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One of the hardest things about traveling can be all the items you are required to keep with you and keep track of through your excursion to another city, state, or even country. While it may be easy to think that the familiar things you bring from home can be a comfort to you while you’re far away, in reality, it’s probably simpler to pack light.
After all, if your trip is already planned and you have everything lined up to rent a cottage in Maine, chances are you won’t need a lot of things. While you’re there you’ll want to relax, read a book, visit the ocean, and check out the sites. Packing light is the way to go.
Think about it — when you’re on vacation or traveling for business, the last thing you want to do is keep track of a million things or have to drag, lift and heave a gigantic bag everywhere. This is especially the case if you’re traveling with children. So even though you’re tempted to pack everything but the kitchen sink, take the time to apply a few of these helpful hints that’ll undoubtedly help smooth out your trip.
Ask yourself what you really need
It can be difficult to pare down your packing, especially if you are traveling to a place where you’re unsure if the weather will have mighty mood swings. But for the most part in spring and summer, you can bet that you’ll need one jacket. The farther north you go, the heavier the jacket should be. If you can get by with a lighter jacket and layering with a sweatshirt, by all means, go for that.
Ultimately, you can wear jeans — which take up a lot of luggage space — more than one time, and if you pack just a few basic shirts that go well with different accessories, you can swap out accessories to create new outfits rather than having to pack several different ensembles.
Pack one nice pair of shoes, one set of tennis shoes, and, if you’re going to a warmer climate, one pair of sandals. You will really only need one or two sweaters or sweatshirts, which you can re-wear. Consider choosing sweaters that match more than one button-up shirt, and you can create different outfits by mixing up the button-ups.
Lose the packaging
Now that TSA regulates the size of liquids on planes, it’s a no-brainer that you should consolidate your toiletries. Those travel bottles were nice even before they were required. Small snack sized Ziplock bags are perfect for this. You can also transfer vitamins and other medications.
Just remember to write on the outside of the bag what kind of medicine it is, and, if necessary, the proper dosage. It may not seem like much, but in reality, any little bit of space saved will add up.