Space - the final frontier

Which is to say, packing.

Packing for most people is torture. I know there are a few who blithely pack at the last minute and either really have it down pat, or just randomly throw whatever fits into the bag and go. I used to be in the former catagory when I travelled for business. The big advantage I had was that I was traveling so much and had pretty much the same agenda for each trip that I knew exactly what I needed to take: two shirts, three underwear & socks, etc. Toiletries ready to go; electronics & chargers in their own bags or places in my daily bag.

Easy as pie.

The good news is I don't travel for business anymore. So I have time to travel for pleasure, but each pleasure trip is a bit different (or perhaps widely different). This trip is 18 days, which means I'm way out of the range for carrying enough clothing for the trip without doing any laundry. It's in the spring, which is nice, but which means that there's a wide variation of weather to prepare for: warm, cool (but not cold), sunny, rain. We'll be in towns and cities, and at resorts, and on the beach, and in the forest (a national park, as it happens).

I've read, as I'm sure you have, that the rules to packing for a trip boil down to a simple few:
- only bring what you're sure you'll need
(and it's corollary: never bring something you might need)
- make sure everything matches everything else
- when in doubt, leave it home

Stuff for the suitcase, April 2014

Especially if you're traveling to somewhere reasonably civilized (and we are), remember you can buy stuff which is good-nuff if you guess wrong. Having too much stuff just complicates packing and unpacking at each stop (we're making 7 stops). Plus,we have one soft limit and one hard limit:
Soft limit: the airlines give you one free checked bag, and one carry on plus a personal item. The checked bit can be solved with money, but the carry on bit is more complex. They have weight limits for the checked stuff (about 50 lbs.), and size and weight limits for the carry on stuff (about 17 lbs, and a 22" bag will fit in most overheads). If you try and bring too much on board and get forced to gate check it, it better be stuff which is packed to withstand the luggage handlers. Also, the weight limit is a bit of a dance, as it doesn't count anything which you can stuff in your pockets. I have photographer friends who travel wearing a photographer's vest with much of their gear (uncomfortably) in the pockets. They also apparently allow you to sling a camera around your neck and not get weighed either.

No weight limit: Wedding Photographer Vest(1) and photographer, 2014

Hard limit: we're sharing a car with our good friends, and all of our collective stuff has to fit in the VW minivan. At the same time. Four large suitcases and four carry on thingees seems like it will fill the available space. Cheats like a photographer's vest won't help me here.

So Sally and I agreed on our groundrules: a single suitcase each, plus whatever we can carry onto the plane. Which, as we all know, is severely limited to a carry-on which doesn't exceed 17 lbs, plus a personal item like a pocketbook. For me, the carry on will be a backpack mainly filled with cameras; that's a whole 'nother post. And whatever fits in our respective suitcases is fine.

I'm really trying to keep my suitcase fillings down this time. I typically bring too many shirts and pants, then wind up wearing the same couple for the entire time (or forcing myself to wear them all just to say I did). But once I get past the number of days where re-use will be necessary, then entire equation changes anyway. You also need to deal with the non-clothing stuff: toiletries (minimal for a man, I know); medications for three weeks, chargers for all the electronics we're carrying (we need to charge 8 or 9 devices). Shoes are a problem for both of us. For me, because they're big and each pair takes up a lot of space in the bag. For her, because she needs a wider selection for different purposes.

I'll have just two shoes in the bag: trail sneakers, and some mesh sneakers that are good in the water. Plus the Top Siders I'll wear to travel. I think she's struggling to keep her shoe load to 8, which is actually pretty good.


(1) I swear: this vest is called the Wedding Photographer Vest ($199.95 + shipping) at The Vest Guy. I've been to a lot of weddings and have never seen a photographer dressed anything like this.

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans