How is a girl to decide what things she ought to bring, and how much, and which things aren't "necessary" for a year in Honduras?
I am the girl who brings a large suitcase for a weekend trip. I am your classic overpacker. I think of all of the "what ifs" and I have to make sure I'm prepared. For this, I had to do be prepared with less packing space.
This was a very difficult week for me, the packing week. I had to sort through all of my clothing, decide which items I loved the most, and if it was practical for our destination, and if it was actually necessary. I wanted to take all 100 pairs of undies, 50 tank tops (one in each color), 7 pairs of jeans, 4 pairs of shorts, 10 shirts of both long and short, and 3 sweaters. Not to mention all of my hair and makeup products and tools.
Then Alex laughed at me, and told me to be serious.
I was...
Too bad it wouldn't all fit in my pack.
I made piles. I categorized my clothing by type. Then each day I weeded out something that I could live without, or that I knew was a duplicate. Having two different shades of pink tank tops isn't necessary, I had to conclude.
And I did this until the night we packed all of our clothing up. I had this feeling like I was missing something.
Here's what I brought:
- 1 pair of lightweight long johns (I bought these especially for the trip; they're patagonia)
- 2 sweaters (both Beavers gear)
- 8 tank tops
- 4 t-shirts
- 5 long sleeve shirts
- 1 long sleeve button down
- 2 short sleeve polos
- 3 dressy/professional tops
- 2 capris
- 3 pairs of pants
- 5 skirts (all different colors; all about knee length)
- 10 undies
- 5 pairs of socks (some wool ones included)
- 2 bras
- 3 swim suits (mostly for diving purposes)
- 3 pairs of pj pants (but I share!)
- 2 belts
- 1 rain jacket
- 1 pair of Chacos
- 1 pair of tennis shoes
Besides clothes I brought:
- dive fins, mask (left the snorkel cause I hate it!), and booties
-dive log and certification card
- 2 bottles of mouse
- 2 bottles of Aveeno (one big one, one little one with SPF)
- 2 full things of deodorant
- a bunch of cotton rounds
- a bunch of cotton swabs
- bobby pins
- hair bands
- nail kit (clippers, files, etc)
- make up remover
- hair dryer
- hair straightener
- sewing kit
- 5 tubes of mascara
- various makeup necessities (powder, eye liner, blush)
- travel makeup tool kit
- tampons (I could only shove about 3 boxes into our luggage; not actually in their boxes, though)
We also brought all of our credit and debit cards, though we don't carry them on us most of the time. I also brought my wallet, which has my costco card (just in case!), CPR and First Aid certifications (which might come in handy if I decide to get my Rescue Diver cert), etc. I also brought two purses, one of which I used as a personal item to carry various bs on our flights to Honduras. It did come in handy.
The idea was to bring enough clothes for a week or two. Also, we used our travel size things for over a month while we got settled into life here.
There are some other essentials that we brought, but I'm going to leave that for Alex's post since his will be pretty short anyway.
And yes, 5 tubes of mascara is necessary. I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment