Ten Tips to Help You Be a Better Packer

Adventure is a State of Mind

How to Think About Packing

If you do an internet search, you’ll find an abundance of posts about packing. How to pack in just a carryon. What to pack for __________________ (fill in the blank with your travel location). How to pack like a pro. The list goes on and on and on. Heck, even BWT has a post about packing!

At the risk of adding to the list of packing articles, I’d like to provide some slightly different packing advice. Rather than focusing on exactly what to pack and how to make it fit your bag perfectly, let’s instead discuss how to think about packing.

Why Can’t I Just Follow a Checklist?

You may be asking yourself why it’s even necessary to think about your packing. After all, with thousands of articles and blog posts out there, there are numerous suggestions for what to take with you on your next travel adventure.

The problem is none of us are packing for the exact same travel adventure as anyone else. Sure, you may be going to the same place, but what you plan to do there might not be the same. Or your personal needs may be different. For example, if you’re traveling to Ireland but you plan to stay in the cities and focus on visiting pubs and listening to live music, you aren’t going to need the same rain gear that someone planning to hike in the hills is going to need.

You may also have personal things that you bring with you everywhere you go, even if they don’t make it onto anyone else’s packing list. But they make you feel happy and safe and are important to you.

Being able to think through the process of choosing what and how to pack is a skill that will come in handy no matter where and when you are traveling and what you plan to do once you get there.

Give Yourself Time

When deciding what to pack, start early and take your time. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to throw items in your suitcase at the last moment. I guarantee this will result in you taking too much of what you don’t need and leaving something important at home.

Ideally, start working on a packing list weeks before leaving. Invariably after you initially write the list and as you’re going through your day, you’ll suddenly think of something else you want to take with you. Or maybe you’ll talk with your travel companions and realize they’re bringing something you could borrow, so you don’t all need to bring duplicates of that item.

Think It Through

Here are the steps that I think can help you to think through what you need to pack:

1. Visualize the activities you have planned for your trip.
2. Consider your location and the type of weather you are likely to experience
3. Think about daily items you will need.
4. Think about important items you only need occasionally.
5. Consider what paperwork you will need.
6. Consider what electronics you plan to bring and what you need to be able to recharge them.
7. Visualize what you want your down time to look like during your travels.
8. If you check luggage while flying, make sure your bags are cleaned off before the next time you fly.
9. If you are traveling to another country, make sure to research their currency.
10. Think about your return home.

Let’s go through each of those individually.

Visualize the activities you have planned for your trip. It can be helpful to do an internet search for images of the places you plan to visit if you don’t know anything about the area. For example, if you enjoy exploring foreign cities by walking around neighborhoods, you might want to pack different shoes for a flat city with cement sidewalks versus a hilly city with cobblestone walkways.

Consider your location and the type of weather you are likely to experience. Other than the activities you plan to experience, weather is the greatest determinant of what type of clothes you will need on your adventure.

To learn more about the weather at your travel location, as soon as you start planning a trip, add the city (or cities) to whatever weather app you regularly use on your phone and check it often. This will give you an idea of the local weather, especially as you approach your departure date, so that you can pack to match the climate.

If you know you will be traveling to a particular location a year from now, paying attention to the weather now (and maybe taking notes) and then again a week or two out from your departure date will help you to be even more accurate in guessing the type of clothing you will be the most comfortable with and whether rain gear will be needed.

Plan to dress in layers. You will experience a variety of weather during your travel adventures unless you’re traveling to the rare place where the forecast never changes.

Even on tropical islands, it can get cooler at night or during a sudden rain shower. Being able to put on or take off layers allows you to adjust while you’re out and about rather than having to return to your lodgings to change clothes.

Light-weight clothing tends to be easier to pack than items like big, bulky sweaters. Putting on several layers (such as a short-sleeve shirt under a long-sleeve shirt under a fleece or light-weight sweater under a light jacket) can give you an equal amount of warmth to those more bulky items.

Think about daily items you will need, such as shampoo, toothpaste, and deodorant. When packing such items, definitely pack travel sizes. They’re called that for a reason, after all, and you’ll definitely appreciate not carrying as much weight in your luggage.

You can also buy reusable, small containers that you fill with your products at home before each trip. People often worry about running out, especially on long trips, but unless you’re traveling to an extremely remote location, you can likely find similar products to replace what you run out of.

Frequently you can find the same brands abroad that you use at home, but buying products and brands that you don’t normally find at home can also be a fun way to bring home unique souvenirs.

Think about important items you only need occasionally. This can include medicines that aren’t taken daily, such as a medication patch that is reapplied every few days or once a week. Similarly, it’s easy to forget things like batteries that may need to be replaced in medical devices, such as a glucose monitor.

If you take prescription medication, double check how many days you will be gone. It’s important to consider this at least a week before you plan to leave because you may need to talk to your pharmacist and doctor about getting permission to refill a prescription early in order to not run out during your trip.

When traveling, it’s usually a good idea to carry extras of any prescription medications you need. There is always a possibility of travel delays, which is stressful enough in and of itself. You don’t want to add to that stress by also being worried about missed doses of your medication. This might not be as much of an issue if you are traveling domestically and you use a national drugstore chain for your medication refills, but when traveling abroad, you likely will not have access to your regular pharmacy. In some cases, you might not even have access to your medication at all since not every medication is available in every country.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.

Cesare Pavese

Consider what paperwork you will need. This includes not only passports and visas but also tickets and information about reservations, directions, and addresses of where you are staying.

Most of us are used to keeping this information stored on our phones, but I think it is helpful to have a printed version as a backup in case your phone dies or you don’t have cell coverage when you need to access the information.

When traveling to a country where you don’t speak the language, especially if it is a country with a different type of writing system than you are used to, it can be extremely helpful to have a printout of the addresses where you will be staying. Make sure to print the address in the local language, not just the English version.

You can have this on your phone, of course, but you might not always want to hand your phone to a stranger when you are asking for directions. Having a printed copy is useful to have on hand. When you arrive in a town or city by plane or train and need to get directions or take a taxi, you have the address available to show the driver. This can prevent misunderstandings based on mispronunciations.

If you are trying to find the location on your own, having the address, including the street name written out in the local language, can also help if you are trying to match up the name with a map or street signs.

Consider what electronics you plan to bring and what you need to be able to recharge them. In this day and age, it is the rare person that does not travel with at least a cell phone, let alone a tablet, Kindle, laptop, gaming system and/or headphones.

Many a traveler has grabbed their devices but left a crucial part, such as the charging cord, at home. When writing out your packing list, make sure to also write down items like cords as a reminder to pack them.

If your travel adventures include a long plane ride, many planes now have USB ports… but they don’t always work. A power bank (also known as a portable charger) can extend the life of your electronic devices such as your phone, tablet, smart watch, earbuds and/or headphones.

We increasingly rely on our smart phones for everything from being able to take photos to using maps to having copies of tickets. For this reason, running out of power at the wrong moment can create a great deal of stress. Access to someplace to recharge is not always easily available when traveling, and having a backup power source with you will make sure that you can always use your devices when you need them. Many portable chargers are quite small and won’t add much weight to your bag. Just make sure your power bank is fully charged before setting out for the day or it won’t do you much good!

Also, consider whether you will need a converter or an adapter to plug in your devices if you are traveling outside of your home country.

Visualize what you want your down time to look like during your travels. Do you plan on having picnics or cooking meals in your vacation rental? If so, you may want to bring a small cloth bag to take to the market when buying food. (Grocery stores and markets in many countries, particularly in Europe, don’t offer single-use plastic bags at checkout, so having a backup tote is a good idea!) Or you may want to bring a pocket knife with a corkscrew so you can have wine with your picnic.

Do you hope to enjoy a last morning swim in the ocean before you leave for your next location? You’ll probably want to bring some resealable (ziplock-type) bags so that your wet swimsuit can be packed away with the rest of your (dry) clothes.

Do you and your travel partners enjoy listening to music and playing games in the evening? Make sure to download your favorite playlist to your phone and pack a deck of cards.

If you check luggage while flying, make sure your bags are cleaned off before the next time you fly. I’m not talking about the dirt and scuff marks that bags accumulate over time. I’m talking about those little tiny stickers that the airlines stick on your bags.

Most people know that before you fly again, you need to remove the long tags they placed through the handle of your suitcase the last time you flew. These tags tell both the automated baggage handling system and the human handlers where your luggage is headed.

If you’re like me, however, you might not always pay attention to the small sticker the nice person at the check-in counter stuck on your bag. This sticker, usually with a barcode, is a backup for the larger tag in case something happens to it. Unfortunately, if you and the person checking you in don’t realize that your bag still has an old sticker, there is a risk of it being read by the machines instead of your current sticker. As you might imagine, this could send your luggage off in a direction you don’t want… and increase the chances of your bag being lost. So much potential trouble from just a tiny little sticker!

If you are traveling to another country, make sure to research their currency. Dealing with foreign currency can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be.

If you are planning on traveling abroad, consider buying a small amount of the currency you’ll need before you leave home. Most banks or AAA offices can do this for you. I usually order the equivalent of about $100 and think of it as my “just in case” currency…. in case I can’t find an ATM. Or in case the ATM doesn’t work. Or in case I need a taxi immediately upon leaving the airport.

Think about your return home, especially whether you plan to bring back souvenirs for yourself and/or your family and friends. Remember to leave some room in your bag – if your bag is full going, you might not have room to bring anything back.

Workarounds for this are to plan on taking some things that you will be using up or leaving behind. I think a perfect solution is if you are traveling to visit friends and bring them gifts, you’ll then have empty space to fill with gifts to bring back home.

Cut It Out

Once you’ve developed your list with everything you plan to take with you, at least a couple of days before you plan to leave, lay out everything and look at what you can leave behind. Yes, you heard me correctly, look at everything you decided you need and be ruthlessly honest with yourself about whether you actually need it and will use it.

It’s extremely rare that I’ve heard travelers complain about not bringing enough, but I’ve heard many, many travelers (myself included) regret carrying extra items with them that they never used.

Try It Out

And then the moment of truth – actually pack your bags. Again, make sure to do this a few days ahead so if what you plan to take doesn’t fit, you have time to adjust. You might need to take even less than you planned. Or, alternatively, you may need a bigger suitcase.

In the rare case that what you want to take only fills half of your bag… first of all, I’m impressed! And in that case, you can possibly take a smaller bag, which will make life easier on many levels. (Editor’s note: This is a travel tip I will always remember from my dear Aunt Sandi – Pack your bag like you’re going to be the one to lug it around throughout your adventure… because you will be, and there won’t always be someone to help lift or transport your luggage if it’s too heavy for you to handle.)

Some Final Tips

I know I mentioned earlier that a simple checklist probably won’t cut it for every single travel adventure. However, it can be helpful to create a basics list (of things that you need most everywhere you travel, regardless of location, weather, or activities) and store it on your phone or computer to use as a starting point. This way, you can modify the list for each trip, without worrying that you left a crucial item, like your favorite lotion or sleeping mask, at home.

If you travel fairly frequently, whether it is for short weekend trips, work-related travel, or epic travel adventures, it will save you time and stress to keep a toiletries bag packed and ready to go. Having duplicates of things like shampoo and a toothbrush rather than having to go through your bathroom and grab what you need can significantly reduce the choices you need to make when packing, thus reducing your decision-making stress. It also saves on time and means that you’ll be ready to go quickly if someone extends you a last-minute invitation to join them on a fun adventure.

If you are flying with at least one other person and are checking bags, have the person with the heaviest bag check their bag first. If they are over the weight limit, they may be able to remove something heavy from their bag and place it in one of their companion’s bags that is underweight in order to avoid the very hefty (pun intended) fee that airlines charge for overweight bags.

Unfortunately, if the overweight bag is the last to be weighed, you’ve often already waved goodbye to the other bags as they’re sent off on the conveyor belt. There is then no way to avoid the fee unless someone in the group has room in a carry-on bag, but that means carrying that additional item(s) through the airport and through any additional airports with connecting flights. Of course, making sure that everyone weighs their bags before heading to the airport is the most effective way to avoid the additional fees.

What is your packing routine? Do you plan ahead or have you always just thrown things in at the last minute? Consider taking some time to think through what you need.