A dreaded activity for many and a welcome problem for few, I have always enjoyed packing for trips. As I started to recall just what I deemed appropriate for the Ultimate Female Packing List for Italy on Her Packing List this week, I remembered some of my painful packing errors. While I had tried to push those incidents out of my memory, they are always there, tugging at me and reminding me there is no such thing as a travel packing pro. Packing is a something I think you don’t get down with one trip, or even two. It takes a great deal of time to master, and even when you have gone pro, you still have those items you never wear or the shoes that kill your feet.
Perhaps in hopes of releasing all of that bad packing karma from countless errors throughout my travels, I have assembled some of the moments when I have faltered in the packing department. I always go back to Ötzi, the Iceman found preserved along with his belongings in a glacier between Austria and Italy. His backpack along with the items he packed for his journey is now immortalized in a museum. What you carry does in fact carry you. If I tumbled into a glacier with my suitcase, I wouldn’t want anyone to see these packing mistakes in a museum.
If I can successfully lift a bag over my head, I can bring it.
Three Suitcases For 5 Months in Sicily
I might be most ashamed of this packing mistake. I was headed to Sicily for a semester in college, my first time abroad for an extended period of time. I could not pare down what I wanted to bring, so much so, I brought three suitcases. Arriving to that small airport in Catania, I looked mostly ridiculous as my ride laughed and mumbled in Sicilian dialect. While I had a wealth of options that semester for clothes, it made it next to impossible to move all three of those bags.
Lesson Learned: Even for long trips, don’t ever bring more bags than you have hands.
Look at all of those unnecessary bags!
The Shoes That Weren’t Made For Walking in England
My first few moments in Europe for the first time were not spent enjoying the beauty of London, but rather enjoying a London shoe store. At the last minute, at 8 years old mind you, I threw in a pair of shoes I desperately wanted to bring. Why? I don’t know, as they were gingham-printed shoes. I had never worn these killer shoes. They attacked my feet and didn’t make walking possible. I found myself in a London shoe store, buying the ugliest of shoes with my mom as we tried to figure out European sizes.
Lesson Learned: Never pack shoes you have never worn before.
Packing For The Season I Wanted
Just because you are in a place that you think of as warm year round, doesn’t mean it will be. When I studied in Florence for a semester, I thought the extent of their winter would be a little rain but bearable temperatures. Just like my other packing errors, this thinking did not work in my favor when I froze February through April in one of Florence’s closest winters.
Lesson Learned: Don’t pack for the season you are hoping for, but rather check the weather before you start loading up your bag with flip-flops and T-Shirts.
All of The High Heels I Have Ever Packed
I have finally learned that high heels and traveling simply don’t mix. However, for a time, I would always through in a pair or two. At the end of a trip, I would find high heels were always the items I promised myself I would never pack again. I never end up wearing them. Cobblestone or no cobblestone, high heels are not meant for walking in a new place.
Lesson Learned: If you are not a high heel person at home, you are not a high heel person when you travel.
The Cheap Tote Bag Problem
For a while in my traveling career, I would purchase a new tote bag to carry my computer, wallet and other important items. The night before I would try packing this tote bag and always have some sort of zipper fiasco. Whether it was not big enough to fit all of my important items or poor with weight distribution so much so I thought I would lose an arm lugging this monster around, cheap tote bags are never the way to go.
Lesson Learned: Just like shoes, try out your main bag you will be toting the majority of the time before you take off. It if it kills your arm at home or has a cheap zipper, it will break or cost you an arm.
What is your worst packing error? Have you ever repeated the same packing mistake twice?
Wise words, Suzy. I think my worst packing mistake is always the same: packing for the season I want. Even if I’m going home!
Although I’ve packed dozens and dozens of bags in the last few years, and just when I think I got it right, bam! there goes the wrong pair of shoes or the least warm coat.
I made the mistake of going to eastern Canada in april, and expecting European spring. Wearing a t-shirt in the snow was pretty bad 😉
Oh, I’ve made the mistake of packing for “the weather I want” far too many times!! And it always happens when I travel to England. You’d think I’d learn by the third time…haha
Still shopping this idea around: What if hostels provided high heels for travelers?
For some reason I often pack new shoes on a trip, and then I either never wear them, or I wear them too much and it just becomes painful. I think I’ve finally learned to break in a new pair of shoes first before travelling with them.
I love all of your packing posts and I’d like to feature this one as my Post of the week on Sunday
Abigail
TheVanGelders.com
Words to travel by: only bring as many bags as you have arms! Love it. I think I have some sort of packing fiasco on every trip, something I have forgotten or something that once I arrive, I realize just doesn’t travel very well. Usually it involves my vanity and wanting to look cute, which never turns out very practical.
Right on Suzy! We believe firmly in what we call the “one trip rule” – never carry anything that you can’t get in one trip! Agreed – “don’t ever bring more bags than you have hands.” You never want to leave things in lobbies, cabs or curbside.
When we pack, we think layers, layers, layers. Summer clothes can easily be winter clothes if you put enough of them on! -David
WORST PACKING MISTAKE:
The first time I went to europe was for a two and a half week tour through three countries in the heat of July with a highschool class. I forgot to pack any bras except for the useless old white one I was wearing! I ended up washing it with handsoap in a cramped hotelroom in Nice because I couldn’t take it anymore. Needless to say, that ratty (now-gray) thing was thrown out the moment we landed stateside!
Haha, I love your quote on being a heel person. I have done this countless times – packing both shoes and clothing I would never wear at home, as if a trip to a foreign place is the best opportunity to start dressing and acting like another person.
I stumbled upon your blog by chance (thank you Twitter) today, and I love it! You’re in my reader, looking forward to seeing what you’re up to 🙂
Cheers, Kjersti