newbie, lightening weight for toiletries ?

Do you really need all that stuff?  Face moisturizer? Leave at home.  Glasses case? Just get cheap ones and throw them in your pack.  Towellettes?  You can get half ounce bottles and re-package?

Dr. Bronners travel size is enough soap for like 20 showers AND 20 loads of dishes. Also I have broken the lid on two of the travel bottles.

I’ve done 11 days on a 15cc dropper bottle and still had a ton left. My $.02 is get a little dropper bottle and use it every day to wash some dishes and to wash your hair (or whatever) at home and see how long it lasts. Just a drop or two goes a long way.

Sabastian if you look in your other post for your gear list I have links posted for some ways to cut this down, look at Mike Clelland’s videos I linked there at watch the ones part 1 and 2 the dinky stuff and at the end of my first post there you will see links for where and what to get for your kit

Decant anything you can to smaller bottles with just enough for the trip at hand. Certainly take nothing you won’t actually use: “what if’s” are heavy.

Using Dr Bronners or any soap in the backcountry should be done sparingly and away from water sources. A small pot of warm water, a bandana or synthetic cloth and a few drops of soap is all I need for a sponge bath. If you use a lot of soap, you need a lot of water to rinse and you’re adding that to the environment.

I carry a small vial of Dr Bronners and others with DEET based insect repellent, sunscreen, alcohol gel hand cleaner, and a small container of anti-chafe ointment. That all fits in the palm of my hand. I did the math when first starting with UL and knocked 12oz off the list  over using smallish retail packaging for these items.

Have to agree with Link. All your questions can be answered in the links given in your other thread.

I’d also suggest to try to make a trip-specific list to hone in on actual items carried and realistic weight totals. Having the whole kit-n-kaboodle on one list that covers tropic to arctic is only going to confuse things.

For instance, if you’re going on a trip where it’s fairly cool and you’re taking long pants and a long base layer for the bottom, you’re probably not going to need shorts for “hanging out”.

And don’t take so many spares and just-in-case items. You can wash stuff in a 1 gallon Ziploc and a few drops of Dawn detergent (or Dr Bronners), wring it out and hang your pack to dry — the backpacker’s laundromat. Synthetic stuff can dry very quickly if the weather is decent.

And get a good scale accurate to 0.1g. It’ll come in handy now for getting accurate weights and the higher resolution will be greatly appreciated if you get into testing stove fuel consumption.

There’s so much stuff that I’d advise reading through all of Link’s links in your other thread, which will address 99.9% of any questions one might have (and things not anticipated by most of us when we first got into UL).

Thanks all. I have been reading though Links links. My other thread was about my whole gear list. Here I was hoping to learn about specific little bottles or containers you use to downsize

A lot of that can be found at US Plastics. I just ordered some stuff there myself.

One item I’ve really come to appreciate when out for more than a few days is the Swiss Army Classic with nail clippers, which you’re absolutely going to need. Covers a lot of ‘territory’ because it also has knife, scissors, tweezers, file, screwdriver and toothpick.

Find ’em on Amazon HERE. WARNING: there are some cheap knock-offs that don’t have the knife blade, which is a real bummer.

Sources of smaller bottles:

Reuse 1/3 or 1/4 oz of over the counter or prescription eye dropper bottles (the ones you squeeze to get the drops out).  Also I find 1/4 of an ounce of 100% deet can last me one or two seasons or longer as long as I am wearing longsleeve shirt and pants and when the mosquitoes get really bad, a head net.

If you want to buy tiny bottles, check out the Gossamer Gear and the Mountain Laurel Designs web sites.

If you switch to the one-day disposables, you won’t need that heavy bottle of contact lens solution AND your eyes will thank as well.

Towelettes? Nope.

Cheers

I gave specific links to mini bottles and containers in my links on your other thread. I have copied it for you from that post and am posting it again here, and it’s o.k. to ask how to lighten up specific parts of your list when we bring up suggestions in that post, you don’t have to start a new post for every question about your list..

Mike Clelland(NOLs instructor and author, his books are very good),he has some great free videos on lightening up be sure to watch(his clothing system,the entire contents of his pack,water treatment and part 1 and 2 on the dinky stuff for ideas) The specific ones on what you are looking for are the the 5th and 6th video down on his site, but again you should watch all of them.

You can get little repackaging containers(like the ones you see in Mike Clelland uses in his videos) many places including your local stores and pharmacy but here are some examples
USPLASTICS
USPLASTICS
Ultralight Designs
GossamerGear
MountainLaurelDesigns
You could make toothpaste dots like Mike C. shows or there are Archtek Toothpaste Tablets so only bring exactly what you need in a snack size bag for any given trip instead of a whole tube and THESE are good for little thing like pills, toothpaste tablets ect. so you are not packing a whole bottle(you can also get them very cheap at most pharmacies) .

Go to the pharmacy and look for the smallest containers you can (Visine is a good one, the dropper part actually comes off for easy filling). Dump the contents, wash the containers and use them to carry the smallest quantities of your liquid hygiene (or bug dope) items possible. Look for samples (the travel-sized items are often too big, actually, so look for free samples.) Also, Gossamer Gear has mini-dropper bottles and my vet gives out small plastic bottles with the medicine when my bird goes to the vet, so I save those. Always be on the lookout for tiny bottles and tiny ziplock bags.

Reducing the quantity by weight/volume can make a big difference.

thanks all!