When I packed for both my last two trips, I thought I was packing as light as I could. I even pulled things out before finally zipping up my smallish duffel bag and heading to the airport. But Rob has this habit that’s helping me see better what I could have left behind.
He carries a plastic bag for either clean or dirty clothes-whichever there is less of at the end of the trip. At the end of the Copenhagen trip, he combined all our clothes and everything I brought that was still clean went into the plastic bag. The benefits of this are that 1) when we get home, he can just throw all the dirty in the laundry without going through every item, and 2) the clean & dirty laundry stay separate, so the clean stays that way.
At the end of both our recent trips, I had at least five separate items of clothing left that hadn’t been worn at all, not including underthings. (I don’t mind overpacking underthings.) That’s a lot of unnecessary weight someone (Rob!) had to carry. This is the byproduct of packing for very particular situations and convincing myself that specific things will be necessary. Also, I tend to favor my most comfortable things on the road, even if I end up wearing them for several days.
I like this technique of Rob’s for how its showing me what I could have left behind. We’ll see how light I can pack on our upcoming Christmas trip that involves skiing, hanging out with family, a trip to the ballet, and a cocktail party. I have a feeling our suitcases will be pretty heavy no matter what.
Filed under: Practicalities, Travel Tagged: | packing
