Packing: where is it all going to go?
Dec 23rd, 2007 by Nick
One of the most difficult things for me is to pack. My clothes are bigger, my shoes are bigger, none of it fits that well, and I don’t feel like lugging (or paying for) four suitcases. My goal is to take the following with me on the trip:
- 12 days of clothes (clean everything once);
- Toiletries and medications;
- My work laptop and extra battery;
- My CPAP machine (this is a big pain in the arse as I cannot check it);
- Enough electronics to sink the Titanic; and
- Sufficient reading material to not kill myself on eighteen hours of flights.
All of this has to fit into one 27″ softsided suitcase, one 22″ Costco rollaboard, and my huge-but-still-fits-under-the-airplane-seat Tom Bihn “Brain Bag” backpack. I think it will all fit, because I took 14 days worth of stuff (minus the CPAP, which I did not own at the time) to Singapore last year. I also will have a large REI duffel bag stowed away so that on the trip home I can put a bunch of the dirty clothes into that and use the other bags for carrying back gifts and dealing with entropy.
Last night, I got most of the clothing situation straightened out. Since I’m going to be doing sightseeing, I’m taking 16 shirts (5 casual, 6 golf, 5 T-shirts), because there will be sightseeing days (like in Ayers Rock) where I’ll go through one in the morning and one in the evening, and it’s not like I can pop into a store and easily find another two or three in my big/tall size. I’m also taking three pairs of pants, two pairs of camper shorts for the very hot days, and a sweater because it can still get down into the 40s in Tasmanaia. Finally, I’m taking one dress shirt/slacks for going out with relatives, going to church, etc.
Other than four things that have to go to the cleaners on Wednesday, and a few more pairs of socks that I need to pick up at REI, all the clothes are sitting on the floor of my living room, clean and folded. Now I just have to figure out what I’m going to wear on the flight, and what I want for two days of emergency clothing in my 22″ rollon. The biggest question will be if I can fit a second pair of shoes as well as the CPAP into the rollon.
You have a CPAP??? You *HAVE* to talk to Mike. I can NOT get him in for a sleep test. I can’t even sleep in the same room as him with the snoring. He’s totally turned a deaf ear to me (and it’s a good thing that he has a deaf ear, too, otherwise he’d wake himself up) but maybe you can talk some sense into him.