Last weekend before we depart. Spent it booking the rest of our hotels, New Zealand domestic airfare, and Australia domestic airfare. Bought trip insurance (medical). Signed up for a Skype account. Prank called each other using said Skype account. Took inventory of clothing. Created packing spreadsheet. Made list of things we needed. Went shopping for four hours (ugh).  We were able to catch a Thunder game on Sunday night which gave us a much-needed break from all this trip stuff.

Packing is the most daunting part of this trip. The thought has haunted me for months, always in the back of my mind, mocking me… How the hell do I pack for seven weeks with only one carry-on suitcase and a backpack? While we are checking one bag, I can’t really count it b/c it’s mainly for toiletries and Chris’s shoes. We are planning to do laundry a few times during the trip so that will help. But, still.

How do I pack for a variety of climates? How do I pack for a variety of activities across nine destinations? How do I pack when I don’t really know all the activities that we may do? How do I balance looking cute with comfort and style? (With me, comfort usually wins out. Style, be damned!)

My strategy is layers: tank tops, short sleeved t-shirts, long sleeved t-shirts, and cardigans with jeans, shorts, or a black short/long skirt. A couple of nice dresses for the evening. Color scheme is neutrals with a little splash of color here and there. There’s going to be a lot of grays, whites, and blacks in our pictures but what else is new? Neutral is my signature color.

So, I began my list. First, I categorized the activities that we will most likely be participating: city walking, outdoorsy/hiking, water/beach/boat, night out, and working out. Second, I listed all the clothes that I planned to take and marked which activities I could wear each item. This helped weed out some items that couldn’t pull double-duty. Adios, 4-inch black pumps.

Here is Chris’s pack list. He’s using the simple approach.

– kb