I’ve a friend who is going to a writer conference in another continent. She also recently lost weight which complicated the packing situation. She talked about starting to pack weeks before the event.
I was so impressed. I come from a long line of last minute packers. We are the packers that ten minutes before we have to leave, we start packing. This isn’t because we are so organized that the packing is simple. No, we are last minute packers because we are not organized and the thought of packing fills us with dread.
My personal cure is a couple days before the trip, I tack a sheet of paper on the fridge and start my packing list. I do it in spurts. I’ve been known to race across the house just so I can add ‘charging chord for my phone’. I add in the business clothing, the laptop, the sneakers for working out, the snacks, the underwear.
I generally lose the sheet before the packing is done.
Inevitably I forget something. This has happened on every trip. The top two: forgetting sleeping bags when going camping and forgetting diapers for a day trip with my 1 year-old daughter. That’s when I found out that swimming diapers do not work the same as regular diapers.
What crazy packing stories do you have?
I love moving in and unpacking. But packing and moving out are bummers.
Hi Mike, I like the concept of unpacking and getting to reorganized. But the reality is usually living out of boxes and not being able to find something. Then having to rebuy it. And when you are finally done unpacking, ending up with two or more of the items you just bought. LOL 🙂 Thanks for the comment.
We’re on the road a lot for business reasons, so I’ve gotten very good at packing. But one time, we packed for a job that was supposed to last two days, so I packed for three. Unfortunately, it lasted nine.
I made do with buying extra t-shirts and washing out my undies every night. I figure buying stuff that’s missing is just part of the hidden cost of traveling. 🙂
Oh my, Cathleen. When did you find out it was going to be nine days? Right when you got there? Or that last minute when all the stores were closed that night and you were wondering how to play the next morning?
I know some of the places I have stayed and the length of the related work meetings, there only would have been time for the sink and those little cakes of hotel soap for my undies. 🙂
Thank you for commenting.