Packing Problems

It can be stressful to pack for a trip because there is always the concern that you'll forget something important. Travelling, while fun, has enough stresses involved without adding to it by leaving something you need behind.

There are two methods I recommend, that can be used together or separately, depending on your circumstances.

First, I know multiple people who maintain a permanent packing list that can be used each time you travel. Start with a base (you can find tons by googling for one) and adjust it to be you-specific. Delete things that don’t apply to you, add things that you regularly use, and leave some blank lines for trip specific items. Add everything you might generally need, even if it isn’t stuff you need for every trip. When you pull up or print out the list for a specific trip, cross out items that you won’t need that time. It might take you a few trips to get it fully customized, but once you do, relax into the knowledge that you will have all of the essentials with you wherever you go!

If you are a fairly organized person and have a relatively small space (such as my one bedroom condo, versus a whole house), try walking through your home - room by room, or smaller sections, and thinking about what you need from each space. I would suggest either gathering the stuff as you go into one place and then packing it, or making it into a detailed list for later use (this is also a good way to get an ongoing list started).

Either way, keep a list of last minute things you will need to pack on the day you leave and a list of tasks you need to do before leaving (such as taking out the trash).

Then, of course, there is the constant struggle against overpacking. Though I have improved over the years, this is definitely something I am still working on. I've devised a couple of tricks to keep myself from overpacking. First, I try to be realistic about what I’m packing. For example, the only times I ever wear more than one outfit a day is if I have a fancy event, and it’s pretty easy to know if that’s going to happen or not, and it’s definitely not going to happen unexpectedly more than once in a trip. Don’t pack multiple outfits for each day!!! Additionally, before gathering all of my stuff, I decide what size suitcase I believe to be reasonable for the length of the trip I am going on. If what I am trying to pack doesn’t fit in that suitcase, then I need to eliminate some of the things I want to take along.