beauty in a bag.
PACKING. my first big hurdle & definitely my least favorite part about this whole world adventure. well besides the whole leaving behind everything i know and love thing.... but we will get to that later.
So for those of you who don’t know, my mom is known to joke about how much i love packing. since i was little i would always obsess about what I was going to bring and make all these lists like a week before the trip…
but i guess the first step to getting over an obstacle is admitting you have a problem, sooo here it is.. I LOVE MY CLOTHES AND I CANT CHOOSE WHAT TO BRING BECAUSE I HAVE A CERTAIN PLACE IN MIND FOR EACH OUTFIT AND I WANT MY KIDS TO LOOK BACK ON THESE PICTURES AND BE LIKE “DAMN MOM YOU WERE COOL! LOOK AT ALL YOUR AWESOME CLOTHES”. okay so the last part may be a bit dramatic but seriously, i can’t with this packing thing. I’ve always struggled with deciding what to wear, hence the lists and what not. How can one girl totally give up her sense of fashion just because her bag may be way too big to actually carry around the world. isn’t there a saying ladies?! beauty is pain? ugh. well i definitely don’t want to be in pain either. so i guess I’m going to do what i do best. figure it out.
Below is my advice for packing for a RTW ('round the world) trip. I figured I would share this process for those of us who just can’t part with our fashion sense...
THE GEAR:
- Dueter 70L Backpack
- High Sierra access backpack
- A LOT of 1 and 2 gallon Ziploc bags (because when you are ballin on a budget those work just as good as packing cubes) **disclaimer: bring extra they only last about a month.**
STEP ONE:
- pull out all the clothes you think you want to take with you, don’t hold back anything!!
- separate the clothes and put them into categories (tops,pants, sweaters, shorts, swimwear, intimates, shoes etc…)
- after organizing, see what you still need to buy for your adventure and make a shopping list. yay! but don’t overbuy or the struggle will be even more REAL.
STEP TWO:
- attempt packing everything and see what fits. I promise you, if you’re anything like me, barley half will fit and you will be super bummed. BUT, all is good! because deep down, you know there are some clothes in there that need to go.
- so again, take everything out of your backpack and reevaluate the clothing. try and take out three things from each section of clothing.
** I had a picture of this step (my room in complete chaos) but as i was updating my phone all my photos were lost and i already cleaned my room soo you’re just going to have to imagine this one.
STEP THREE:
- DO NOT GIVE UP!! you will eventually be able to sort through clothes and see what really is necessary. It took my four separate evaluations before i could zip up and carry my backpack.
STEP FOUR:
- Don’t forget to try on your backpack before you say “ I’M DONE!!!!!!!” because it may be way too heavy….then you’ll have to reevaluate some more haha. Luckily for me, this only happened once.
But after countless efforts, your hard work WILL pay off and the amount of relief that will come can only be experienced. So, if you’re like me at all, and you’re having a hard time with packing, just remember, you’re not alone. and YOU GOT THIS!
