What I Pack for 10 Days in a Carry-On (ADHD Edition)

I'm packing for ten days across three countries in a single carry-on, and my ADHD brain has opinions about it. Mostly good ones, for once. Here's the thing nobody tells you about traveling with ADHD: the problem isn't forgetting your toothbrush. The problem is the forty small decisions you have to make every morning — what to wear, where your charger is, which bag the meds are in — each one draining the same battery you need for actually enjoying the trip. So I built a packing system around one rule: fewer items, fewer decisions, everything

has a home. Ten days. Cyprus, Athens, Istanbul. One bag. Here's exactly what's going in it. CLOTHES: LAYERS, NOT BULK Mid-October across the Mediterranean is a layering puzzle. Cyprus runs around 77°F in the day, Athens around 73°F, and Istanbul drops to about 68°F with nights near 55°F. One person, three climates. So: one real jacket, not three. A light layer for Athens evenings. T-shirts and a couple of button-downs that all roughly match each other — because an ADHD morning brain cannot be trusted with "does this go with this." If everything matches everything, there's no decision. Dark colors, nothing precious. And here's the part I'm most excited about: I'm deliberately under-packing clothes because I plan to buy local styles along the way. Cyprus, Athens, Istanbul — each stop gets a piece of clothing bought there. The bag gets lighter as souvenirs get heavier. That's not a packing strategy, that's a whole content series. TOILETRIES + MEDS: THE NON-NEGOTIABLE Small bag, minimal products. Travel sizes only — full-size bottles are how you end up with a bag that weighs a ton and a counter full of stuff you'll leave behind. The meds, though? Non-negotiable system: meds stay on my person. Always. Not in the checked bag — there is no checked bag. Not buried in the luggage — in the personal item, in the same pocket, every single day. I've left meds in hotel rooms before. Never again. This is the one rule with no exceptions. TECH KIT: THE PLUG SITUATION Chargers, cables, one power bank, earbuds. All of it lives in a single pouch with its own home in the bag — because "where's my charger" at 11pm in a foreign hotel room is an ADHD nightmare I refuse to live through again. Now the detail that almost got me: Cyprus uses UK-style Type G plugs. Greece and Turkey use EU Type C/F plugs. Three countries, two plug types. So the kit includes both adapters, labeled, in the same pouch. This is exactly the kind of boring logistical detail my brain would have discovered at midnight in Cyprus — and exactly the kind of thing the AI co-pilot caught weeks ahead. It suggests. I decide. I decided to pack both. DOCUMENTS Passport, a printed copy of the itinerary, travel insurance info, and cards. One slim folder, one home in the bag. Boring, essential, done. THE WEIGH-IN Here's the challenge I'm putting to myself, on camera: 10 days, 3 countries, one bag. When it's packed, it goes on the scale. No checked bag as a safety net. If it doesn't fit in the overhead bin, something comes out — and the "cut pile" of rejected items might be the most honest photo in this whole post. Fewer items. Fewer decisions. Fewer things left in hotel rooms. That's the whole system — and honestly, it's how I'm trying to run the whole trip. Want to see if I actually pull it off? I'm documenting all of it — follow the journey on Instagram for the daily chaos, or chip in to Fuel the Trip and get the insider email from the road every evening.