Unpack This …
Something I’m really good at? Packing for a trip.
And now that we can start moving around again (at least, within the U.S.), and now that the summer is approaching (never fast enough, in my opinion), trip planning—and packing—is once again on the agenda.
Teddy’s approach to his own packing for a trip makes me want to chew glass. Sometimes he starts the day before, but more often he packs the day we leave, often doing laundry until the last minute. I cringe when I look at his bags, a jumble of shirts and socks and underpants that are either balled up or folded (both are just wrong; more on this later). I’m not sure he has a system as to what goes in each bag. Now, to his credit, he usually doesn’t forget anything crucial, so it’s not that his packing is ineffective, but it’s inefficient.
Yours might be too. So I’ll help you out with my system. Feel free to use it in its entirety, or to just take the bits and pieces of it that serve you. (By the way, this is not a lesson on how to pack lighter, or how to wear one item six different ways six different days. If that’s what you do, that’s cool. But that’s not me. I like clothes and I like to bring lots of options.)
1) Make a list three to four days ahead of time.
Not just one giant list of random things. My list is actually more like a multi-column page. If I’m planning to be gone Thursday through Sunday, I put Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as my headers. I check the forecasted weather of my destination for each day, then I’ll write an entire outfit under each day of the week. The entire outfit: top, pants, underwear, socks, shoes. I’m very specific, so it might say under Friday: “pink leopard ¾-sleeve top, Gap jeans, beige flats, underpants, light-colored bra.” I do that for each day, including the day I’m leaving so I know what to pull out to travel in. Some items I write in two days—like white sneakers on Friday and Saturday, so I write it twice. I always include departure day in the list because although I’m not packing those items, I don’t want to make decisions the day I leave, so I’ll know to leave those particular items out to wear.
Then I make a few more columns: Extras (extra pairs of underwear or a sweater, umbrella, pajamas) and Toiletries (contact lens stuff, everything I use to do my hair), Writing (laptop, cords, notebooks, etc.), and Etc. (gifts I’m bringing for people I’m visiting, books I want to read on vacation, and any other odds and ends).
Why make this list a few days ahead? Because I might need to wash some items and I want time to do that.
2) Pack. I take at least 24 hours to pack. Forty-eight hours if I’m going somewhere for more than a week.
I lay items FLAT in the suitcase. Folding takes too much space and wrinkles everything. Flat is the key. (See the cute picture on this blog? Don’t do it like that.) Shoes go around the edges. As I pack each item, I check it off. (If it was an item you’re wearing more than once, you wrote it down in a few places, so check it off in all places.) Tedious? Slightly. But you’ll be sorry for not taking the time when you find yourself in another state, wanting to hike but you forgot your sneakers and bug spray.
I pack everything except things that are still in the wash and things I need to pack last minute because I’m using them right before I leave, like deodorant. All those items on the list, I circle.
3) The day of my departure, I pack everything that’s left. It’s not many items, just the items I circled yesterday. I pack each circled item and check each one off.
4) Lastly, I pack my list. That way I remember what I planned to wear each day. No decisions while I’m on vacation, because I planned it all ahead of time.
PRO TIP: Teddy and I once took a vacation where we traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y.; Toronto; the Finger Lakes region in New York, then Vermont. SO … I packed for the first half of our trip in one suitcase, and the second half of the trip in the second suitcase. So for the whole trip, I was always actively using only one suitcase at a time. Genius!
PRO TIP 2: While you’re on vacation, repack your dirty clothes each night as you take them off, and at the end of the trip, you’ll be mostly packed to go home. Genius again!
I hope you have a chance to take a break soon, whether it’s for a night or for two glorious weeks. And if you have any additional packing or other traveling tips, comment below! I’d love to hear them.
