After having lived in Europe for a semester and taking advantage of being so close to so many cool places, I feel that I have mastered the art of packing for excursions away from home lasting up to a week. For the students leaving to study abroad in the fall or who have already left for their study abroad locations, this is for you!

My first excursion after spending two months solely in the Netherlands was a week-long solo trip to London, England. I had one backpack, the clothes and shoes that I planned to wear on the plane, the clothes for my first day in London and my passport in my money pouch ready to go. This is all that I brought with me. When I shared this picture with my family and friends on Facebook, people were amazed. A week doesn’t sound like a long time, but surely I would need more stuff than this? Surprisingly no. Here is my secret to packing light and living large:

Wear the pants you’re going to wear for the week. This probably works better for jeans than it does for yoga pants or pants made of another material. The beauty of jeans is that you don’t have to wash them after every single wear. So choose a pair of jeans that are comfortable, look nice, and go with many different outfits. Wear them to the airport, and you're good to go.

Pack one shirt for each day you’re traveling, plus one. This allows for some variety in what you’re wearing as you’re traveling and helps you feel like you’re not wearing the same clothes every day (this is good for those of you who were grossed out and horrified that I would wear the same pair of pants for a week or more straight). This is also a good rule for packing underwear. You can never have too many pairs of underwear.

You don’t need a full-size bath towel. No matter where I traveled, there was always a private bathroom to shower and change in. This means that I didn’t need a towel that I could wrap around my whole body so that I could walk down a long hall without offending anyone’s eyes. So to save room, pack a small hand towel. It's big enough to dry yourself off after showering and small enough to dry fast and fold up in your pack. It's always ready to use again by the next night.

Pick one sweater and one jacket (if necessary) for the duration of your trip. Layers are your best friend. If you’re going someplace with a wide variety of temperatures during the time of your visit, it’s important to bring clothes you can layer. You don’t want to bring your winter coat that you can’t put in your backpack—it's too hot in cool weather, but leaves you too cold when you take it off. It’s better to wear a lightweight shirt, put on a sweater if you’re a little chilly, and put on another jacket if it’s still too cold.

Keep in mind what you’re doing while you’re traveling. One thing that I booked prior to leaving for England was a ticket to see "Les Miserables" in London’s West End. Not knowing exactly what the atmosphere was like, I made space for slightly dressier clothing. For the other trips that I took, I wasn’t seeing shows, but I was walking many miles every day, riding camels in Morocco, visiting a concentration camp outside of Berlin, Germany and riding the Tube in London. So when packing, I prioritized comfortable walking shoes, clothes that would be respectful of where I was, and clothing that was smart, economical and efficient. Flowy and showy can be great, but not when you're trying to pack light.

Bring only the essential toiletries and in small amounts. There are small containers in stores that you can get and continue refilling with shampoo, conditioner and body wash. After all, you’re only going to be gone for a week, not a month. Take only what you need. Unless you’re going to an extremely remote location, there will probably be a store where you can get more shampoo or toothpaste.

The last thing to remember is:

Roll ALL of your clothing! This method makes your clothes take up less room than if you fold them as if putting them in a drawer.

Thoughts on electronics: I left my laptop in the Netherlands while I was traveling. The only electronics that I brought with me were an iPod Touch that could connect to Wi-Fi so that I could communicate with my friends and family to reassure them that I was safe and happy, and an eReader that already had digital library books loaded onto it. I used these things in the morning and at night after returning to my hostel. These things were small and lightweight which made them easy to carry and pack.

You don’t need to bring everything you own when you travel. Simple is better in terms of getting around and in terms of making the most of this unique opportunity you have to travel and see new things.