Why Can’t You Pack a Bag?
Why Can't You Pack a Bag?
A writer recounts her lifelong struggle with packing, from a disastrous trip involving smuggled sausages to her discovery of the onebag subculture. She reflects on the psychological and practical challenges of packing, the allure of minimalist travel, and how mastering packing became a metaphor for a more organized life.
Travel is symbolic, and bad packing undermines the sense of freedom it ideally brings.
- nayuki
- gensym
The advantages of packing light aren't always obvious[1] until you experience them, so you can pretty much tell someone's level of travel experience by how small their luggage is. I've yet to meet someone who packs more and more stuff based on past experience.
As the article mentions, good fabrics (like merino wool) can go a long way.
(1) Reliability and flexibility being foremost. Not having to worry about lost luggage. Itinerary changes are much easier when all your stuff is with you and can fit on your lap or under your seat. Then comes the comfort and speed. Being able to take the stairs or not blinking an eye at walking an extra half mile go a long way towards making travel enjoyable.
- AlotOfReading
I really don't understand what people are putting in the 2-3 large suitcases I see them struggling to shove in overhead. For one, rolling luggage is usually a mistake for anyone who's not flight crew.
I bring a week's worth of thin clothes that layer. If I need more, I'm either washing by hand or using a service. Basic toiletries, an e-reader, phone, keys, charger bricks, a notebook/pens, daypack. It fits into an underseat backpack with room to spare.
This has scaled fine all the way up to multi-month scientific expeditions in remote locations. Sometimes I need to accommodate specialized equipment like formal clothes/shoes, camera bodies/lenses, excavation equipment, tent, water purification, sleeping pad/bag, etc, but that's solved through the magic of bringing a slightly larger bag.
- srean
Unless I have to travel to a destination with a drastically different weather or I have to stay longer than ten days, it usually takes me no more than 15 to 20 minutes to get packed.
With my undiagnosed ADHD I usually start an hour or two before my airport cab.
My problem is not what to pack or that I pack too many things but to actually begin the process of packing.
- SoftTalker
> I had my worst-ever packing experience in the late nineties, when I was a teen-ager.
Is hyphenating a word like teenager a New Yorker idiosyncracy? Or is that a "soft" hyphen that crept into the final article copy?
On the topic of packing, my advice is to roll your clothes instead of folding them. Rolling avoids wrinkles and allows more space-filling options. That plus the general advice of packing just a few universally-appropriate items. If you really need something else you can always buy it locally and then discard it (or something else) when you pack for the return trip.