We were inspired to write a blog about packing since one of our last posts was about our trip to Arizona and we now find ourselves gearing up for spring break. Travel is and should always be a fun adventure and yet prepping for the trip can somehow feel overwhelming. Here are some tips that we use to try to make things easier (other than just simply throwing some last minute things in a suitcase and leaving on a wing and a prayer).
Airline tickets have been purchased. Hotel room has been booked. Rental car has been reserved. The fur-baby is all set to stay with family. And the limo has been arranged to pick up and drop you off at the airport. The only thing left to do is pack…but what should you bring?
Firstly, we suggest keeping an eye on the weather for the area that you are traveling to. We start looking at weather apps for that location about two weeks prior to our trip to get an idea of what to expect. Will it be hot and sunny or cold and snowy? Also, what does your itinerary look like? Are the activities you are looking into casual or will there be formal events? Once you know what the weather is going to be like and what your itinerary will be you can quickly figure out what you need to bring.
Make a list. Include not just the clothes, shoes and accessories you want to wear but also things like phone chargers, medications, bathroom essentials, reading materials, etc… Basically all of your must have needs. Keep your list for reference so that you can check it again once your done packing to make sure there isn’t an important detail you’ve missed.
After you have picked out what you think you will need we suggest to edit. We find that if we pack too early we keep adding to our suitcases for the “just in case” scenarios we conjure up in our minds. This leads to overpacking. Always take what you need and like Coco Chanel suggested: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off” or in this case, take one thing out of the suitcase.
Between the two of us, we tend to take one carry on and check one bag each for a total of three bags. After we have selected what clothes/shoes/accessories we want to bring we divide that into three piles. Our goal is to put some of our clothes into each bag. This way we have at least a few outfits in our carry on and a few in each checked bag. If they lose our luggage or it arrives at the hotel a day or two into our trip (or not at all) we don’t have to worry. We can enjoy ourselves and not have to spend time trying to find clothes to wear.
Another tip we learned (and luckily these things have not happened to us) is to put clothing into plastic bags. A friend of ours who travels often for work would only do carry on and never checked bags. After landing when he reached up into the overhead bin there was blue liquid sloshing around. It turned out that someone had a sports drink in their carry on that had not been sealed. Needless to say, all of his work shirts had to be laundered when he got to the hotel (and some replaced because they were stained).
Once we were at baggage claim waiting for our bags when a woman next to us grabbed her suitcase and it was literally soaking wet. She opened the bag to find that something she had packed had broken during the flight and leaked ALL over her clothes. Everything was drenched and we felt so bad for this woman because she looked like she wanted to cry.
Ever since, we have taken our clothes in both our carry on and checked bags and put them inside smaller white trash bags. We then put our bathroom items into a clear plastic bag that zips (that we purchased) and then too wrap that in the trash bag. We also utilize zip lock baggies for any items that we feel we would like added insurance from breakage.
The white garbage bags come in handy throughout our trip. After we get to the hotel and hang our clothes, we use the bags to place our dirty clothes in during the week. This makes packing on the end of our trip much easier because they are already “semi-folded” and in a plastic bag that can easily be thrown into the suitcase. If on the chance that we have items that we brought with us and didn’t wear or for any souvenirs we may have purchased – we put those into the plastic bags that didn’t get used for the dirty clothes. Once we return home we use the bags in our garbage bins so there is no waste.
Keep all your most important things in your carry on. This includes any medications that you take daily. Your passport. Your jewelry. Your phone, I-pad or laptop and the chargers for each. We even include our toothbrushes. These are the things that we do not want to have out of our sight. We have all heard the horror stories of people saying that valuables have gone missing from checked luggage.
There really isn’t a set plan for traveling. We recently traveled home the same day, from the same destination as a friend of ours. There was bad weather in Boston. We got in ahead of the weather with no issues (other than a bumpy landing due to turbulence). Our friend on the other hand had two flights cancelled, got on a third flight only to come home about 7 hours later than anticipated and without her luggage which arrived at her home in the middle of the night.
Since we cannot plan for the unplanned; the least we can do is try to make it as comfortable as possible. If you have a good book, a movie ready on the Ipad or laptop and with any luck an ability to nap on the plane maybe those delays, leaks in overhead bins and missing luggage will not ruin the fun you intended on having once you reach your destination.
Happy Travels!
D&C
Mt. Esty Manor 