How much underwear to pack? The travel underpants sweetspot!

I don’t care about clothes. However, I tend to spend money on one piece of clothing. As I think it is essential to have plenty of underwear, specifically, underpants as a guy. But the question with every trip is: how much underwear to pack?

You don’t want to find yourself bringing too few. But overpacking has some downsides too. So what’s the sweet spot?

I have been researching the internet for a couple of hours before writing this as I have my own habits in packing underwear. But as often, some other people might have better ideas and guidelines.

In this case, I found tables, graphics, and mathematical formulas to help you decide. However, most of them were female-oriented. So, this one is for the guys!

By the way, with this video, you can learn to pack your underwear as compact as possible.

A simple formula for how many underpants to bring

The most simple formula is this:

(Amount of days x 1) + (amount of days x 0,5) = amount of underpants to bring.

Let’s do this for a 5-day city trip as an example.

(5 x 1)+(5 x 0,5) = 5 + 2,5 = 7,5

This leaves you with the choice to bring 7 or 8 underpants. I like to play it safe and take 8 with me. But seven should be plenty.

The underwear packing formula for active travelers

Say you want to go skiing, hiking, or any other type of active trip, it’s best to pack a couple more as sweaty underwear is the downfall of feeling comfortable under your clothes.

(Amount of days x 1,25) + (amount of days x 0,5) = amount of underpants to bring.

Let’s do this for a 5-day skiing trip as an example.

(5 x 1,25)+(5 x 0,5) = 6,25 + 2,5 = 8,75 (round up to 9)

Let’s do this for a 12 days skiing-trip as an other example.

(12 x 1,25)+(12 x 0,5) = 15 + 3 = 18

The underwear packing formula for long travels

Let’s assume you’re going on a trip that’s longer than three weeks. This could be anytime longer. As you are probably packing a lot, it’s interesting to pack fewer clothes, which means underwear too. Because there is a simple thing you can do: do laundry.

(Amount of days in your laundry cycle x 1) + (Amount of days in your laundry cycle x 0,5) = amount of underpants to bring.

For example, let’s assume you will do your laundry weekly, as you probably should, to keep your backpack smelling fresh.

(7 x 1) + (7x 0,5)= 7 + 3,5 = 10,5

Even though you can do laundry, there is a need for a backup pair of underwear. Not one week will be the same. And if you are anything like me, your plan to do laundry weekly is probably overreached. So let’s use those extra pairs of underwear to catch up on laundry late from time to time.

Now I am curious, though. What’s your formula or way of thinking when packing underwear. How much do you bring?

6 thoughts on “How much underwear to pack? The travel underpants sweetspot!”

  1. Amount of days + 1 or 2 for short to middle long trips. I often bring worn out undies and leave them behind after a day of wearing.

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