This is my lovely mess on Sunday morning. It looks like so much stuff, I thought I'd have to go back to MEC to upgrade.
Then I calmy (and without any tears, anger or force) stuffed everything into my bag (really, it fits easily!). My sleeping bag included, in fact it takes up most of the room but everything else fit so I didnt bother strapping it on the outside. Most of the bag is full of necessities, my clothes seem to be few and far between.
Ingenious backpack designers make it possible to strap carry on backpacks to the front of huge heavy backpacks. The only problem is then getting the stupid thing on without snapping any joints. I think I'm set. The taxi's gonna be here at 430am and I fly at 7am with a nice long stopover at LAX.