Packing for a holiday can be a tiresome process, but with a bit of thought and a few tips on how to make it easy, it can honestly be quite enjoyable!
First things first, you simply need to do a bit of planning. You can be highly organised and create a table divided into columns for each day that you’ll be away, and rows stating what you might be doing, and then jot down what you will wear for each day/activity.
Or you can be a little less structured than this and simply think about how many times you might go sight seeing, or to the beach, or ‘out out’ and work out the types and numbers of outfits you might need that way.
Once you’ve got an idea of the sorts of clothes you need, I’d then recommend you create a capsule wardrobe of mix and match outfits so that you don’t overpack. This is honestly my number one tip! It means that you take less, wear more and haven’t carried clothes on holiday only to bring them home again unworn!
The example below is a capsule created around the colour theme of green, white, navy and black. There are over 50 different outfit options here, which is enough for more than a fortnight’s holiday assuming that you’ll wear something different every morning, afternoon and evening!
And here’s how it all fits neatly into one medium sized suitcase. (Note the clothes and shoes only take up one side of the case!):
So here are my top packing tips:
- Plan – think about what you might be doing so that you have a clear idea about the types of clothes you need to pack.
- Create a capsule wardrobe – choose 3 or 4 colours and only pack things that fit with this colour scheme so that you can make multiple outfits from fewer clothes. This includes shoes! (Click here to see my blog showing you the outfits I created and what I wore).
- Roll as many things as possible – this stops them getting creased and means that you can use all the space in the suitcase.
- Pack efficiently – to save space put your underwear inside your shoes, jewellery inside your sunglasses case, use packing cubes etc.
- Wear the heaviest and/or most cumbersome things to travel in, e,g, a coat, your heaviest trainers/shoes, big hat etc.
- Choose a bag that has a smaller removable bag inside – you can take it on the plane, then use the bigger bag for sight seeing trips or to take to the beach etc. and the smaller one for evenings out.
Once all the packing is taken care of, all that is left for you to do is sit back and enjoy!