2025, books, Family, Mysteries, Travel, Uncategorized, work

Packing

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When I packed for the book festival, I went about it like usual.  I printed out my packing list (that I keep on the computer), filled it out and started to pack.  I was gone two and a half days (six hours of which was driving) and two nights.  Since I was wearing jeans and t-shirt to drive down, all I really needed was two t-shirts, two undies, two pairs of socks, pjs, a pair of zorries for relaxing at David’s and assorted personal hygiene stuff.

Obviously I didn’t need a big bag for this so I pulled a small bag from the attic and threw everything in.  15 minutes from beginning to end.  Except then the conversation started:

YA: Are you taking that bag?
VS:  Yep.
YA:  What are  you taking (picking up the packing list and perusing it).
YA:  No extra socks or underwear?
VS:  Nope.
YA:  What two t-shirts?
VS:  The coral t-shirt with books on it and the black rocket sheep for breakfast with the boys
YA:  Nothing else?
VS:  Nope.
YA:  What if you decide you want a different shirt?
VS:  Then I’ll suffer from my poor choices.l
YA:  What about shoes?
VS:  My blue tennies.
YA:  No other shoes?
VS:  Not for 48 hours.
YA:  (sighs and walks away)

When I was traveling for work, I packed a little more robustly.  Having an extra shirt or pair of socks can’t hurt when you’re on a business trip, but I’ve always been a fairly minimal packer.  YA is completely opposite.  She packs her work uniforms then at least one full non-work outfit for each day.  Multiple pairs of shoes.   For a couple of years she used that cube system, in which you packed all your stuff into individual cube/cases and then put the cube/cases into your bigger suitcase.  Personally I never thought this was a big help to the packing process, but to each their own.  She got the cases free from work; they were popular as pre-travel gifts a few  years ago and there were always extras laying around.  I haven’t seen her using those the last year.

My packing strategy worked out perfectly.  When I got home from the festival, all I had to do was dump the contents of the bag straight into the clothes hamper.  Hygiene stuff all lives in one zipper pouch together so that’s easy to put away as well.  Two minutes to unpack.

I’m pretty sure I packed and unpacked in less time than it took to talk to YA about it!

What about you?  Over-pack or under-pack?  Do you have a “process”?

39 thoughts on “Packing”

  1. Robin usually plans her packing and begins packing at least a week before any extensive trip; I pack the day before. For shorter trips, my packing is minimal and takes less than an hour.

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    2. That was so that when we came home we could check those bags and carry on bags stuffed with our purchases. Despite that plan, we still had to buy an extra suitcase for overflow.

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  3. I have a list too. It’s not on computer though.

    I have a nice zipper bag for hygiene stuff. It holds a lot. I keep it stocked so that it’s always ready to go.

    I usually over-pack. I thought I packed appropriately for my last week up in Two Harbors – if only the weather had been warmer. As it was, there was only one day when I was warm enough. Otherwise I was freezing, and why didn’t I bring a raincoat? It was gray, windy, rainy, drizzly, and cold, with temperatures staying around 43 degrees all week. I needed sweatshirts and rain gear! I got a lot of reading done, and finished a knitting project. I hope the weather in June is stellar up there. It just seems like I have had a lot of really cruddy weather when I’m up there. The sun comes out after I leave!

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    1. Always expect it will be cold in TH. Always. It is part of its joy; to stand on a rock shelf in a winter coat out of season and bask in the Lake. It’s what I and my two children miss most.
      Clyde

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  4. When I was a traveling presenter/consultant, I had a long list. Office staff would help with presentation materials and technology and tickets and schedule. Sandy would help with clothing and such. I usually had to pack a suit or dress jacket and pants. Often had to have casuals clothes for dinners out with bigwigs or committee members or picnics. When screening got rigid, we often got pulled aside or found our luggage a mess because it had been searched. Soon after that I stopped traveling.

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  5. The more I travel (and the older I get) the lighter I try to pack. Because I am short and have tricky shoulders, my carry on has to fit below the seat in front of me. It’s too hard to get a roller bag into and out of the overhead compartment. I have a foldable zippered bag that works very well as my carry on. For international trips, I do pack a checked bag – the smallest I can get away with and try very hard to keep the weight below 35 lbs (having small clothes and shoes helps). Packing cubes keep everything organized and neat. I even use small cubes for my carry on. Only once have I just taken a carry on for an overseas trip. For a 6 day stay in Barcelona I used a large backpack. It was nice to not have to wait in baggage claim.

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  6. I still take flack for the time that I packed my weights to bring along on a camping trip with the family. We had a minivan to hold the kids in a couple suitcases and then a trailer that I pulled along that was about the size of a pick up truck bed, full of axes and tents and sleeping bags and coolers and utensils for cooking and our suitcases and I thought what the heck I might as well throw 50 pounds of weight in and a barbell and a couple of bells for being able to do curls and things like that and when Debbie saw the weights in there, she just started laughing and said right like you’re gonna be doing lots of weight workouts on our camping trip and because of that I probably did do more than I would have done otherwise but that’s the way I pack when I’m going traveling with myself and have the luxury of space when I’m going on international flights for an extended period of time I always take a carry-on and the only thing I pack out of the ordinary would be peanut butter and tea when I go to China I often think that I’m just gonna pack enough to get me there in a pinch and I’ll probably buy clothes in China. I used to have suits made in Hong Kong and if you order them for at a time, they end up being about $75 a suit that might’ve changed today now that we are 20 years down the road from that, but that used to be my philosophy my attic is full of Chinese suitcases that I bought while I was over there to bring back in the days when suitcases were not an additional charge. I would just go over with a fistful of shirts and pants and shoes and my briefcase with my computer and I would buy stuff over there for myself and for my family

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  8. When we were traveling, I think I did pretty well – and when I was driving monthly from Mpls to Marshalltown, IA after my dad died, I really had it down. I do still have that zippered pouch packed with the hygiene items.

    For air and train travel, I learned to get everything in one bag, at least, but it was always a checked bag…

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  9. I have used and will use multiple dress items for airplane travel.
    Layering is the key.
    Double socks in dress black.
    Triple skivies. New. No brown streaks.
    Two white t-shirts. No f..u Trump logo.
    Black pants.
    Black suit coat.
    Dress shoes.
    On me but only for three days.
    Fabric spray and all toiletries can easily be bought at destination.

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        1. I think he means it.

          Although for a totally different reason it reminds me of in when The Diary of Anne Frank, refugees-to-be leaving town with all the clothes they could layer on their body, so they weren’t obviously fleeing. Interesting that I remember that detail after all these decades.

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  10. I am lying in bed waiting for the pain med I just took to put me to sleep awhile. My hip is quite sore today, but not painful. I am lying on the ice pack now. When I awaken I start the PT exercises.

    This is a different kind of packing and a different kind of trip that I will refer to. My dear friend with whom I worked for many years, packed my freezer with home made meals for the week. My son and DIL are taking exquisite care of us, but they do not cook.
    So last night: white bean chicken chili and biscuits
    I have been sticking with chicken, wild rice soup.
    Supper: salisbury steak, homemade bread (by DIL), and peanut butter cookies.
    Still to come: Mac and cheese

    What recovery trip! And I am so grateful to have such a friend.

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    2. My hips and right knee are in agony but they are solid. It’s my lying bastard of a mess of a lumbar lying to me. I am suppose to be outside walking but I just cannot make myself do it.

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  11. i read accidenral tourist by anne tyler years ago and she had some great ideas i incorporated like washing your clothes while you are wearing them in the shower snd leaving them to hang dry while away at work , wear brown or gray that doesnt show spills and require cleaning so much sox inside second pair of shoes etc…

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  12. I usually pack too much, but I am really good at sqeezing lots of things in my suitcase. Husband has to pack his cpap machine, but he chose yo leavevitvat home when we went to Montreal.

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  13. I don’t go anywhere for very long,so I usually just roll up some clothes and secure them with a belt and then stuff them into a duffel bag. Zipper pouch for the small stuff, and a tote bag for a book and/or e-reader, charging cords, snacks.

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  15. I’m usually a light packer, and I don’t use a list.

    I’ve twice had excessive weight. One was when I flew home to Copenhagen from Greenland. Amongst my packed treasures were several good sized rocks that I had found while hiking in the mountains, but because I knew everybody who worked at the airport, they just ushered me through. The other time was when I boarded the plane in Copenhagen to fly to NYC. Mom had made that trip extra cumbersome by presenting me with a bouquet of 12 long-stemmed red roses at the airport. I was the immigrant who arrived in NYC carrying an armload of wilting roses, a huge tote bag with all of my documents (including chest X-rays), and my raggedy old teddy bear which the authorities in Copenhagen had made me take out of my suitcase. It was close to midnight by the time I arrived at my in-laws house in Greenport. I try not to think too hard about what kind of first impression I made.

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        2. when it happens in the phillipines or hungary we think it is a fluke only in far away backward countries but we are setting an example for the world can happen if you believe a scumball and allow your fear and hatred of scapegoats to be used as political tools by unethical power mongers. im hoping it is obvious to the world and will be the impetus for change to make sure it never happens again. ugly is what americans have been accused of for years, i didnt get it. now i do

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