Travel

Love Traveling But Hate Packing?

Like any travel enthusiast I am always looking forward to my next travel adventure! I will look for an excuse to travel and will most likely get my friends involved in my schemes. However, I HATE PACKING! Doesn’t matter if I’m going away for 3 nights, or for a week or two, I dread packing and getting things together to take that trip.

Trust me, if I could I would totally go without packeting. But, that’s not the case.

What I’ve done, or at least tried to do, for every trip is to organize myself so the packing process is easy and quick.

Plan Ahead

We’ve all been there. You wait until the day before, or even the day of, to start packing and it is a total NIGHTMARE. It’s even worse if you have a plane to catch! Then, when you get to your destination, you realize you left a few things at home that were important to take and packed extra, maybe nonessential, items that took up more space.

I know it takes more effort and time, but it is worth it in the end if you plan ahead. The earlier you start planning the easier your life will be! Whether you’re the type of person who likes to plan things out a day in advance, or a week in advance, plan out how long you think you’ll need to to plan out your packing process.

This will truly help you to make a plan, list out all the things you would need or want to bring, and it will give you ample time to start getting your items together while staying organized! When it comes time to your trip, all you have to do is pack a few things from the morning or night of and you’re ready to travel!

Lesson: Try to not procrastinate packing, start planning early to avoid packing things in a very little amount of time.

Create a List

The first thing I do when I’m planning on traveling is to create a list. Personally, I like to create a note on my phone and create a list of things I need and want to bring with me. Once I start packing, I can easily check or click off on the items I packed so I can see what I’ve packed and what still needs to be packed.

You can write out the things you’ll bring on your trip on a piece of paper, a note pad, or type them on a document. Creating a list, no matter the formatting or medium you use to create it, will help you remain organized and save time when it comes time to packing.

What you’ll pack will depend on where you’re going, the type of climate, what you plan on doing while traveling, and so on.

But the list above is just an example of how I tried to organize the items I needed for my recent trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. It’s like a guide, but like with any guide you’re more than welcome to tweak it to meet your needs and travel plans.

Get Your Organizer

If you have your own organization system, then by all means follow it! There are travel pouches you can use, travel sized cases, plastic or zip lock bags, and many other choices to help organize everything you’ll need on your trip from clothes to toiletries, hygiene, and technology. You can find options on Amazon, travel stores, Vera Bradley, and so many other places.

I use a wide range of organizers for my trips such as passport/wallet organizers, travel organizer pouches, I’ve used zip lock bags for travel by plane, and plastic bags. What I use as my organizer will depend on the trip I’m taking and how I’m traveling.

There are also packing cubes or organizers you can purchase, that aren’t too expensive, that will help you greatly with organizing your clothing or any items you want to pack. The packing cubes I purchased off Amazon were about $20 and came with 3 compression cubes. One large one and two smaller ones.

How do they work? You unzip the top and bottom portion of the cube. In the top portion, you put your clothes and any other items you want in there that will fit. After that, zip the top part and the bottom part of the tube. The bottom part is the “compression” part and will downsize the height of the cube so it’s smaller looking. And there you go!

I packed a week’s worth of clothing into the large cube and my workout clothing into the smaller cube. And I still had room in my suitcase to put other items in there.

Get Your Carry On or Suitcase

Last but not least, you’ll need your carry on/suitcase or whatever you use when traveling. Depending on where I’m going and for how long I’ll take either my suitcase or backpack. But I also have a duffle bag, drawstring bag, and other things to pack my stuff into as well.

For my trip to Myrtle Beach I chose my suitcase as it was more convenient and easier for me since I was traveling for a week. Depending on where you’re traveling to, and how long you plan on being there, will determine what you’re putting your items into.

Regardless of what you’re taking, make sure there are extra compartments and space inside to put the remainder of your items into. If you decided to use a packing cube, zip lock bags, or any other preferred method then most of the hard work is done. All that’s left are the additional things that you didn’t pack in the organizers.

Happy packing!