Packing for a year - what's it look like?

How does one pack for a year? What to take? What not to take? This starts out as a daunting question but gets easier as you begin to work through it and has an oddly freeing feeling as you actually consider the consequences of your choices. What could you live without for a year? What must you have? Could you leave your favorite jeans behind? The thought of waking and only having one clean t-shirt certainly makes for easy wardrobe choices.

We have been lovingly mocked by a few friends over the notion that we are only taking one backpack per person. While this might sound absurd, taking more than that just adds additional headaches and also defeats one of our goals for this adventure-living with less stuff. Additionally, those who have walked this path before us unanimously say to pack very light, stressing the very. One fellow traveler quipped, "if you think you might need it, put it back".

Here is roughly what our year of possessions looks like. Each of us will have the following:

• Backpack
• Rain gear
• Swim trunks
• 2 pairs of shorts
• 6 pairs of underwear
• 2 running shorts
• 5 t-shirts (one cotton, 1 collar, 3 fast drying)
• 2 pairs of pants - fast drying, travel type
• 2 long sleeves - one thin and one warmer
• 1 fleece
• 6 pairs of socks

Most of the clothes have little cotton, are fast drying and darker colors to avoid dirt.  I'm certain we will miss cotton.

Electronics - this gets tricky and we are each taking a few different devices. Between our family we will have an assortment of tablets, laptops and phones but also the following: 

• Headlamp
• External hard drive
• External battery charger 
• Electric converters
• Headphones

This is how Dad's stuff looks - only thing missing is bathroom and medical kit. Seem like to too much? Too little?