What exactly do you take with you on a trip around the world?
If you’re me, everything but the kitchen sink (and that’s only because I don’t have a kitchen sink anymore).
We had a little wakeup call on Saturday morning, 6 days from departure, when we packed up our things to move in with our friends Debb and Pat for our last week in Seattle. You’d think at this late stage we’d just be loading up our backpacks and going on our merry way, wouldn’t you?
Besides our 2 full backpacks, we had:
- A small backpack with other clothes we might need for this final week (I still don’t understand that logic even though I’m the one who created it),
- A clothes hamper full of odds and ends that wouldn’t fit in our backpacks
- 3 art pieces that will be stored at Debb and Pat’s house
- A box of personal belongings to be stored at Debb and Pat’s
- A box of comic books
- Laptop bag
- Jackets that won’t fit in our backpacks yet
- A plastic bin full of medicine bottles
Not only that, but my friend Betsy Moore spent an hour helping me repack my backpack so we could fit my clothes in it. It’s not even that I bought too much for it - I’m trying to take too many of my existing clothes with me. In fact, I’m trying to imagine every possible scenario and plan for it, which isn’t reasonable or even possible.
So, for any of you planning a big trip like this, please do a test pack before you go. And not just a “will all my stuff for the trip fit” kind of test pack either. A FINAL test pack where you look around and make sure there is NOTHING left. All those incidentals - toiletries, jackets, gadgets, etc., still need to fit alongside your clothes and shoes.
(Except for the comic books he plans to sell this week, Warren is - of course - perfectly packed.)
This was a big lesson for me. Readers on Facebook (have you Liked us there yet?) offered some great advice, including going for layers instead of packing warm clothes (too bulky) and reminding us that we can buy what we need pretty cheaply as we travel.
If you want to hear the other big lessons we’ve learned during this 2-year process, tune in on Friday morning at 9 a.m. Pacific to 1150 AM in Seattle to hear us give a final report before we board a plane for Ecuador and life and on the road (listen online live by clicking here on Friday at 9 a.m.). We’ll be sharing the microphone (virtually) with Baker from Man vs. Debt and get to chat with Debb Whitlock, who was there the night this whole thing started. It should be a fun show, and I hope you’ll tune in as we say “adios!”
PS - We’ll have a video post on Friday before we hit the road. After that, we’ll probably take a few days to settle in before we send in our first report from South America.
About Betsy
I can’t wait to read the report about what you leave behind in Ecuador!
You are so right, Jeff. We should probably do a revised packing list in a few months and compare it to our original. Now that would be interesting. What did you think was necessary for your trip but ditch after your first stop?
Oh, so many to list. I left a trail of donated clothes around the world! I did have a couple of light ¨dry clean only¨ sweaters that I loved and took. Eventually, they didn’t make the cut. It was a sad day. But, ultimately not a smart packing choice.
Okay, Jeff. You win. I never even dreamed of taking “dry clean only” clothes on the trip!
I’m so in awe of you. I’m thinking I won’t be able to fit all the things I want in my car for my trip to Mexico! I’m a packing wimp by comparison.
No way, Tara. If I were going to stay in the same area for months at a time I’d be a lot less worried about sticking to just one backpack. Especially if I were taking work stuff at the same time. You’ll have to let us know how it turns out for you.
So, has it REALLY hit you yet that you’re going to be traveling for years, rather than just on a long vacation? If it were me, I think that it would be difficult for that to truly sink in, even if I’d been preparing for it for the past several years also
I’ve never been very good at packing (or rather, NOT packing), so I can identify with your issue of trying to envision and pack for every scenario!
Good luck - it’s so exciting that you and Warren are about to begin your adventure!
Traci, you are reading my mind. I was joking with Warren over lunch that I need a 2-week vacation at the start of our trip to close out the stress from one lifestyle before heading into a new one. He agrees!
Isn’t that what you’re planning your few week or so to be? Vacation with nothing planned - simply doing things as they happen, nothing planned? Seems like the perfect way to begin…
We hauled around a hard-back version of Don Quixote (it weighed about a kilo) for the first few months of our trip. Talk about the most unpractical thing in the world!
Although I’m a big advocate of layering, I have to admit that it does get old wearing all your clothes at one time after a while. This is why we try to avoid winters as we go
Except for our trip to Antarctica in February, I think we’re going to follow your lead and avoid winter for the first year or so, Audrey.
Our books are now in Kindle, so we can take an entire library for less than the weight of your Don Quixote. Do you use a Kindle or similar device these days? I know Kindle wasn’t around when you guys started your travels a few years ago.
You’ll probably be able to pick up anything you my have forgotten or will need.
Or you can have friends and family fed ex you some things. From my experience of being a huge over packer and lugging around too much stuff that was never used or even needed it’s best to pack light and add on if you really need it later. You already have the most important things like adventurous spirits, love of life, kindness and faith…those will get you further than any tangible provisions! # more days wow..how exciting!! It’s been fun living vicariously through you two and I look forward to what’s next on this fun road of life!~ Aloha
Kate, I think we’re going to be fine. I’m wearing my favorite old yellow hoodie today and every day until we leave, and then I’m going to give it to a friend who wants it. That is probably the main thing I’m going to miss clothes-wise, and that’s just because I wear it almost every day.
What is the saying? Pack half as much as you think you need and bring twice as much money?
You guys rock!!! I am so impressed with your decision its fueled my own to change how I do things with my own life.
Wanda, I’m interested to hear more about the changes you have brewing in your life. It’s always inspiring to me to hear what other people are doing.
I’m going to echo Jeff here a bit. You’ll be amazed, by the end of the first week on the ground you will have probably thinned what you packed significantly. I’m an epic over-packer as well, but I also subscribe to a one-way packing philosophy. I have left a trail of socks, underwear, shirts, pants and shoes everywhere I’ve been.
Here’s the thing, you can’t pack for every scenario, because you can’t even think of every bloody scenario. So just embrace the unknown… it’s not so bad once you realize it’s out of your hands.
Shannon, this is the perfect sentence for your first book: “I have left a trail of socks, underwear, shirts, pants and shoes everywhere I’ve been.” They could stock it in the travel section AND the adult section of the bookstore!
Oh dear.
While that’s not how I meant it… I guess one sentence down, 6,499 more to go!
Congrats on getting your belongings down to just those few bags and boxes- amazing!
My advice would be not to think of it as what you need for 3 years, because you’ll be able to pick up items along the way.
Also, when you’re thinning it down these next two days, don’t leave behind any piece of clothing you love, is comfortable, and you wear all the time. Those are the ones you want, not the stuff you think you’ll need.
I once did my final packing at the airport, in line to board! I was handing off stuff to the friend who had brought me there. I don’t recommend this method, it was unnecessarily stressful and was the result of waiting until the night before to pack for a month long trip to three or four different locations.
Angela, Warren would kill me if I waited that late to finish packing! We still need to buy a couple of last minute small things before we go, but thanks to you we don’t need earplugs. We love the special ones you sent us in the mail today - you have no idea how much Warren appreciates this. He needs absolute quiet to sleep (at least for now), and this will be perfect for the trip. Thank you!
Thank goodness I was able to eliminate one small item on your to-do list. They really are supposed to be the best!
I am another with trails of unloaded items throughout the world.
I, too, would be holding on to the hoodie- comfort pieces are important to me.
Living through your postings:>)
Enjoy the journey.
This is so awesome! I wish you the best of times! Have a ball - I’m living vicariously through you.
Can’t wait to hear about all your adventures! For me, the excitement f travelling always hits when we’re finally through passport control and waiting in the departure lounge to board the plane. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to be headed out on this extended journey!
I used to do the same thing, too- you think that you really need all of this stuff, but it usually turns out that you don’t- except when you do.