I love to travel.

Except for one thing – packing. No matter how many days I work on the list of what to pack, what to buy, what to wear on the flight and what to get done before I go, it is the execution of packing that escapes me.

I watch YouTube videos, make note of little tricks quoted or displayed in magazines and update my list every day. The week before a trip, I am carefully considering, the weather of my destination, and what color scheme I should stay with to eliminate overpacking. Yet. when the day comes that the suitcases are laid out, I know I have pulled aside too many clothes, and way too many shoes. No matter how hard I try, I have twice as many clothes as my husband – ditto with the shoes.

And now I have to choose – eliminate one or two great outfits. I hate having to make that decision. Why can’t I take them all? Who knows what I’m going to feel like wearing until that morning – or that moment?

Where did I go wrong? Interchangeable clothes for most days, including the days traveling, toiletries, iPad, cell phone and their chargers – see? The bare necessities. The phone and iPad are essential because they are my e-readers. (If you find me staring at my phone, it’s because I’m reading, not texting, or searching the internet.)

The summer before last, my husband and I traveled to Europe and were quite proud of the fact we brought only one suitcase for both of us for the ten day trip. The kaviatt was we knew we would be bringing home most of our son’s clothes with us. He was graduating from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and would be travelling with friends through parts of Europe and to see a friend in the PEace Corps in Mongolia.

So we had to fit clothes, hockey skates and momentos into a hockey bag – the size of which you could fit a couple of bodies. The kicker was that we knew it would be not only oversized but overweight as well. When we presented the lovely people at the airline counter the third bag we were carrying with us, that was when we got hit with the outrageous fee of $150 because it’s odd shape – his hockey sticks. For that price I could have bought him one!

It’s funny how they will charge you all that money for baggage, yet make you run circles around baggage claim to find the oversized baggage department. For that price, an airport employee should be running around in a golf cart with all those great pieces of luggage – but do the size or shape it’s been relegated to “baggage”. Boy, how true is that! Not only was it to carry physical instead of mental baggage, but a hit in the wallet as well.

So as I get ready for another trip, I’m hoping I haven’t repeated my previous mistakes. We shall soon see…

Photo by Anugrah Lohiya from Pexels