I just got back from a three week trip to Italy and Eastern Europe, and it was amazing; I can never emphasize the importance of travel enough. But as I'm back and adjust to the jetlag, and think of all the things in my luggage that was lost (sigh, never again Berlin Air...), I also think of everything I packed that I never actually needed or used. These items I saw frequently on packing lists or in YouTuber's "must have travel items" videos, but I found to just take up space.

I always try to maintain, less is more, when traveling, and have a bunch of DIY's if you ever find you've forgotten something.

Water bottle - Seriously I saw this every where... "I always ask my flight attendants to fill it up for me!" Well for starters, it's totally weird to ask that, usually my flight attendants are told they can only give one cup of water at a time, and the space it took up wasn't worth saving $2 to buy a bottle at the airport. Throughout the cities I traveled I found myself forgetting to use it, or not want to carry it around, and opted to reuse my smaller recyclable bottle, and if I had to, I could ditch it (or as I sometimes did, forgot it in a restaurant).

Towel - Yes some hostels don't have towels for free, but about half of mine did, and the others had towels available for rent, again I would've preferred the space over the couple of euros. OR you can always use a t shirt that's already dirty as a towel.

Portable charger - I only used my phone for photos and when I had WiFi, and I never had a time where I ran out of battery. Some times I did get close and had to find an outlet, but overall I'm glad I didn't bring a back up charger and have to lug that around.

Fuzzy socks - Trust me I love fuzzy socks, but I never had a place that was so cold that I felt the need for them, I definitely never took these out of my bag, and certainly didn't need them for the plane as so many travel sites suggested.

Some things I brought that I'm really glad I did:

• Sunscreen
• Shawl that doubles as a plane blanket
• Travel sized shampoo/conditioner
• Variety of pants and shorts
• Ear plugs and eye mask
• Vaseline (so many uses)