As a lady, any journey, regardless of time and location requires a carefully thought out process to attempt to answer the age old question: “what do I wear?” This question alone conjures up endless possibilities of outfits and options and “What If” scenarios that one must be prepared for.
Short dress, long dress, heels, flats, sneakers, bikinis, jeans, shorts, accessories, blow dryers, flat irons, and I suddenly feel guilty when I overpass a certain item in my closet that will not make its way into my suitcase. How can this awesome shirt miss out on this vacation? I must bring it, surely there will be a place and time for it on my trip.
Leave no man behind.
Once that long and painful process is done, I find myself tightly packed and proudly standing next to at least 3 suitcases that are screaming “oh sweet Jesus” and are about ready to burst at the seams at any moment in time. So what if I had to sit on a few of them to zip them up? The point is they’re all in there right?
Needless to say, this exact scene was replicated every single time I chose to travel anywhere up until it was time to head off for my honeymoon.
We stood in the airport. I’m filled with excitement about our upcoming trip. He’s filled with shock and awe at the sheer mass of my suitcases that have completely dwarfed his iddy biddy teeny weeny blue carry-on. I immediately asked him: “Is that all you’re taking?”
His response: “is THAT ALL you’re taking?!”
I will spare you the gruesome details of the conversation that took place after those words were exchanged. I will also spare you the many tears I had to hold back as the decision was made that I was simply not going to travel with this much luggage.
But I will say this:
As I shot him death stares and “evil bitch vibes” he proceeded to explain to me gently that it was simply not possible to take this much luggage because the tiny boat we were planning on taking to transport us to the island would sink. Second of all, there was no second of all – the daym boat will sink lady…
How can you argue with that? Well, trust me, I tried but in the end I got down on my hands and knees, in the middle of the airport and emptied out my suitcases – like a true Egyptian in those horrific scenes we’ve all seen at the airport. The ones where you shake your head in pity. I was that chick trying to fit 3 suitcases worth of love into a small carry-on.
As I was trying to painfully eliminate my clothes ‘off the island” (literally) it hit me that there was a lot of useless shit in there that I knew I wasn’t going to wear.
I knew he was right but I wasn’t about to admit it at that point. I continued to huff and puff with every item I sifted through and we left my suitcases in the airport lockers and took off.
Honestly, it secretly felt great to travel that light – especially when we landed and just exited the airport right away. I almost felt like I was forgetting something since I no longer had to wait for endless hours for my luggage to make its way through the conveyor belts.
It was a whole new level of travel, and surprisingly, I actually wore everything I took with me and it was exactly what I needed.
I probably will still never reach his level of traveling ‘light’ – this is a man who happily takes 3 pairs of socks on a 2 week trip – but I can proudly say that I have never traveled with more than one suitcase since.
The next time we traveled, we were planning on chilling with friends on another random island, and then we were planning on heading to Nepal to trek to Everest Base Camp.
How did I pack you ask?
Everything for that 2 week trip fit into his hiking bag – yup. I was officially an adventurer and it felt great. I traded my blow dryer for ‘wild hurr dont curr’ and traded my carefully planned outfits for mismatched ones for a funky traveler’s style that makes for some pretty cool pics.
I am now a believer that less truly is more when it comes to packing for a trip and you would be surprised how well you can do without all the fluff and stuff.
Not only does it inspire you to be creative with your outfits but it saves you less time preparing – which means more time having fun.
