,
(09:10):
say like United Statesand Canada, for example,
carbon monoxide detector is actuallynot mandatory in a lot of countries.
And so when you're in a region,
we were in a region in Mexicothat was actually colder.
We were there during the winter.
So the knights got pretty cold downinto the 40 degrees Fahrenheit. And so
(09:31):
a lot of times what people will try todo is have space heaters to keep the
space warm.
The problem is a lot of thespace heaters are propane field,
and so that creates gas emissions.
And there are stories of people basicallypassing away in the middle of the
night because they've basically hailed gasOr some sort of carbon monoxide.
(09:53):
And we stayed in a place in, I don'tmean to pick on Mexico. We love Mexico.
Absolutely.
Those guys have happened in any country.
We stayed in an apartment where
the host didn't tell us, I don'tthink they thought to tell us,
but they didn't tell us thatthe way the hot water heaters
(10:14):
are in the apartments,they emit emissions.
They have emissions that comeout. So as they're running,
and so the way this one specificallywas in this little cabinet area that we
were supposed to keep the cabinetsopen so that it would air out.
We didn't know that. And so the cabinetswere closed. We all took showers,
(10:35):
so it kicked on to reheat all the water.
And I was working fromthe apartment that day,
Astrid and the kids hadgone out to a museum,
and I noticed I started kind ofgetting lightheaded and then checked,
I think the carbonmonoxide detector went off.
It was like beepingperiodically throughout the day.
And then noticed it was pretty high.
(10:57):
And so I actually left the apartmentfor a while to kind of air out.
And then that night we came back and itwas clear there was no carbon monoxide.
It seemed like it was pretty okay.
And then we went to sleepin the middle of the night,
the alarm went off and it wasreally high, incredibly high.
At a level where if we hadstayed there for an hour,
(11:19):
it would've been fatal for all of us.
So we, not to sound overdramatic about it,
but that's pretty scary.
And so we ended up having found a hotelin the middle of the night, went there,
and then the next day wefound out about this cabinet.
You're supposed to keep open andit vented and all that stuff,
but that's the kind of stuff.The one we have is really small.
(11:41):
It's like the size of twodecks of cars. It's very.
Covered. So you can buy thosebatteries anywhere in the world.
It was like $30 on Amazon.
Light is a feather. It'sreally light. So we're like,
there's no reason for us not to travelwith it. So that's one critical.
What's another thing thatwe travel with a lot.
We have a water bottle thathas a built-in purifier.
(12:03):
The company is called Grail,
which we have been using them since 2018.
That's G-R-A-Y-L?
Yeah, G-R-A-Y-L.
And what it does isit's able to filter out,
and they say 99.9 or 99% of
(12:23):
the toxins, pathogens that arein water so that you can make it,
it can be drinkable. And inmost places that we travel to,
we don't know how safethe drinking water is,
but we don't want to take chances on that.
And so we'll always bring a grail with us
(12:44):
if we're able to buy,
and we don't want to buy theplastic single use plastic water
bottles everywhere we go. Sothis is a good alternative,
a sustainable alternative. We'lljust pour tap water, filter it,
and then pour it into our own personalwater bottles or just drink out of that
water bottle or whatever.
(13:04):
But in some countrieswill have the huge gallon
jugs of water that youcan buy at the store,
and then that getsrefilled when it's empty.
But if we're in a area where we'renot staying there long enough that
it makes sense to buy one ofthose, or it's just not available,
the grail bottle isalways so helpful for us.
(13:27):
I think one of the things that, there'stwo instances, I think we use it a lot.
We use it for toothbrushing water.
Yeah, brushing your teeth.
Yeah, because we don't want to use the.
Tap.
Water. The expensive, well,we don't use tap water.
We don't want to use theexpensive bottled water. Oh.
Yeah, yeah. The.
Refilled water that we buy, it'snot that expensive. But still,
we don't want to use that water,the drinking water for that.
So we'll use it a lot oftimes for brushing our teeth.
(13:49):
And then also we'll bring it when we'rein a country where we know that the
water's not safe to drink.It's not audible water.
Then we will just carry the waterbottle with us so that we can refill it
throughout the day and drink. And plus,
even in places like say Italy,
where they have all those fountainsthat you can refill your water bottle as
you're walking through the cities,
(14:10):
we'll still filter it throughthat just to add an extra,
because the other thing,
it also reduces things like travelersdiarrhea and stuff like that.
So it's just helpful.
And then the last health relatedthing that we always bring is a scale,
a very small, I think it'sprobably this big travel scale.
(14:32):
And not only does it help us justwe love to eat and we love to,
it's a helpful way to keepus in check of like, oh yeah,
let's make sure we're stayingfit while we're traveling.
But the other thing is then we canuse it to make sure our bags are
not too heavy. Airlines will havetheir weight limits and stuff,
(14:54):
and I hate carrying those.
The bag scales where youhook it and it always breaks.
At least this hasmultifunctional and it use. Yeah.
That makes sense.
What about technology?
This.
Is your favorite topic.
I know we're a little bitof a tech family. I think we have, between all of us,
(15:15):
we have multiple phones, multiple tablets,
multiple game devices,multiple laptops for sure.
And we also enjoy watching tv.
And so we travel with, one of the thingswe travel with is a low Roku stick,
which is, I know Googlemakes one, Amazon makes one,
(15:35):
but it's basically just a streaming stick.
That.
We use at home. But weactually travel with that.
We bring that where we go so that wehave all of our kind of channels that we
subscribe to. As part of that,
we also travel with a travel router sothat I can run A VPN if we need to on
that. But that's a different topic.
But all those devices require chargers.
(15:57):
And.
They require cables, and they require.
Adapters.
Adapters, especially if you're incountries where the plugs are different,
right.
And like converters too.
Converters sometimes power converters,depending on what you have.
I travel with electric razor because Icut my own hair and trim my beard and
stuff. So all those thingsrequire that. So over the years,
(16:21):
I've kind of paired that stuff down,but I try to keep it in one case,
all those extra chargers.
Another thing we travel a lotwith are battery packs for.
Portable batteries.
Because a lot of timeswe'll be out walking.
Portable charger. Yeah.
Portable chargers. If we're out walking.Japan was a good example of this.
(16:42):
It's really hot.
So then our phones got really hotand it just burned battery faster.
So then having these portable batterypacks is really helpful. But yeah,
I think I could do a whole thingon technology in general. But yeah,
that's the quick answer.What about clothing?
Always.
My suggestion is to find clothesthat are going to be versatile and
(17:04):
multifunctional in different areas.
You mentioned somethingabout a capsule wardrobe.
I think that's really helpful too.Things that are interchangeable.
So mix and matching things like a shirtcan be worn with three different types
of bottoms, a bottom, like a skirt,
or can be wore with fourdifferent types of tops.
(17:24):
That way you can vary youroutfits a little bit more.
I am, I guess, less picky aboutthat. I do a capsule wardrobe,
but it's more that I will just wearthe same clothes four days in a row,
and then I'll change. Well.
Some of us do like to look alittle bit different every day.
Now if we're hanging out with familiesand they see me multiple days in a row,
(17:48):
I will change. So at leastI look a little different.
But I think the thing aboutclothes is it's easy to
want to try and pack for
a month, make sure we have amonth's worth of clothes. Actually,
you only need a week's worth ofclothes because then you do laundry and
(18:08):
then you've got it washed. Somaybe like a week and a day in case
somebody,
in case we don't have a laundry unitin the place that we're staying,
we have to drop it offat a laundry facility.
Then you at least have a couple clothes.
We very max only travel witheight changes of clothes.
(18:31):
And.
That takes into play. It's notlike it's eight pants and couple.
Again, it's the capsule mindset. Yeah,eight outfits. Eight outfits. Yeah. Yep.
Okay.
Let's talk about items thatare not necessarily essential,
but are essential for our family.
Yeah, please go ahead.
(18:51):
I was going to say
it's okay to bring something that is alittle bit superfluous or a little bit of
what I call a luxury item,if it's something that is important for your family.
Yeah.
We talked about in previousepisode about a family of ours or a
family friend that we know, andthey would travel with board games.
(19:12):
That was one of their family values.
That's their essential item.
Yeah.
We knew another family friend where theywould travel with snorkel gear because
they snorkeled a lot, and theyjust rather have their own gear.
So that's one of the things thatthey would set aside. So for us.
What are some of the things thatwe used to or we would travel with?
(19:33):
Yeah, I would say so for me,when we first started traveling,
I played guitar pretty regularly.
And when we first started traveling,I didn't bring a guitar or anything.
It's huge. They're bulky. And I don'tknow. We were in Mexico for I think,
two months or something, and then Iwas like, I need something to play.
(19:54):
I'm getting itchy. I justneed something to play.
So we found a ukulele when we were inGuadalajara and we bought a ukulele.
And we've traveled with that ever since.
This time around when wetravel again for Christmas,
Astrid got me a travel guitar.
So we're going to travelwith a little travel guitar.
And so that's kind of one of the bigluxury items that I travel with. Yeah.
(20:15):
What's.
Something else that we travel with?
Oh, coffee is an important part. Andso when we were traveling full time,
we had a camping French press,
because not every place would havecoffee. I think this time around we can,
we travel with, what isthat? The silicone pour.
Over. Pour.
(20:35):
Over.
Cone. Yeah, silicone cone. Yeah.
Yeah. Our son was really intoHot Wheels for a period of time,
and as part of his checked bag,
he decided he wantedto have a full race car
track that you can takeit apart and stuff.
But that was his must haveitem. And he was like,
(20:57):
I'm willing to carry it with me too,because I needed to have it. And yeah.
And our daughter was, for a longtime, it was like a bunch of Barbies.
That.
She would carry up. Yeah.
Barbies. Yeah. I think be okay with
aim for minimalism,
but also give yourself some grace to have
(21:19):
other things that aren'tnecessarily essential,
but will be good for your mental health.
And books are essential for us too.But we do those all through devices,
so we do only eBooks.
EBooks, yeah. Oh, I wantedto add one thing too.
This is something that wewould always do right before,
especially when we weretraveling full time.
(21:41):
But right before we leave a place,
we go through and do a purging exercise,
go through each of ouritems and say, okay,
is this something we want tokeep or should we leave behind,
keep or throw away? And.
There are things that we buy almostevery time that we get to a new
(22:03):
location if we're going to bethere for a month or longer.
One is some sort of art set.
So our daughter usually travels. Ourdaughter is, she's really into art,
so she draws, she paints, soshe travels with some markers,
but we'll also find paintsat a local art store.
And those are something thatwe don't want to travel with,
(22:26):
but we'll usually just rebuy every time.
There are things like thatthat we do rebuy every time.
And there's a couple kitchen thingsthat we bring, like a knife sharpener.
We.
Just got to the point where we gotsuper tired of dull knives all the time.
We have these wax wraps instead of wrap.
(22:46):
Wax wraps. Yeah.
Yeah, that, that's a wayto cover things. So yeah.
Some of those items, likethe eco-friendly ones,
I list in on my website,
I have a article about our favoriteeco-friendly travel products.
And then if you're curious aboutany of the travel products that,
(23:06):
some of the travelproducts we mentioned here,
I do have a few articles aboutessential items for traveling with kids.
Cool. Yeah. Anything else?
That's it. Alright. Wellthat's all for today.
Thank you for joining us on this episodeof World Schooling q and a with Astrid
and Clint.
Be sure to check out the show notes forany links we mentioned in the episode
(23:29):
and visit my website,
the wandering daughter.com to divedeeper into world schooling and family
travel.
If you like what you hear,
please consider supporting theWandering daughter on Patreon.
It really helps us outand keeps the show going.
You'll also get exclusive perks likeepisode transcripts, additional resources,
access to office hours with us and more.
You can find us on Spotify orthe podcast app of your choice.
(23:51):
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And if you like this episode,please give us a five star review.
It really helps new people find our show.
If you're watching this on YouTube,
don't forget to like and subscribe andtap the bell icon to get notified of new
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You can follow me on Instagram at wanderdotter or follow the wandering dotter
(24:13):
on Facebook. Links to theseare also in the show notes.
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Until next time, happy travels. Bye.
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