Long journeys with several connecting flights can be risky. If one flight is delayed, it can throw the rest into chaos, and you can end up with an unintended overnight stay in a foreign airport hotel.
If you’ve checked a suitcase, you may not be allowed to access that suitcase for this overnight stay, and you’ll be left wandering around the airport, trying to buy underwear and a toothbrush.
I learned this the hard way.
That’s why I try to travel with only carry-on luggage. Travelling this way can be a challenge. It takes a lot more planning, but the peace of mind is worth it.
It’s important to be precise and economical with the clothes I bring. Most of my travel is for work, and I need to carefully plan a range of outfits that will be suitable for the climate (my trips are usually cross-hemisphere), and for the events I’ll be attending.
These outfits need to pack down small (my daisy cardigan will likely never make it on a trip, sadly), and offer as much crossover of pieces as possible.
For anything other than clothing, I have a standard packing list that I duplicate for each trip. I do some minor customisations for the specific trip, but it stays largely the same.
But I like to sketch my clothes.
Sketching outfits that I’ll wear on the trip helps me to visualise what items go together, how many I’ll need, and which pieces will pack down in the most efficient way.
I use an iPad app called Goodnotes, and have a special notebook called “packing lists” that contains lists for all my trips. Using an app for these lists allows me to keep them in sync across devices, meaning I can refer to the lists on my computer, iPad, and iPhone. Also, keeping them all together lets me look back at previous trips and remind myself what I wore to various climates and locations.
Packing in this way has become pretty normal to me, but I do get quite a lot of questions about it!
This week, I’m travelling to Portland, Oregon for WordCamp US. See you there?
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