Written by The Strategy

 

The best part about travelling? Being somewhere different. The worst part about travelling? The packing, hands down. 

Not only does packing require weeks of planning and gathering your items together, it never ever feels like you’ve packed enough. Even when you know that you have overpacked. In our experience, its better to overpack just a little rather than not have what you need, but there is a severe overpacking disaster waiting to happen at any moment and that needs to be solved. 

Becoming an adult means that you have your life together enough, whether held by a ribbon or sheer will power, to know how to pack a suitcase. It’s a skill that can’t be taught, though it can be imitated. 

Books and blogs will tell you outlines of what to wear in cities all over the world, offering suggestions on what you should bring. They’re all very helpful to a certain extent. That extent is when it comes time to actually sit down and pack. 

The best way we’ve found to go about it is to throw everything you think you want to bring into your bag and organize from a starting point. If you aren’t one for planning daily outfits, it’s highly recommended that you bring your trusty favourites along for the journey. This way you have familiar pieces that you know how to work with and won’t be longing for something you left behind.

And no, you don’t need more than one pair of the same colour bottoms. Two pairs of jeans, blue and black, at the most are all that’s necessary. Same goes with t-shirts. Think of it this way: if you overload on basics, you have to cut down on everything else. And I would rather be able to fit in an extra pair of shoes than three more white t-shirts. 

Speaking of shoes, depending on the location and the stay, three sets have you more than prepared. A general rule of thumb is one casual everyday shoe, one nicer flat, and one heel or more formal shoe for evenings out.

It’s a game of give and take.

In-flight entertainment is a must, so keep a book or magazine in your carryon. And don’t pass up bringing an actual camera along with you. iPhone cameras are all fine and dandy, but there’s an added quality to having physical photographs.

Now to figure out a way to unpack efficiently…

Written by Katrina Garofalo