How often were you ready to travel but running around your house, looking for your favorite sweater or trying to make it all fit in your bag ? You know, when Murphy’s Law hits you hard: Uber in front of the house, rain pouring outside, running late to catch your plane and all ! Don’t worry, I’ve been there more than once, and today I’ll be sharing with you some of the things I do constantly.
- Plan ahead !
I know what you’re thinking “Oh my god I can’t believe I clicked on this link for such a dumb advice”. But you know what ? Almost everyone packs at the last minute ! So if you travel with nothing but a handbag or if you have more OCDs than I do, go straight to step 2.
Meanwhile, what I do now is that I get my bags ready one week in advance if I have to move all of what I own in one go. This way I can weigh everything (no way my check-in bags can exceed 23kgs) and just keep what I truly need out. Second thing is absolutely paramount: get all of your logistic planned 3 days before. Is the bus absolutely necessary or would an Uber/taxi be more convenient without spending too much ? Maybe I could share a ride somehow ?
Most importantly, planning ahead and packing over 2-3 days takes a lot of the stress away. My girlfriend always freaks out when we have to move, and this has been helping a lot.
Sorry, but this is real life
- Vacuum storage bags
Your bag volume might be your major issue, and fine engineering came up with the perfect easy solution: vacuum storage bags. They’re very helpful for all of your clothing, towels or anything like that. In the best cases you could save a good 40% of your bag volume, and then stash those amazing chocolate cookies you found in South America. These bags also protect your stuff from dust, water or even bugs !
What’s also very convenient is that almost any vacuum cleaner will do the trick. So, unless you end up unpacking everything in a remote island of the Philippines, you should be fine.
Is it D-day already ?!
- E-readers
An other article I wrote already discussed the benefits of owning an e-reader, but more from an environmental point of view. I often used to bring along 3-4 books with me when traveling; who knows how long that train might actually take ! But this many books take up a lot of space and weight, when an e-reader is basically nothing and can store hundreds of articles !
They are a great way to save at least a kilo, depending on your reading hunger, without sacrificing culture ! Unfortunately this doesn’t apply to travel guides, so you will have to carry it anyway 😉
Note: This blog post was first published on my blog DNAdventures : https://blog.dnadventures.com