Packing for a vacation

I like to travel light. But I don't travel with only my passport and I do have some clothes with me but not much. I mainly like to travel light because I'm not a very strong person, I just don't have the strenght to lift up a heavy bag, or to carry one up stairs or pulling one behind me on a road. So it's a whole lot easier to travel light. Also I must admit that being small myself and that I usually wear quite fitted clother makes it much easier to travel light. A pair of my trousers takes up about third of the space A's trousers do.

Typically I would take a small bag with wheels. But to the States where we were leaving I had planned some shopping so I took  bigger bag to have extra room for the souvenir.

I have a notebook where I've written a general list of things I need to pack with me. I have there a separate list for summer trip, fall/spring trip and winter trip. Also I have a separate list for a cabin trip. I've had these same lists for years. The lists are not very detailed. For example the list just says I need to pack shirts, it does not say how many shirts and what type. Since I have this permanent list on a notebook I don't strike over the things I've allready put in the luggage, I can remember what I've allready packed and what I have not packed.

I try to make sure I have done some laundry before the trip so I can choose what ever I want, also I try to make sure all the clothes I choose go well with each other, so I don't end up in a situation on the trip where I have only one shirt and one trousers left and they don't go well together.

For a weeks trip I take one pair of trousers in the luggage. Then I take maybe two to three undershirts or t-shirts. I don't change my shirt everyday even at home. I also take one or two long sleeved shirts, one lighter one and one warmer one. I take underpants ones per day of travel including the day of return. If the trip is longer than a week I only take about weeks worth of underpants and then I assume I can wash them in between somewhere. Socks I also take one pair per travel day. Then I do take one extra pair of shoes, incase it rains one day and shoes get wet. I hate wet shoes. What else... For this trip I did not take a towel, since we are staying in a hotel. Well I do take soap and shampoo and lotion with me. I have these in travel size containers and store them in a ziplock bag for situations when I've taken only hand luggage with me. Also I sometimes take flip flops with me even to city vacations, since the hotel showers can be quite gross sometimes. Now we had booked a room from a fancier hotel, so I left those home.

My packing style is to first fold and then roll all the clothes. I think in that way they don't wrinkle that much and are easy to retrieve from the bag. In the picture you don't see my underwear.

Since I now took a bigger bag with me and the stuff I put in there did not really fill the bag up I was left with some empty space. The bag does not have many compartments and the clothes would just flow around in the bag and get all wrinkly. At least by the time the throwers are moving the bag to the cargo the insides are going to get all mixed up and I don't want that.

I think I was quite a genius when I came up with an idea of using luggage strap to hold the clothes in place. There is a hard sheet on the bottom of the bag and I pushed the strap from underneath the sheet and over the clothes to make a nice bundle.

Perfect!

Oh and by the way later I added a small umbrella and cell phone charger and camera charger in to the bag and some pain killers.