Packing It In
One of the reasons we’re going away for a year is to learn to live more simply, with less stuff. I’m in the process of dealing with our stuff — that is, deciding what to bring and how to carry it, and what to leave behind and where to store it — and discovering why packing is so complicated: It forces one to take stock of one’s life. Past, present and future collide while standing before an open closet. Each piece of stuff stirs memories from when it was acquired and the feelings attached, while questioning whether we need it triggers deliberations about priorities and daydreams about where we may go.
Every day I try to pack a little and end up making a mess. Take the bathroom cabinet, for example.
On it rests a first aid and toiletry checklist, divided into columns of items we’ll need every day and things we’ll need only in case of illness, and further subdivided into items for individual family members. The deep cabinet holds junk to throw away (e.g. smeared Halloween makeup, sticky cough syrup bottles with a quarter-inch of liquid, absurdly thick and long pads sent home from the hospital after childbirth). But what about all those lotions and cosmetics — what will I really need? Moisturizer and bug spray for Colorado camping, a certain hair clip and lipstick for Barcelona … should we take ibuprofen and acetaminophen, both the adult and pediatric kinds? What about the unopened ipecac purchased when the kids were babies? They managed to avoid accidental poisoning during the past decade, but who’s to say they won’t eat a bad berry when we’re in the boonies of Patagonia, and then what would I do? The mind flirts with worst-case scenarios — from swine flu to chopped-off fingers and snakebites — and pretty soon I’m sitting on the toilet, bent forward and clutching my stomach while further puzzling all the possibilities revealed by the half-emptied cabinet drawers, until I exit the bathroom and vow to deal with it later.
At times like that, it helps to have a guide. I have discovered several and want to recommend a couple here (more recommendations to come in future postings):
Onebag.com, “The Art and Science of Traveling Light” — my twentysomething nephew who recently trekked around India and China turned me onto this site. It’s built around the belief that you can go anywhere, for an indefinite amount of time, with a single carry-on bag — a philosophy more suited to solo travelers than families with young children, but extremely useful and inspirational nonetheless. Thanks to this site, we have downsized the number and changed the type of bags we plan to take.
We used to pull along two big rectangular bags on wheels — one for Morgan and me, a slightly smaller one for the kids — plus a third duffle loaded with shoes and bulky items. The 28-inch Tumi Alpha that Morgan and I shared retails for $950 and weighs 16 pounds empty. Often we would end up lugging the thing over stairs and curbs rather than wheeling it, and then paying an oversize-bag fee because it’s so heavy. After spending time on onebag.com and realizing how much weight a wheel frame adds to luggage, we decided to use smaller convertible packs. We also decided each child should be responsible for his or her own bag and therefore be able to carry it.
Morgan and I each bought one of these Osprey Porter 65 convertible packs (click on link to purchase). We're limiting the clothing we bring abroad to what we can carry on our backs.
After a lot of research and a trip to to REI, we settled on four from Osprey — two Porter 65s for Morgan and me, a smaller Porter 46 for Colly and a Sojourn 40 for Kyle (a small pack with wheels — he’s still too small to carry a pack of significant size). My new Osprey Porter weighs 3 lbs., 5 oz., costs $129, is small enough for carry-on and converts to a backpack. We’ll check all four of our packs while flying because we need to carry on these five other bags: a small suitcase that will hold school supplies, technical equipment, toiletries and Morgan’s laptop; my daypack that doubles as a purse and holds my laptop; Morgan’s daypack with his camera; and a small pack for each kid.
So, it comes down to this: We are challenging ourselves to fit all our stuff for nearly a year into just 4 packs, 1 carry-on-sized suitcase and 4 daypacks. (The first leg of our trip we’ll bring more stuff, since we’re driving to Colorado and taking along gear for camping, extra grubby clothes and the dog — but we had to think ahead to pare down for going abroad in early October.)
An essential guide for a year away (click to view on Amazon).
The Family Sabbatical Handbook: The Budget Guide to Living Abroad with Your Family by Elisa Bernick (The Intrepid Traveler, 2007) — I read this book cover to cover and marked many pages with Post-Its for easy reference. Her checklists are essential and her low-budget but highly fulfilling lifestyle is inspirational. All four of us took her advice to list the “three most important things” we would want with us while traveling — those comfort items and quirky things we wouldn’t want to do without. The exercise made us realize how little beyond money, plane tickets, passports and some medicine we really need. (It also made me realize we sound like an ad for Apple, which we don’t mean to be!)
Morgan’s three things: Iphone (which has an app that lets him read books loaded onto his Kindle), camera and running shoes.
Colly’s three things: Ipod, sketchpad with pencil (if Morgan can count his IPhone with Kindle as one, she can count the paper plus pencil as one!) and her favorite red Fred T-shirt.
Kyle’s three things: Ipod, sketchpad with pencil, and a small assortment of Star Wars Legos.
And mine: MacBook laptop, running shoes and my running log. The last item doubles as a diary; it’s a small calendar in booklet form I buy annually and have kept since 1994. Each day I jot down a sentence or two not only about miles run but also about mood, weather and whereabouts. Thumbing through past years and making an entry each day is my way of staying grounded and keeping track of how far I’ve come. It’s my life in shorthand, and I know I’ll want to preserve the 2009-10 editions.
Related posts:
- The Sappy Departure
- 83 Places, 5 Continents, 10 Months
- Essential Gear For Long-Term Travel
- So Long, Sedona and SoCal
- When It Rains…
Tags: family travel, luggage, packing, preparation, RTW travel, Sarah_Lavender_Smith, travel advice
I was thrilled to come across your neat blog to chronicle an even neater trip. I gotta say… you had me engrossed with the innards of your medicine cabinet. Now I can’t wait to read about all the fun once you get out of Piedmont! Happy travels!
Sarah, Fabulous website! Please come revamp mine! I am thrilled for all of you. Just get through the last couple of weeks of packing and then you can hit the road and the planning will be a distant, dim memory.
I look forward to following your travels.
There is so much I want to talk to you about; I find it hard to know where to begin. I can’t remember if we ever actually completed our blog entry on the ten essential items for a family travels, but here’s a start to the list:
1. Mosquito nets, double for us and singles for the kids. We used them multiple times. We got ours at REI.
2. Small roll of duct tape. I taped together a gashed tent for a few days and kept the mosquitoes out and our sleep was peaceful.
3. Pocket knife for everything including opening a picnic bottle of wine and slicing cheese
4. A headlamp came in handy for getting around on some dark nights.
5. Iodine water purification tablets
6. Light weight (ours are cotton) sleep sacks. Kids loved theirs and slept in them everywhere. Doug and I assessed conditions…
7. A well equipped first aid kit. Once Colin was attacked by dog on beach and it was helpful to have some bandages and betadine to clean out wounds and then wrap them up.
8. We carried antibiotics like amoxicillin, cipro.
9. Books (sounds like you have that covered). We love books that take place where we are visiting. I’ll send more on this topic later for Turkey/Greece. We swapped books along the way with people we met.
10. The boys lived in zip-off pants with long undies underneath for cold days. Bring many fewer clothes/stuff than you think. Go light!
We tend to visit and stay in a huge range of places/climates from comfortable hotels to more primitive camping spots and we have actually used all these items I have listed. REI is a great place for many of these items. I know that this list is not complete and I will keep thinking. We also tend to get off the beaten track, so all of it may not be applicable to your travels. I should add that Doug has a strong reaction to mosquitoes.
Carolyn, thank you so much for these tips! We cannot wait to see you.
To anyone else who is reading this: those words of wisdom come from a lifelong friend who relocated to New Zealand. Read her family’s blog at http://www.nzkirkpatricks.blogspot.com/.
Hi Sarah
I joined the Lonely Planet group you started.
We are wrapping up our year out.
You might like to read my blog
http://problemsathome.blogspot.com/
It’s ramblings rather than any mega structure and I’m IT illiterate so some of my photos have mysteriously disappeared…must investigate.
Enjoy your trip…I look forward to following it.
Noreen
Thanks, Noreen.
The Lonely Planet Group she refers to is http://www.lonelyplanet.com/groups/long-term-family-travel
Lonely Planet’s website has a Group section and I started a forum for long-term family travel and sabbatical, if anyone wants to check out the discussion there.
Hi Sarah
I’m just commenting on your stuff.
Remember you don’t need to bring it all with you.
You can buy en route…for example mozzy nets you won’t need for the first ?8 stops. So buy them locally.
The school supplies…can you sacn/upload most of it so you can print/download as required.
Probably a more expensive option but lighter.
Seems tough to lug it all over the world.
Laptops are an item that seem heavy and vunerable to theft. Have you considered just writing hard-copy and then transcribing/scanning in internet cafes?
Although we are in one hub with outward trips.
When we travel with the kids we have only our 2 big rucksacks and the kids carry little ones.
Our day sacks are tucked into the big sacks until required (on board for ex) I usually go by the 4 outfits per person rule and plan to launder after that…but a friend manages with 3 outfits per person. You’ll probably have to buy and discard as you change climates…but be prepared to layer the 3 outfits in a sudden cold snap.
If I think of anything else..I’ll type it.
I’m exccited for you and envious that you are starting and me finishing.