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Packing Optimally
Jul. 24th, 2022 09:13 amOne of the things I take pride in, as a frequent traveler, is the ability to pack well. That means not just packing quickly but also, more importantly, packing optimally. Take too little, often because you forget something, and you're without something possibly important and may have to spend time and money buying it while on travel. Take too much and you're slowed down the whole trip with excess baggage. That's particularly important in travel like our Colorado earlier this month where we drove hundreds of miles and changed hotels most days.
I've read that the average traveler on a week-long trip packs 3 entire outfits they never wear. By that standard I've always done well. This trip I packed zero outfits I never wore.
There were a few other items I packed but didn't use, including a sweater and a pair of sandals. I packed both a light jacket and a sweater, prepared for the chance of more cooler weather, especially high in the mountains and/or at night. It turned out even the cooler weather was warmer than I expected. Something about record-breaking heat across much of the Western US. And that pair of sandals.... It was actually a second pair of sandals, a backup in case my main pair finally called it quits mid-trip.
On the flip side of the coin, one item I didn't pack but wish I had was my lightweight rain jacket. It turned out I didn't need it; although we did get rain, my light jacket was enough for the light rain that fell on us while we were hiking. When pouring rain fell, which did happen one afternoon on our trip, we were already indoors. Though if that storm had arrived an hour earlier, or we had been hiking an hour later, I would have gotten soaked.
"Why not just pack everything you might need?" some people ask. Rookie question. Dragging around larger bags, or additional bags, to hold lots of "Just in case" stuff slows you down.
What if you take so much stuff it doesn't fit in the taxi to the airport or your rental car one you arrive? These might seem like extreme hypotheticals, but I've seen them both happen... including on this trip! We threw out one of our suitcases on Day Two because it was in poor condition and wasn't fitting well in our rental car. And I have been past trips where passengers had to sit bunched up because bags were on seats, or had to sit with bags on their laps, because the rental car wasn't big enough to hold everything brought. On a trip like this one, that would've been catastrophic.
I've read that the average traveler on a week-long trip packs 3 entire outfits they never wear. By that standard I've always done well. This trip I packed zero outfits I never wore.
There were a few other items I packed but didn't use, including a sweater and a pair of sandals. I packed both a light jacket and a sweater, prepared for the chance of more cooler weather, especially high in the mountains and/or at night. It turned out even the cooler weather was warmer than I expected. Something about record-breaking heat across much of the Western US. And that pair of sandals.... It was actually a second pair of sandals, a backup in case my main pair finally called it quits mid-trip.
On the flip side of the coin, one item I didn't pack but wish I had was my lightweight rain jacket. It turned out I didn't need it; although we did get rain, my light jacket was enough for the light rain that fell on us while we were hiking. When pouring rain fell, which did happen one afternoon on our trip, we were already indoors. Though if that storm had arrived an hour earlier, or we had been hiking an hour later, I would have gotten soaked.
"Why not just pack everything you might need?" some people ask. Rookie question. Dragging around larger bags, or additional bags, to hold lots of "Just in case" stuff slows you down.
What if you take so much stuff it doesn't fit in the taxi to the airport or your rental car one you arrive? These might seem like extreme hypotheticals, but I've seen them both happen... including on this trip! We threw out one of our suitcases on Day Two because it was in poor condition and wasn't fitting well in our rental car. And I have been past trips where passengers had to sit bunched up because bags were on seats, or had to sit with bags on their laps, because the rental car wasn't big enough to hold everything brought. On a trip like this one, that would've been catastrophic.
