A few months ago, when Jona and I started to share with friends, family and colleagues our intention to travel the world, the first question on their lips was usually: “But what are you going to pack??” I would be lying if I said it wasn’t top-of-mind for us as well. What do you pack for a nine-month trip?

We started off reading as much as we could on the subject. We read travel books and blogs alike, searching for the elusive magical number of bags and underwear to pack. Despite the vogue for carry-on-only travel, we decided to opt for two bags each—one small suitcase and one carry-on backpack.

After much hemming and hawing, I settled on my trusted old Briggs and Riley 22″ expandable upright suitcase and a new, 35-liter Tortuga backpack. At first, I went with the 45-liter version, but it was too big for this trip. The smaller backpack is guaranteed to fit the carry-on requirements on all kinds of airlines. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Tortuga grants a hefty discount for students, educators, humanitarian volunteers, active military personnel, and veterans, which makes them our favorite travel gear company so far. You have to email them to ask for the discount.

Once I had the bag selected, I was back to the all-consuming question of how many pairs of underwear to pack. In all seriousness, it wasn’t that hard (five pairs, if you need to know). Plenty of people have done this kind of travel before us and their feedback was helpful. As we plan to cross climates during our trip, we knew we would have to pack layers of clothing: t-shirts (all tech-wear and moisture wicking; no more cotton ever again), long-sleeved baselayers (Patagonia), low-maintenance, high-stress pants (Prana), Merino socks (five pairs of Smartwool) and a warm yet lightweight coat (Patagonia’s Nano Puff). I also opted for a lightweight rain coat (Marmot) because of New Zealand and the tropics.

When practice-packing (my full-time hobby for our last week in the States), I quickly realized I was at a disadvantage compared to my fellow bloggers: I’m a big guy with big feet. My clothes and shoes take up a lot of room, so, while the idea of traveling with just a carry-on is feasible, it would require one change of clothing and not much else. I still had to contend with photography equipment, laptop and music gear.

A slight digression to address the issue of music gear…I love music and I love making music. One of my goals for this next year is to make more music, so I’m lugging around the smallest keyboard I could find (the Akai MPK Mini MKII). This was a rare point of contention with Jona, but I insisted and I have to concede that it does eat up a lot of real estate. However, that is a price I’m willing to pay. For the moment… [Update: Jona was right: I ended up sending the keyboard back home when we reached Thailand, as it was taking up valuable room.]

The rest of the ever-diminishing space was taken up by assorted electronic cables and medications/toiletries. I practiced packing and re-packing so much that it became an obsession and a joke. One moment, I would have the bags packed and the next everything would be spread out all over the floor. Packing cubes have been a lifesaver, because they allow you to pack a lot of clothes into a small, defined and neat space that can then be stacked with others. This makes for a much more organized bag than usual and will probably come in handy when I inevitably get pulled over by Customs someday and asked to empty the contents of my luggage.

In hindsight, it seems incomprehensible that we spent so much time strategizing about our bags and buying just the right things to wear. It also cost a small fortune, but I have to remember that we’re going to be wearing the same clothes for the next nine months (!). Today, we find ourselves in Moorea, in French Polynesia, in a hut with a thatched roof and a beautiful, flower-scented garden. We have no regrets about our packing choices so far, but we have learned some lessons and made some notes about things we could improve.

We’ve each written our own post, as our packing techniques were so different and we’ll be sure to update these articles as we go. On a side note, we did our first load of laundry earlier this morning and the hut was filled with even more fresh smells. It was a small victory, knowing that we can indeed survive with limited supplies of socks, shirts and underwear. It’s just going to require a change of habits. As the locals would say, “À la victoire!”