OK so it is safe to say that when a trip is being planned and turns into reality people freak out. They freak out about excitement, the money being spent and one of the biggest issues is when it comes to packing. Everyone has their own way of packing and some are better than others. Some people know how to pack the bare minimum and make the outfits work and some people pack their entire closet. I am one of those people that pack their entire closets even when I tell myself not to.
I recently flew back home to South Africa and this is what I learned while packing. I am a person that over thinks what they’re packing. I know for a fact on the rainy summer days it gets extremely cold that sometimes we even make a fire to keep warm so with that being said, I basically need to pack a variety of clothes.
When I go home I don’t have any set plans, I don’t know if I will just be at home, on the farm, or I’ll be going to the city or the beach and I need to be able to dress for all of these occasions. So when I pack I start off with the basics meaning I FaceTime my mom and ask her to go through my closet at home to see what I have there, see if I’ve got the basics there such as underwear, I don’t want to go home and then have no underwear and obviously I always overpack underwear and I don’t know why. I then pack socks and don’t forget the shoes I never know how many pairs of shoes to pack, I try to pack one pair of sneakers, a pair of sandals and a pair of nice going out boots. Then comes the clothes I’ll pack majority of the dresses I have simply because I love wearing dresses and they’re so convenient during the summer, then I’ll look for shorts and T-shirts or cute tops that I can wear. Once I’ve got all my summer outfits out and then I’ll pull out all the cozy things I want to bring home like sweatpants and hoodies.
Once I’ve laid out everything I want to pack on my bed I will then go through it again and see what is necessary to take, this is honestly the hardest part of the process because you try think but what if I need this in reality you know exactly that you’re not going to wear it. After throwing out a few things I then put it in my suitcase and if I have enough space in the suitcase I’ll obviously add more when I technically should not because I know for a fact that when I fly back to the US I’ll be bringing so many other things back with me. This is happened so often that I fly home with one bag I come back with two. But this time round I am determined to have only one bag.
So basically what I’m trying to tell you is that think about the place where you’re going, try think about what your daily activities would consist of and what would be the most appropriate outfit for those activities. Don’t forget that clothes can be washed and you can wear them again. It is known that if you travel to a new place you are most definitely going to buy stuff there and bring it home so either pack a smaller bag that can be folded up in your suitcase or leave space in your suitcase to add stuff in on your way home.
No one wants to be carrying around a big heavy bag when they travel, so think wisely!