The counts, in full
How Many Clothes to Pack for a Week
One table, five trip lengths, with and without laundry. These are the exact numbers Voyalist puts on a list, and the four rules behind them are short enough to check yourself.
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The four rules
- Underwear and socks: one per day plus one spare, and never more than ten. A three day trip gets four, a ten day trip gets ten, and so does a fortnight.
- Tops: about one per day, never more than eight.
- Trousers or skirts: one pair per three days, never more than four.
- Laundry: if you can wash clothes where you are staying, the counts for tops and trousers drop by about a third, but only on trips of five days or longer, and never below two. Underwear and socks are left alone on purpose, because they are small and washing them by hand mid trip is a choice, not a plan.
The table
| Trip length | Underwear | Socks | Tops | Trousers | Tops, laundry | Trousers, laundry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 days | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 5 days | 6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 7 days | 8 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| 10 days | 10 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 3 |
| 14 days | 10 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 3 |
Why the caps are there
Read across the bottom two rows and the point of the caps becomes obvious: a fortnight looks almost exactly like ten days. Nobody carries fourteen shirts. Past roughly a week and a half, every real traveller washes something, and a list that pretends otherwise is a list you stop trusting.
The trousers cap is the harshest one, and it should be. Four pairs is already generous for two weeks, and trousers are the heaviest thing in the bag after shoes.
What the day count does not cover
These numbers only describe the everyday clothes. A formal dinner, a week of hiking, a beach or a ski trip each bring their own kit, and that comes from the activity you tick rather than from the calendar. Two swimsuits appear because you said beach, not because you are away for seven days. The same goes for a blazer and dress shirts on a business trip, where the shirts follow their own rule of one per working day up to six.
Where you sleep changes the count too. A hotel takes shampoo and a towel back off the list. A hostel adds a padlock, a travel towel and flip flops for the shared showers.
How to use the table without the app
Take the row for your trip length, add one outfit for anything the trip demands that daily clothes do not cover, and stop. The most common packing mistake is not forgetting something, it is packing a second version of something you already have. The counts above exist to end that argument with yourself.
Let the app do the arithmetic.
More packing lists
Every list on this site is written out in full, so you can use it without installing anything.
- Beach packing listSeven days by the sea, with quantities and the four things people leave at home.
- Carry on packing listOne cabin bag for a week, the liquids rule, and what to wear instead of packing.
- Ski trip packing listThe ski kit the app adds for you, plus the rest of a week in the mountains.
- Family packing list with kidsWhat appears when you add a child, and the baby items you still add yourself.
- Best packing list app for iPhoneFive questions to ask any packing app, answered honestly for this one.
- A Packr alternativeAn honest comparison, including the three places Packr is ahead.