How to Pack for a Month and Not Break Your Back

                                                     

Hazardous to your Health!

Did you know that suitcases can be hazardous to your health? Medical experts tell us that poor packing and handling of suitcases can actually cause physical injury.  From personal experience, I can vouch for the potential of luggage to cause injury, a case in point being the suitcase my family dubbed "The Whale".  Dragging this huge duffle around Europe worsened a shoulder problem paving my way to a shoulder surgery.  So did the overloaded carry-on that slipped as I lowered it from the overhead. (Shoulder surgery #2).  See what medical experts have to say about all this:  https://www.arspecialty.com/tips-to-avoid-luggage-related-injuries/  

Medical experts agree that less is better.  So how do you pack for a long trip, look decent and not destroy your body lugging an enormous suitcases?  You can start by considering a few things.
1. Where are you going?
2. What will you need?
3. How are you getting there and getting around once you've arrived ?

Where are you going and What will you need?
Obviously, this is the central question.  A lazy week at the beach has completely different requirements than a week on a fancy cruise ship.  And, of course, a journey to Antartica is a whole different story.  It's easy if you are going to just one place, but what if your trip includes several destinations?  For instance, a recent trip of mine to Asia included cities, far north areas with frigid night-time temperatures, and several days in the desert. 

You'll need to think about your destinations, the time you'll spend in each and what you'll need for each place.  How many days you will be spending in any one place?  For instance, if you are city-hopping, you won't need to worry much about wearing the same thing every day.

How are you getting there?
This can make a big difference.  Beyond your arrival flight, will you be flying from place to
place, using a train, driving a car? If you main way of getting around is by plane, then you just have to worry about weight restrictions of the airlines you'll be using and, also, how much weight you can safely drag around looking for a taxi and such. 

Traveling by train is a whole different thing, although some countries like Japan have luggage transport services in train stations.  Generally, it's you (or if you're lucky one of your weight-lifting traveling companions) who is responsible for getting your luggage on and off the train and storing it while aboard. Unless you want to run the risk of sitting with a big suitcase in your lap, pack accordingly.

So, how do you pack for a month?

Different people have different strategies.  I still remember the well-dressed woman I met on a Yangtze River cruise who confided she had only two changes of clothes and washed them on alternating days.  No one was the wiser, since her two outfits were simple but attractive and people were looking at the scenery, not her.

There's always going to be some way to wash or clean what you bring, Most hotels offer laundry services and, if not, there's the bathroom sink.  The best arrangement was in a Tokyo hotel where each room had it's own washing machine, which, incidentally, I never used.  You just have to figure out how long items will take to dry or come back from the laundry. Bringing quick-dry fabrics is a good strategy. 

My Method:
My method involves two basic steps-  rough packing and  final packing.

In the first, you think about what you need. Get out your itinerary and figure out what you'll need day by day. My rule is 3 items max per situation for everyday wear- like 3 pairs of pants, 3 shirts and less for the occasionally-used item like a dress for going out.  Then, I throw all of this into my suitcase(s) to see how much room it takes and how heavy it is.

Just throw things into your suitcases

Then, I take everything out of the suitcase and arrange it in piles somewhere (here, on my yoga mat), and see what I actually have.  From here I whittle down my things to the bare minimum I think I'll need.  "Need" is different for everyone and depends upon what you can live with and what you can realistically carry for your specific trip.

Organizing the Mess

After sorting through and discarding items, I then repack and see what it actually looks and feels like in my luggage.  If it''s still too much, I go back to the drawing boards and think about what can go.  If there's still plenty of room I can add a few things, although it's alway nice to have room for the souvenirs you are bound to find.  

Not My Suitcase (unfortunately)

Is this what my suitcase looks like?  Never- I'm not that organized, although I recently traveled with a friend who would repack her suitcase each night; not a bad idea.   But there is a method to my madness in how I shove a month of my life into a small receptacle.  Plus, there is one thing I keep reminding myself- that, apart from essentials like medications, you can almost always find a way to buy something you may have left behind.  That's better than killing yourself lugging around a lot of things you may never use.  

Next time, when you unpack from a trip, see how many of it's contents you have never touched.  If it's a lot, it's telling you that next time you can bring a lot less.  When you are hefting your suitcase onto an overhead luggage rack, your body will thank you.