Packing

Once the planning and dreaming is over, it’s time to pack! Packing may be one of my favorite pre-trip activities because it means I’m leaving SOON. This post will mostly just be my tips and tricks for a multi-city and/or international adventure so if you don’t plan to do either, skip this post or read along to keep me company. 🙂

Bags: Convertible bags are king. We invested in a beautiful bag which is essentially two backpacks you can zip together to form a large checked bag (Granite Gear Cross-Trek). That’s exactly what I planned for this trip. Either pack will work as a carry on both domestically and also adheres to the international (smaller) size restrictions. Since I wasn’t checking a bag for my first flight leg, I still needed to keep the contents TSA friendly.

Clothes: The weather forecast was pretty stable for my destinations this trip, so I was able to plan for 60s during the day and 40s at night, rendering sweaters and bulky jackets unnecessary. Although my wetsuit and rain jacket took up a chunk of space, those are the two things that leaving behind might make me sad.

Since I’ll be in Airbnbs throughout the trip, I opted to rent places with a clothes washer so I wouldn’t need too many clothes. A pair of jeans, a couple travel pants, pair of shorts, PJs, a dress, and a few shirts, a rain jacket, plus my bathing gear and slippers were all I brought. A friend once told me that, for women, dresses are the perfect travel attire because it’s one piece – no fuss, no muss. For you gents, I guess a dress is fine, or they have those whole body onesies… you in?

Clothespins are a necessity when travelling internationally. Most places won’t have a dryer, so it’ll be the ol’ air dry method. If you’re picky about wrinkles, you might want to find wrinkle free fabrics or buy a travel iron. I’m not a fashionista and I doubt I’ll run into any exes in Croatia, so I let my personal heat do the steaming for me. By the end of a day, I look a mess, anyway, so why waste the time in the morning to press?!?!

Misc: Leading up to a trip, I keep a running list of packing items I don’t want to forget. Using a simple grocery list app, I can easily remember what I wanted to bring, check it off as it’s packed, then check the list again each time I leave a city so I don’t accidentally forget that precious rain jacket. Currently, we use the app “Our Groceries” so hubs and I can sync up. I’ll try to remember to post my packing list for this trip later.

Things I MUST NOT forget:

• International electrical adapter for the region I’m visiting.
• Luggage scale (airlines don’t mess around!)
• Back up cash money source
• Waterproof camera
• Headphones
• Empty reusable water bottle (preferably one that will attach to a purse/pack)
• Sunscreen and/or bug spray, depending on destination and season
• USB power bank to recharge during long days on the road
• Multi USB charger for overnight charging of all the things
• Paper copies of all reservations Actually, unless you’re traveling to a very, very remote location, as long as you can get to a computer (smart phone, internet cafe, host, airport, etc…), paper just takes up space

A’aight, let’s get to the actual packing. A few trips ago, I discovered packing cubes. For those of you with an organized mind, you would wonder what in the world these little bags get you but I assure you, they are a GAME changer. Not only do they keep your stuff very neatly organized, but they compress your items to save space, and they make it extremely handy to just grab the bag you need for that day. For example, if I’m traveling to multiple climates, I might have a cube of warm weather items and a cube for colder days. For this trip, it was super simple: electronics and misc in one, pants in another, PJs in one, socks and undies in another, etc…

Toiletries: Many moons ago, I bought what must be the best travel accessory on the market; a hanging toiletry kit. This sucker can hold EVERYTHING and it has a hook for those tiny bathrooms where you have to suck in your gut to turn around. You know that place? Well, this is the item for you!

These little silicone bottles have been life savers. They don’t leak, hold enough product for at least 2 weeks, are easy to use, have labels for the contents built in, AND have little suction cups which are quite handy in places with limited shelf space.

Since hubs didn’t come on this trip, I didn’t have the luxury of stuffing just this one last thing in his luggage so I ended up with a little more of a pack than usual. No biggie, I got this! With our handy-dandy luggage scale, I was able to accurately gauge how much more I could stuff and/or buy while I’m gone. Most airlines restrict checked bags to 50lbs (carry on is much less) so it’s nice to leave with a pack much lighter than the limit to accommodate olive oils and other heavy items you may want to bring home from your trip. Upon leaving Portland, my main pack was at 25lbs – plenty of weight left to work with, especially since I’ll be consuming some items along the way. The scale itself is very small and light, so it’s an essential.

To finish up, I make sure to put my name, email address, and city (do NOT put your physical home address) on an index card and slide it inside the pack, in addition to the identifying luggage tag. This gives me security that no matter what happens to the outside of the bag, someone could find a way to get me back the bag.

I swear by my security-minded travel purse. Although it isn’t the prettiest of handbags, it’s gone with me everywhere and I even own two (long story about a home invasion I’ll tell you about eventually…). It has locking mechanisms on all exterior pockets, zippers galore on the interior pockets, slash proof handle, RFID blocking, and a carabiner to attach your bag to a chair, etc… when finishing that last glass of wine and not paying attention. 😉

Do you have any fabulous tricks to share? I’m always learning new and better ways to do, well… everything so please comment!