Packing for a Vacation

A great perk of booking a vacation early is anticipating your trip, dreaming about what you will do and sharing your plans with friends. As your embarkation date approaches, however, you must face a task most of us don't savor: packing.

I fortunately am married to one of the greatest suitcase packers in the world, and I have learned a lot from her, which I am always happy to share.

As a starting point, think about how many days you will be gone and what you will be doing on those days. Many people, dreading the prospect of packing, simply toss all their favorite clothes into two or three large suitcases and figure they'll sort it out when they get to their room. That is NOT a good plan. Surprisingly, this often results in having everything except exactly what you need. At best, you're in a situation where you must sift through tons of stuff that you don't need searching for that particular item you want to wear, not to mention the time and effort to unpack and repack the bags. Make a list of what you will need for each day. Things like underwear and socks are obvious, as are toiletries.

After you have that initial list, look for flexibility of your items. T-shirts, for example, can be nightshirts, undershirts for warmth, regular clothing for casual days and also pool wear. Even if you show that you need three each day, three for an entire week will probably be plenty. Sometimes, you might want to pack fewer and leave some room in your suitcase to buy souvenir t-shirts on your trip. One white dress shirt with two different ties works for two formal nights as well as bringing two different shirts, unless you're looking for a spread in GQ. Items like reversible belts and sneakers that double as hiking shoes and pool wear save space.

Color coordinate your trip. It may sound boring to try to keep your clothing in a scheme like browns and greens or blues and blacks, but it saves on how many pairs of shoes you bring as well as giving you flexibility in mixing and matching clothes to create different outfits. Black pants worn with a gold and black print shirt gives a different look than the same pants with a light grey polo. For cooler climates, figure on dressing in layers, which makes the same outer wear work in a variety of situations by simply adding more layers. Pajama bottoms, by the way, work well as an extra layer of insulation beneath jeans or ski pants. Applying principles of flexibility to your original list should cut your packing by a third to a half, especially if you tend to pack lots of shoes.

In terms of actually putting stuff into the bags, that is where my wife truly excels. Rolling sweaters and shorts rather than folding them tends to keep them less rumpled. Putting items like suits and dress shirts on the bottom of the case with half hanging out over the edge allows you to place the rolled items in the middle and then fold the suit back over the top to be enclosed in the case. Surprisingly, this generally keeps the suit as neat as a hanging bag.

If you've done your job correctly, you should be able to pack enough clothes to last a week into a small, rolling suitcase that will fit in the overhead storage compartment of an airline, and thereby eliminate the risks of checking luggage. Of course, new regulations limit the amount of liquids and gels you can carry on a plane, so be sure to buy some of those small containers of toothpaste and other toiletries, which must be placed in a clear baggie, in order to avoid being forced to check your bags or lose your full sized containers. Actually, you probably should have a second carry-on item like a back pack in which to carry your toiletries, a book, a swimsuit and a few other essentials, just in case the airline forces you to check your bag despite your best efforts.

As a bonus, when you return from your trip, you don't have to unpack several bags and wash unnecessary loads of laundry.

I know. Some people are like my mother, for whom the clothes they bring makes the trip for them. They love planning their wardrobe, and while they may overpack, they look fabulous every day and consider this a highlight of the vacation. If that is you, then you probably enjoy packing, and you can disregard this advice. You might want to consider a service that will ship your bags to your cruise ship or hotel to avoid the hassles of dragging your bags through airports.