Day 208/365: Friday's Unscientific Poll: Packing

[nanila]

Yes, I have reduced this to a binary choice. I realise not everyone will feel as passionately about this as I do, and there may even exist some strange folk who are utterly indifferent to packing. But I had to pack today, and am therefore having Strong Feelings about packing.

Poll #20273 Packing

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48

View Respondents

Do you enjoy packing for journeys?

View Answers

Yes, I love packing! Making lists, fitting everything into suitcases and bags, decanting stuff into smaller containers, etc.
14 (29.2%)

No. I loathe packing. If I could get away with carrying nothing but a form of ID, phone and cash/credit card for every trip henceforth, I would.
34 (70.8%)

As I've documented before, I despise packing for journeys. I favour traveling lightly so am a one-suitcase-max kind of gal for longer trips. In my heady single/childless days, I used to deal with my hatred of packing via extreme procrastination and would pack drunkenly at 3 AM the night before. This resulted in things like regularly forgetting underwear and going commando for five days. Fun times.

Alas, I have to take more care these days and am therefore obliged to make lists and ensure that everyone has their toothbrushes and an adequate supply of clothing. Camping is even worse (we're going camping this weekend). I would never go camping if I were the one making the decision. I'm fine with it once I get there, but packing for it is the worst.

But yes. When I am an old lady, I shall never pack for a journey. I shall bring my ID, phone, cash/credit card (if indeed we are still using things like that by then) and whatever fits in my small handbag. Everything else I will buy when I get there. Or do without. Like underpants. Yep. Crazy old lady with no underpants, that's totally gonna be me.

Comments

[rmc28]

I don't mind packing, I don't especially hate it, it's just another task in the never-ending list of Things To Do.

[lilysea]

Yes, I have reduced this to a binary choice. I realise not everyone will feel as passionately about this as I do, and there may even exist some strange folk who are utterly indifferent to packing.

I read this and thought it was about *packing* eg when trans men and genderqueer folk tuck a silicone etc penis into their undies when going about their day to help with gender dysphoria.

[antisoppist]

I spend a week beforehand laying clothes out on my bedroom floor until I have the right absolute minimum combination of garments for the number of days and potential weather, and then I double check, and then the morning I am leaving, I put them all in a rucksack/small suitcase. I find this quite satisfying.

The kids have packed for themselves since the age of about five. Most places sell pants. We have discovered.

[lilysea]

I LOATHE packing, but I need to carry a lot of stuff with me when I go anywhere, due to
disability
chronic illness
pain
allergies...

I even need to take a CPAP machine with me for overnight stays so I keep breathing! :(

[delight]

This resulted in things like regularly forgetting underwear and going commando for five days. Fun times.

Did this one going to Martha's Vineyard once, except I absolutely HATE not wearing underwear because OCD. So it was alternating going commando and then once the underwear I had washed in the sink dried, putting it back on.

[cmcmck]

Wouldn't say I much enjoy packing but nor do I loathe it- it's just something that needs to be done.

[redbird]

I wouldn't say "loathe," but it's not fun either: I always forget something, and sometimes that thing is important for the trip. I miss the days when I could comfortably travel light. Camping would be worse, because on my usual trips I comfort myself with the fact that there will be stores at the other end, if I forget to bring toothbrush and toothpaste, or menstrual supplies, or enough underpants.

Not fitting into the commonest clothing sizes for some of the basics complicates this question. Underpants or socks I'll probably be able to find; bras and pants are more difficult. So even on short trips I pack a pair of pants (or shorts, if it's really hot), in case of damage to the ones I'm wearing. (For these purposes, getting a pair of pants soaked, or an ugly/smelly/obvious food spill, counts as "damage.")

[nou]

I’m absolutely fine with actual packing, but I hate the anxiety dreams I get about it.

[slemslempike]

In theory I like packing and fitting everything in, in practice I wait until the last minute and shove everything I can find in wilylnilly.

[hamsterwoman]

I submitted to your poll's binary, but there are definitely some portions of packing I enjoy a lot more than others. I do find making lists for packing satisfying, though, and I do genuinely love actually fitting stuff into suitcases, as an optimization problem.

Enjoying packing is definitely aided by a couple of things that haven't always been the case:

- not having to pack baby stuff any longer, oh my god, traveling with babies involved just so much STUFF, even if we were driving like two hours down the road, it felt so daunting and inefficient! I think potty training for the youngest was the big milestone on this, IIRC. (Also, packing for camping is just ugh in general, but packing for camping with young kids is a whole other level, and fortunately my husband hates camping so I never had to deal with that.)

- kids being old enough that I don't have to do all the work of packing for three people. I still make their lists and, like, spot-check what they've decided to take along ("Are you sure that shirt still fits you, 'cos it doesn't look like it? No, actually TRY IT ON." and "Are you seriously going to need two different kinds of conditioner for this trip?"), but the item-by-item decision-making and finding their stuff and determining what they need to buy is up to them

- eBags! They seemed like such an unnecessary idea when B first got them, but I've been a convert and an evangelist for like 10 years. Packing with eBags means the in-progress packing pile can be corralled without open suitcases standing everywhere -- once the eBags themselves are packed, it takes like 20 minutes to load the suitcases. The kids can pack their own! And when they can't find something, instead of searching for all the luggage for it, I just hand them their eBag and tell them it's in there somewhere if they packed like they were supposed to. (We've seriously given these to all our friends who travel, and a lot of people are converts and some people don't find it worth it / it doesn't fit their packing style, but for us it was an absolute life-changer.)

We do have a tendency to pack not only way too many clothes -- mostly 'cos when else am I going to wear all my pretty summer dresses? not in San Francisco, that's for sure! -- but also "consumables" we could approximate on location, like shampoo and a sack of OTC medications, but most of our travel is international, and we learned the hard way that pharmacy stuff is very tricky and also very difficult to navigate in a foreign language even if you speak it, and some members of our family have very strong feelings about shampoo and toothpaste and stuff.

I do, however, hate UNpacking, which the suitcases that have been standing, half-full, in our entry hall for over a week now testify to :P

[gwendraith]

I don't loathe it but I don't like it. I always write a list of essentials I want to take. I travel as light as possible, always a carry-on bag on flights. Even since I've been using a wheelie for walking I bought one that folds so small it stows in an aircraft locker and I can use the seat to carry my carry-on on :) I buy toiletries there and leave them behind when I leave.

[liseuse]

My issue with packing is that I want to be all light and breezy and "oh it doesn't matter, I'll just buy some there" but am actually unable to do that because I also dislike the idea of spending money on things I already have (this doesn't apply to moisturiser which I buy wherever I am and gleefully discard) like underwear. I also don't enjoy packing so I procrastinate and end up doing it at 3am (frequently tipsy) which had more than once led to me ending up places with three skirts, eight pairs of tights, enough underwear, and no hairbrush. I also seem to find it incredibly difficult to find places to buy things when I'm away. I'm sure every European city sells the things I want, but can I ever find them? No!

I also despise unpacking, and only do it when I've run out of clothes to wear and need to put a wash on.

Despite all this I do adore travelling.

[ironed_orchid]

I've got pretty good at packing for myself, but also at realizing that however well organized I am, I will get there and discover I need one particular thing - last time it was a nail brush.

[cesy]

I'm in favour of the "have so much luggage space you can just throw everything in any-old-how" method to avoid complications, where possible.

[fauxklore]

I enjoy packing, largely because I love making lists.

Unpacking, however, is loathesome.

[hilarita]

I'm afraid I'm one of the rare mostly indifferent people. I don't like doing it - it's a boring chore. But I use lists, and it doesn't take long, and it's a less horrible chore than cleaning, washing up, or exercise.

[gorgeousnerd]

Packing is...complicated for me. I don’t have an income, so I can’t buy what I need when I get places, and that combined with my anxiety/agoraphobia/various disability stuff means I basically bring half my life with me and only touch half of it on the trip, at most. And packing happens at the point I’m most stressed about the trip. But I do love making lists and organizing and picturing the fun things I get to do, so that’s nice.

(Packing for a flight is much worse than packing for a road trip, as you might imagine, But I don’t fly much.)

[caulkhead]

I quite like *thinking* about packing, and what I am going to take and what I shall be doing to wear it for, and fantasy packing (in theory I know exactly what I would take for a month-long one-bag backpacking tour), but in practice I do not enjoy it. I do, by now, know exactly what I need to take on the three main kinds of holiday I go on, and where it all is, but SOMETHING always goes missing.

[quoththeravyn]

When I am old,
I shall wear purple
and a red hat
that doesn't go.

[alatefeline]

Um. I love grabbing all the stuff I want to pack and having a contingency plan for every worrisome thought. I hate trying to pare down to what's feasible and cram it into bags. On balance... more like 2, except I don't believe for a second I *could* get away with carrying next to no stuff unless I was a gazillionaire.

[fred_mouse]

I much prefer trips where I can pack only cabin baggage. Which these days, is most domestic trips that don't involve skates. I feel pretty pleased with the fact that I once took three kids* to Sydney for a week-and-a bit with only carry on luggage**. It was probably summer, which would have helped.

* probably aged 6, 9, and 12, because youngest would have been willing to carry their own bag at that point.
** backpacks. Like, day pack sized backpacks.

[pax_athena]

Haaaate. Also, it's such a loss of time.
I made myself a checklist in Evernote that helped a lot over the last years, at least with everything that is not clothes. Deciding which clothes to take with me (especially on longer trips that combine work and fun, aka 75% of my trips) is a drama in itself ...

[azurelunatic]

I have anxiety about pretty much everything, including travel. Making lists alleviates the anxiety.

[forthwritten]

I am a weirdo who kinda dislikes packing but is quite good at it! I travel light and prefer not to check in luggage, but I've never had any packing disasters and always bring stuff that is useful. I'm also quite good at making stuff fit in hand luggage: an ex once watched, enthralled and a little suspicious, as I repacked her hand luggage to fit a substantial box that she'd been unable to fit in.

Compare this to my girlfriend, who is incapable of travelling without at least one large suitcase full of shit she doesn't need.

[nanila]

Yep. Why does that list never end? Whyyyy and yes I would like some cheese to go with my whine.