Our cases 

The packing (and unpacking, and repacking) started about three weeks before we left Perth. I managed to get everything to fit into the Osprey bag, but I found that I had too much stuff to fit into the bag comfortably. I decided instead to bring a normal carry on case with wheels – in fact it is an el cheapo one that I bought in London last year because I had bought too much stuff whilst we were there.

I read a few blogs on minimalist travel to understand the best items to pack. One of the best tips I found was to make sure everything you pack is in one colour theme (so everything matches and can be layered) and to opt for styles that are timeless and suit your personality, rather than ‘on trend’. With this in mind, I packed:

• Two cotton dresses
• Five sleeveless tops
• Three button shirts/blouses
• Two long sleeve ‘warm’ layers
• One wool jumper
• One ‘shell’ jacket
• One exercise jacket
• One pair of jeans
• One pair of black pants
• One pair of shorts
• Two pairs of leggings (one ¾ and one full length)
• Sneakers
• Canvas slip on shoes
• Bathers
• Underwear & socks

This (along with my other travel items) weighed in at 10kgs total all up, including the case.

We bought a whole bunch of travel space bags to help us fit everything in (shout out to Lisa for suggesting them) – I ended up bringing them with me but not using them for the flight here, as everything fitted into the case pretty comfortably. They will definitely come in handy.