Things I always have with me
I tend to carry a lot of stuff, and I find this improves my life quite a lot. Here's a run-down.
Obvious stuff: I always have my phone, keys, ID, and some bank and transit cards.
Heat-It: When a mosquito bites you, it injects certain proteins that your body responds to by itching like hell. These proteins can be denatured by heat. It used to be you had to do this with the back of a carefully heated spoon, which meant nobody did it, but now there are special battery powered electronic devices that heat up to the perfect temperature. The Heat-It is even better, because it just uses USB-C to power itself from your phone. It's extremely small and works excellently, I always have it on my keychain.
Earbuds: They don't make my favorite round-the-neck earbuds any more, and it's tragic because they have one feature I like which is rare, and one feature I can't live without and have never found anywhere else.
The good feature is, they clip together with magnets, and this also acts as the on/off switch. Separate them to put in your ears, and they turn on and connect to bluetooth. Take them out of your ears and let them drop, they snap together and turn off. Very neat
The great feature is, they remember the last two devices you connected to, and there's a button (a physical button, mind you), which makes them disconnect from the current device, and try to connect to the other one. This is not "Bluetooth Multipoint", which tries to connect to two devices simultaneously, and gives you an unconfigurable and confusing mishmash of both devices' audio output and media controls. This is just regular bluetooth connection, and then when I get up from my desk I just press a button and it quickly disconnects from my computer and connects to my phone instead. I don't know why this is rare, but I haven't found anything else that can do it.
Noif: I love the little Victorinox knives, I bought a bunch and usually keep one in my pocket and one in my backpack in case I lose the first one. The big feature is the scissors, but I get some use from the nail file/screwdriver, and the toothpick and tweezers are also surprisingly useful to have. I lose them often, and often they find me again because, inspired by Van Neistat, I engrave my name and number on them.
Sunglasses: I get mine from Primarni for £3, several at a time. Life is too short to care about breaking your sunglasses. These ones are particularly good because they're so thin that they fold almost completely flat and have a very low profile in a jacket pocket.
Pen and Notebook: The japanese cannot be beaten on stationery. The disposable pen has been perfected, it's the Mitsubishi UB-150, thank you, I will not be taking any questions. And Muji's slim notebooks (with the combined 5mm line and dot grid) are completely ideal for my needs.
The Backpack itself: I really like the MilTec Assault Pack Large, I've bought several. It has a good number of pockets, plenty of MOLLE straps on the outside to attach stuff to it, and, my favourite feature, it opens all the way out flat like a suitcase.
So much room for activities! Also, the compression straps are great, they mean that a backpack you can use as your only luggage for a week can also be very small and flat when less loaded.
Retroreflectors: Did you know they make black retroreflective tape? I covered every plastic clip and toggle of my backpack, and put some through the MOLLE as well, so the pack is all black everywhere, but also super visible to cars at night.
Bike lights: Keep bike lights on your bag, not on your bike where they can be stolen. They're also useful when walking at night. The bike light I use is actually a battery powered mini studio light, so it can do a range of colors and is handy for shooting videos as well.
GaN charger: Not everyone realises that power supplies recently got way better, thanks to Gallium Nitride semiconductors. My Anker Nano charger is 100W and it is tiny - chargers with that much power were three times bigger a couple of years ago.
These two chargers have the same power output!
Toothbrush and Toothpaste: I do a lot of rolling out of bed at the last possible moment, so it's nice to be able to brush my teeth on the way somewhere.
Earplugs and eyeplugs: The ability to nap comfortably any time and place is very important.
Change of shirt and underwear/socks: A single shirt, underwear and socks is really not much size and weight, but when combined with the toothbrush, earplugs etc, it means I can go on short trips with zero preparation, which is extremely freeing. I can randomly decide to stay over somewhere, and have everything I need to be totally comfortable.
Folding Hat: I've never found a baseball cap that folds down smaller/flatter/lighter than the ones provided to employees of McDonalds Australia. Seriously. Just cut the logo off.
Power Pack: Get the bigger power pack. It feels great to have a total abundance mindset on electricity, to know that you can fully recharge your phone, and your friend's phone, and your other friend's phone, and still have enough in the tank to help out that stranger at the party's who's worried their phone will die before they can book a ride home. Also, get one that can put out enough power to charge laptops.
USB Cables: I always have a loong USB-C to USB-C cable - they make them 11 feet long, and why settle for less? I also carry a short cable where one end is USB-A and the other end is a weird three-headed thing with USB-C, USB-Micro, and whatever that iPhone connector is called. Cute girls do have older iPhones and those iPhones are about to die and they would like help with that. The cable came with a spring loaded retractable spool thingy which I removed because it's more bulk than it's worth.
Drugs: Following the advice of Thomas Kwa I maintain a small pill organiser with Paracetamol, Ibuprofen, Lactase, Diphenhydramine, Aspirin, Melatonin, and a few other things of that sort. These help others more often than they help me.
Needle and thread: I carry one of those tiny sewing/mending kits hotels will give you for free. Sometimes useful, and the weight and space is rounding error. Thread is extremely small when wrapped around a piece of card rather than on a spool.
String and Tape: I usually carry some string, some paracord, and some sticky tape, which is so often useful. Tape can be made very small by wrapping it around a business card rather than on a bulky roll.
Ukulele: This one is not universal, but I love it. You never know when a jam is going to break out. I've often regretted not having an instrument, but not yet regretted having one.
Pocket microscope: Sometimes there's a cool bug! The toy microscopes from Carson have surprisingly good magnification and image quality for the size and weight, which is tiny. I'm surprised how often I find myself wanting to get a close look at some tiny thing.
You might be surprised at how little space and weight all this stuff actually amounts to! But even if it is more than usual, I think it makes sense.
At one point I realised that almost every time I left the house without my backpack, I found myself missing something from it, so now I just always bring the bag with me. I tried to keep taking things out of it to keep it small and light, swapping things in and out, and I realised that not only did I often made mistakes and need things I'd left behind, but also I was spending significant mental energy on keeping track of what I do and don't have or need for each outing. All this to make my bag a little lighter, and I realised that I'm a young and healthy man, and I can just... carry it all, very easily?
It's wonderful to just have a single bag for all situations, to be prepared for all eventualities without ever having to think at all about what I'm bringing. I just bring everything, and that lets me help the people around me and makes my life better.
