If you’re a human – and if you aren’t, well done on somehow finding and reading this article – you probably do what we all do when doing something for the first time; You take an almost entirely random stab at the best way to do it, and if you don’t gravely injure yourself as a result, you keep doing it that way forever. You run the risk of falling into some bizarre method, someone tapping you on the shoulder when you’re 65 and asking why you’re brushing your hair with a fork and eating beans off of a hairbrush, but the criteria for assessing whether something is the “right” way to do something or not for most people is that if no-one perished as a result, then it’s a roaring success.

As proven by the minor revolution caused by Marie Kondo’s The life-changing magic of tidying (which took us all by surprise by reminding people that messy houses are less pleasant to be in than tidy ones), sometimes it’s worth going back to basics and reviewing the things we do, however simple or easy they seem to be. Sometimes it’s not about working harder at something, it’s just about doing it differently yet better. And packing your bag is an activity bursting with simple tweaks you can make, and subtle changes that can massively improve your experience.

Here are the two life-changing/obvious things i always consider:

1: You don’t need all that stuff – When i’ve packed recently, it has been for mini-breaks. These short bursts of exploration are only ever hampered by the understandable but unnecessary instinct to bring everything you might possibly need. When you do that, you end up with more than is needed because you are packing for every eventuality. You can dramatically reduce what you take by simply working out what the bear minimum you’ll need is, and only taking that. If you think you’ll be at the beach from morning to night three out of four days, do you really need more than one pair of bottoms if you’ll not be wearing them long enough to dirty them? It might seem ridiculously pedantic, but thinking in this way buys you something more precious than a few extra t-shirts: freedom. I am able now to take everything I need in a messenger bag on to the plane with me and be out of the airport swiftly, trying not to smile too smugly as I pass the people queuing to get their bag off of the conveyor belt (a bag that is only ever slightly larger than mine). Also – without that pressing need to get to your hotel to leave your bag, your adventure starts even earlier.

2: You can get things always get things there – These days, having made an effort to choose my destination according to when and where is least expensive, and to avoid paying any more than i need to on the plane by packing carefully enough to be able to bring my bag with me, i consider it reasonable to perhaps buy a few things when i’m there – as where i stay is generally near the centre, i know i can get to a local supermarket and get some needed items inexpensively. Mostly i’ll do this instead of bringing a wash-bag – most of which you will either find is provided by the place that you’re staying and if not can be picked up cheaply nearby and can be left at your hotel/hostel/guesthouse for other guests to use.

And that’s really it. There are other guides elsewhere that cover this subject that describe how rolling socks up and folding T-shirts in particular ways can get you a few more inches of space, but these guides are about increasing what you can take by cramming more in. The real epiphany that has improved my travel – added full hours of time that i can spend at my destination instead of queuing to retrieve my bag – is to see the airline cabin bag size restriction as a challenge. Each and every trip becomes not what i can get in my bag, but what i can get out of the destination and sailing out of the airport with everything i need hanging lightly at my side and no pressing need to get somewhere to dump it before i can get back out has added entire afternoons of free-time to my mini-breaks.

Now that is some life-changing magic.