Vacation Packing

I spent 15 minutes last night looking for an item of clothing that I wanted to pack for our trip. Then realized that I had it on. Did the same thing Friday looking for a certain pair of jeans to wear, only to realize that I had packed them already. There are downsides to packing early.

I was struck last night that I could fit all of my clothes and shoes into a carry on bag for a 10 day trip. I remember when I was just out of college and we'd go to Arizona every winter. I'd take a HUGE suitcase and carry on and a purse. Silly. Or I've just become a better packer/planner in all these years.

This trip I tried to take more casual clothes, rather than just jeans and t-shirts all the time. I also tried to plan so that my tops would fit with several pairs of pants/capris and in one general color group. Black, blue, white with a few pops of corally-red. So everything should mix and match. I'm taking a couple of pairs of black sandals to coordinate. Simple and makes life much easier.

The other thing that makes packing so much easier for me all the time is the ready to go toiletries bag. I keep a bag stocked with small sizes of all the things that I use in the bathroom. It's so easy to know that I have it there, that I don't have to scramble for it and that I have everything. During the summer when we camp a lot, I just refill the bottles every month. Honestly, if I needed to I could pack for an overnight in about 10 minutes because of that bag.

And the last tip for the day: pack your bathroom/make up items the night before you leave. When you get ready to leave the day of your vacation, get ready from the bag that you packed. It will tell you if you forgot something just by not having it while you're still in your house.