This past weekend, San Francisco Chronicle travel editor John Flinn put together a great feature about traveling with just one carry-on bag. Some of his best pointers include:

• The amount of stuff you think you need is directly related to the size of your luggage. Get a smaller bag and you’ll make do with fewer things.
• There’s really no difference between packing for a week and packing for a month or longer.
• A lot of travelers treat their day packs — like their garages back home — as overflow storage space. My personal rule is that even when stuffed full, my daypack must fit inside my main bag.
• If you think something might come in handy, leave it at home. If you know you can’t get along without it, bring it.
• Make a sensible packing list and stick to it. Resist those nervous, last-minute urges to toss in an extra sweater or trench coat.
• Pay close attention to your “go-withs.” Make sure every top can be worn with every bottom.
• Limit yourself to one pair of shoes, or, at most, one pair of shoes and one pair of sandals or flip-flops.
• If a specialized activity — snorkeling, tennis, climbing — is the focus of your trip, by all means bring along the gear you’ll need. But if these are just casual diversions, rent the gear when you get there.
• Leave your hair dryer at home. Instead, get a low-maintenance haircut.
• Most blue jeans are too heavy and slow-drying for travel.
• If your trip involves both wilderness hiking and city pleasures, err on the side of the former in your packing. Better to be a little underdressed at a West End theater than on the windswept summit of Ben Nevis.
• Don’t fret if it turns out you really did need that extra sweater, or if you run out of toothpaste. Wherever you’re going, they have these things for sale.
• As you unpack after each trip, examine each garment and piece of gear and ask yourself if you could have done without it. If so, leave it off your packing list next time.

More tips online here. For the sidebar to the article, Flinn asked me what small, essential item I typically pack, and I told him this:

I make up a few hundred business cards with basic contact info (usually just an e-mail address and Web site) and always keep a few in my pockets and shoulder bag on the road. They take up very little space, and I find that handing them out is easier than writing down my stats every time I meet someone new. I usually just order a batch of free cards from VistaPrint.com.

Flinn also poses the question to other travel writers: Jan Morris brings English bitter orange marmalade; Tim Cahill brings a world-band radio; Bill Bryson totes old clothes he doesn’t mind losing; Rick Steves packs a Y-jack for his iPod; James O’Reilly packs a rubber doorstop; Thomas Swick brings a copy of his book; Michael Shapiro totes a small headlamp; Amanda Jones totes a sarong.

Full the full article online here.