Chances are, you'll pack the way I did. You take every item in hand and decide 'do I need this?' If, yes, it goes straight in your bag. If 'no', you say to yourself 'but it's not that heavy really', and you put it in the bag anyway. And in the end your bag is a couple of kilos too heavy.
After a couple of days on the Camino, I realized that I really did have too much stuff. So this is what i did...
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: Twenty Minutes
Here's How:
- Put everything you plan on taking and lay it out on the floor.
- Arrange everything in order of importance.
- Decide at what point your line of items goes from "essential" to "not really essential anymore if I'm honest".
- Leave everything after that point! Each item, no matter how small, takes up weight. Yes, your shaving foam may only weigh 100g (3.5oz), but what about the other nine items of a similar weight? By leaving them all behind, you'll save yourself a kilo!
- Don't be tempted to hold all the things you are leaving in your hand and think to yourself 'this really isn't that heavy, I can take it'. Because what feels light in your hands now won't feel so light on your back when you have been walking for six hours.
Tips:
- What is the ideal weight to take on the Camino de Santiago? Some websites say 8kg, others say one tenth of your body weight. I would say both of these figures are arbitrary. The less you carry the better, it's as simple as that.
What You Need
- A Spare Shirt (you'll be wearing one and can alternate each day)
- A Spare Pair of Shorts
- One Change of Underwear
- Bedding (in summer just bring a a duvet (comforter) cover that you can climb in)
- Vaseline (to protect your feet from blisters)
- Small Towel
- Small Soap (the free hotel ones are ideal)
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Waterproofs
- Fleece (not in summer)
