Some Notes on Packing.. and why its so damned hard!

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had...*counts" five suitcases. Well.. I say suitcases:  it was actually two enormous wheeled holdalls. one huge suitcase, one small one bought two trips ago because I couldn't cram everything I wanted to take with me into one of the giant holdalls.. and the one I bought on my last but one trip that came with a matching weekend bag and toiletries case.  Five cases....  and three of them easily large enough to hold enough clothes and necessities for two normal people for a two-week holiday.

Now.. admittedly, I was going to be staying for longer than that:  and a couple of the trips were made in winter, so I needed to have sweaters and boots (ahem.. well.. maybe I didn't NEED the boots.. but hey.. girls do this stuff)  but I really needed to get a grip.... dragging a 23 kg holdall, an 18 kg carry on case, AND a handbag the size of Wales around 3 airports was ridiculous.

It isn't exactly that I don't know how or what to pack.. but because of my 'condition'  my packing has been somewhat.. eclectic. I like to have a variety of outfits.. a couple of casual things.. flat shoes. maybe something a little more formal in case of unexpected nights out: nightwear or a robe in case of late-night/early morning fire alarms (having been around on a couple of occasions in my distant past where that happened, and caught one or two nude sleepers unawares... I really don't fancy traipsing out to a windy carpark at 3 am wrapped only in a bath towel... or a sheet) a handful of teeshirts: sweater.. underwear...  so I set out with the best of intentions. What tends to happen is that I open the case a few days before I'm due to leave, and find that somehow, although I have stuck to my formula, I have managed to cram in at least 3 different versions of each outfit: so that it looks like I packed for 3 people: one of whom is a 3 year old with no eye for colour...  

Fortunately, I have my own version of OCD: so before every trip I take, even just an overnight visit, I will pack and re-pack a bag perhaps half a dozen times.. laying out everything I had originally packed, and switching items around: removing what I feel I don't need, or am just taking 'in case'...  the last re-pack usually being the day/night before the trip, to catch any last-minute changes, or bits that have managed to sneak in when I wasn't paying attention.  

I was challenged, (actually, it was more like requested)  for the last trip, to see whether I couldn't reduce everything down to just one case, and maybe a handbag. I have to admit that although that did leave me a little anxious, I was curious to see whether it might actually be possible.....   it was. Kind of.  it took a lot of willpower, and a little brutal honesty: but when I headed off for the station this time, it was with a single, small suitcase: its matching overnight/carry on bag (about the size of a large handbag) and a laptop bag. I was, I'm a little embarrassed to say, oddly proud of myself:  especially as when my bag was weighed at the airport, it came in at less than 13 kg.. it felt odd, in the best way, to be heading for the security checks carrying only one bag: but the speed that I was through the checks, and off to my gate was a real eye opener, and I had an unaccustomed pang of achievement when I was able to slide both of my carry on items under the seat in front of me on the plane (no more struggling to drag an unwieldy bag into and out of the overhead locker when I wanted to find another book: or a sweater... it was a real epiphany.)  So.. this time, I want to see just how small a case I can get away with. One small carry on size bag? maybe. whatever I do pack, though I know I'm NOT going to be taking the enormous, clumsy behemoths that I have previously had to manhandle through an exhausting assault course of trains, stairs, lifts, belts, cabs and uneven pavements.  I have already given one away:  another is now filled with the flotsam that I regularly sort to be given away to charity shops, and tucked away in my storage area: and the third is currently acting as an additional wardrobe for all those lightweight, bright outfits that only ever emerge when its warm enough NOT to turn my fingers blue..  I finally found, after all these years, that I LIKE travelling light:  it has its own kind of exhilaration: its own aspect of risk..   and, well... no-one ever died from a shortage of teeshirts.. and they sell deodorant and sunscreen in OTHER countries, right?