You know what a hassle it can be to have to check a bag on a flight, and yet you continue to do it since packing light enough to get away with a carry on sounds just about as difficult. But it doesn’t have to be! Here are some great tips for packing light on your next trip.

One way to trick yourself into packing light is to only use suitcases that are small enough to be carried on to begin with. Then you don’t even have the option of over packing.

You can also pack light when you are choosing the right fabrics for your clothing. Merino wool for example is pretty lightweight and both keeps you cool in the summer and light in the winter, making it a great travel item no matter where you’re going.

The clothing that you pack on a trip should always be versatile, and basic enough that all the items can be worn with each other. Pack clothing that is comfortable but can also be dressed up depending on what sort of shoes or coat you are wearing. If you only pack enough clothes for a week but will be gone longer than that, you can always just find a laundromat or send your clothes out to be washed at a hotel.

Try not to bring any what-if items that stray from your itinerary, you almost never end up using them and if you do for some reason need something unexpected you might be better just getting it once you are there.

Where your most bulky clothing items on the place. If you have a pair of boots that are coming along for example, you might as well wear those on the plane and pack your sneakers and sandals in the carryon instead of trying to do it the opposite direction.

Another shoe trick is to use them to store your socks and underwear when you pack to save room in there. The space in your shoes is just empty space so you might as well take advantage of it.

Although it can be tempting to pack many different outfits you can usually get away with a single pair of jeans. You can wash them if necessary, but you probably won’t even need to.

To save even more space you can also hold off on packing basic toiletries that you can just get when you reach your location if you’re headed somewhere where that would be possible. A lot of hotels provide basics like shampoo and toothpaste anyway, so if they have it there you won’t even need to go buy anything.

You can also work on just creating more space in your back which won’t make it lighter but it can give you the opportunity to fit more stuff. Using rubber bands to tie up clothes can make them more compact and take up less space in the bag. You can also roll clothing items up as opposed to folding them which can save you a lot of space.