Not to worry, there are plenty of us thoroughly female underpacking shopping-haters out here, it just wasn't the topic of the thread. My late husband was an absolutely astonishing just-in-case overpacker, he could fill up the car with his stuff for a weekend outing.

Dear PM, no, no, actually I am not the worlds best shopper. Really. In fact my dear daughter actaully goes out and shops for me sometimes. Now if you want to meet a shopper, you must meet my daughter, sigh! LOL. Really there is nothing wrong with you or me. Honest I am sure!
@-)

It is just that since I lost my DH and I have to carry whatever I take (he always use to say you pack it you carry it but of course I didn't have to) I have cut down on what I take. Every trip I take less and less. Which is why I now want to buy a 22inch suitcase.

Now about that shopping. I just remind myself that if I need another top, or whatever, there are shops around where I go for goodness sakes. I just keep reminding myself of that.

And when I am on a trip and think about buying something I remember "you have to get it home".

No P_M, there is nothing wrong with you or me. I am almost absolutely sure about this. I like the theory that we are just smarter!

Happy Holiday to you and yours. ((G))

Yep.....I have to pack for a ski trip in 2 weeks.How am I going to stuff all that stuff in our luggage???I have one coat that will take up an entire wheeler..then snow boots, thick fleece, etc..help!!!!!Its much easier I think to be going on a tropical trip..bathing suit, flip flops,and a straw cowboy hat ....Im really quite panicked........

capri, my other daughter, goes skiing every winter.

Makes me glad I don't. Yes, bathing suit, coverup, capris, tees, flip flops are sooooo much easier.

If one was wealthy than the answer would be to ship everything ahead.

BTW, are you flying???? At least with an auto you can "throw" everything in the back. Good luck /:)

And Happy Holidays!

P M

You may think you are having an identity crisis, but I think as an underpacking, shopping hating woman, who likes to wear mens clothes, I would think most men would die to meet a woman like you!! And I'm sure your hubby is grateful he doesn't have to schlep your luggage all over the earth and wait for you outside of boutiques in the mall, lol!!

And yes, packing for a winter vacation takes a lot more "creativity" then packing for a warm vacation. Good luck on that one!

Thank you all for your support, my gender identity crisis has passed. Happy Holidays to all!!

P. S. LoveItaly, please see the Romania trip report thread for my reply to you. I think you contribute a lot to this fourm.

My DH is an overpacker! He cannot go for a weekend without taking two suitcases! He brings everything.. just in case. And he can't have enough options for what to wear though he always dresses in khakis and a shirt.

I used to be an OP. I have learned from years of carrying my two bags on trains, up stairs, down long walkways, etc. that ONE bag will do!! I was just on a two-week European vacation and managed quite nicely with one big bag, and even had "extra" stuff with me. I was so proud of myself. Next time, I'll carry even less.

I'm even cutting way down on the shopping I do when I get to my destination. If you buy it, you have to carry it!

Happy travels, everyone.

If anybody wants, I will email the picture I took upon unpacking for 5 nights on Maui : <u>13 pairs of shoes</u> brought by Mrs. Delay. One for each bikini and one for each dinner outfit, and a few spares just in case.

I took her rollerblades out of her suitcase before we drove to SFO for our departure flight.

This year, we hiked an 8-mile Yosemite loop. What did Mrs. Delay bring in her CamelBak? Water? Nah, why bring heavy water?
PDA, check.
Deck of cards, check.
Collapsible cup, check.
A 100-foot piece of rope, check.

As far as interventions, I have learned that I need to play &quot;Baggage Inspector&quot; for all her trips. Luckily, there is only physical baggage, and not the other kind. That's why I love her.

LOL Triple, your post reminds me... Once I took along my father and his woman. For a 5-nights trip she packed 4 pairs of shoes. The overpacking didn't help her, all 4 fell apart one by one, I am not kidding, she came home wearing sleepers. I don't know how many outfits were there, I had too much fun with her shoes. That and watching my dad trying to manage all the suitcases (&quot;be careful with this one, honey&quot;).

Since then I have not ran out of excuses not to take them along, but sadly my father is still with that woman. Whatever makes him happy.

I'm a cured overpacker on airline trips. I think the bag weighed 49 lbs. when I checked it. Then I had to haul it from bag claim to rental car shuttle, from shuttle to car, to condo, up narrow stairs to unit.

After that experience I was ready for the two-week trip to Europe with my rollaboard and bookbag. Even did that for London in December. I'm trying to cut down to just my bookbag, but I don't think I'll achieve that level of packing light.

However, my sister-in-law, needs to lighten the load. My brother and SIL came for a weekend visit and after hauling out all her stuff, I turned to my brother and said &quot;you know you're leaving in 2 days&quot;

Car trips are very different: if there's room it can go.

All this talk about shoes and overpacking reminds me of a reason not to overpack. One of our first trips, we went to Disneyworld as a &quot;new&quot; couple, and I guess I packed too many dress shoes...so many shoes that I wore one black high heel and one navy high heel with my fancy dress when we went out to dinner at Top of the World. We even have a pic of that in our scrapbook!

And agreed, ALL bets are off when it's a car trip--if it ain't glued down, it goes :-D :-d ((6))

Only on airline trips am I an underpacker. On car trips, everything except the kitchen sink goes.
I cram every item that I might need -just in case. If it is a beach trip where you bring food, watch out. The ugly white box goes on top of the van filled with extra stuff. (We hardly even use the stuff that goes up there, but we have it.)

I recently discovered those vacuum bags where you place like two stacks of clothes in the bag, seal it with the ziplock and roll it up, forcing the air out the bottom. They are <b>freakin' amazing</b> the way they turn a stack of clothes into a neat, flat little package. Underwear and socks practically disappear. I didn't find stuff excessively wrinkled either. I got them at Target.

Over the years I managed to shed the problem where, when I'm packing, I forget that I often tend towards wearing the same thing/same type of thing everyday and erroneously believe that this pattern will change on vacation, a time when I just want to be comfortable. You're on vacation, not in a fashion show, and once you're off for a big day of adventuring, you'll (hopefully) forget what you were so worried about...whaddya, worried what you'll look like in the photos? No one wants to see those anyway.

When I was in Hawaii for five days a few months ago, I pretty much wore the same four pieces of clothing in the evenings, and I got compliments (!). Just a simple breezy black blouse and a little skirt, what else is there??

Pack the basics, stuff that's interchangeable with everything else. And don't forget that no one cares what you're wearing, and what you wore will not be the thing you remember about your trip. And finally, unless you're going to Antarctica, there will probably be laundry facilities (get the penguins to do it otherwise).

And my favorite Hawaii tip, besides packing next to nothing, is don't pack too much underwear...on our first trip there, I had underwear for day and evening, forgetting that I'd be spending all day with a bathing suit on/under my clothes.

picturing you all in your underwear,
roxy

I am a serious overpacker. If I'm going anywhere for more than 3 days I take 2 full suitcases and a backpack. Most of what takes up room is all my bathroom items (shampoo,conditioner,body wash,lotion,face wash,face lotion, all my hair stuff, a ton of makeup) I can't bear to leave any of that stuff at home. What can I say, I'm real high maintenence. I also have to bring way more shirts than I need as I have to dress according to how I feel when I wake up. I've really tried packing less but it's never happened. Let's see how much I bring on my weeklong trip to Hawaii in Jan.

All of you are very witty and funny.

I'm packed for my trip in a few days - one 22&quot; inch carry-on and a black bag that counts as the personal item. So with any luck, except on the BMI leg, I'll be able to do carry-on only. If two people are going on a trip, packing light is a little easier. You can split the guidebooks, toothpaste, documents, etc. between the two of you. And people like P_M and her husband can even share the same clothes :).

There are lots more things I'd like to bring - a dozen more guidebooks, more shoes!, a much dressier outfit or two (although then I'd have to iron them), two or three more coats and jackets. But I know from experience that it's no fun to drag heavy luggage up a zillion steps, or heave it over one's head.

And I always do laundry at a laundromat every few days. It's about the most down-to-earth, non-touristy way to meet the locals, and never fails to be of interest. For two hours or so, I'm compelled to rest! But don't choose the bad side of town if you do this! (Nothing bad has happened, just some interesting stories for me in Copenhagen and my husband in Salinas, CA.)

One hazard of underpacking: confusing your audience. When we showed pix of our trip to England to my SIL, she couldn't understand how we had done so many things in one day - she wasn't listening to the narrative, she was looking at what I was wearing in the pictures. She assumed that, like her, I would bring 21 different outfits for a 3-week trip.

Those vacuum bags are great - until you figure out that the stuff still weighs the same - so you can have a 22 inch suitcase that weighs 2 tons.

Did the poster with the falling-apart shoes try to vacuum pack them - that may have been the problem.

21 outfits for 3 weeks is not enough - you need day wear and evening wear.

I'm waiting for Muffin to chime in with the definitive answer to this debate.

OA is a large group. My honey is a member. I have learned to underpack, but to be fair I can always hit him for a shampoo etc. and 90% of the time he has it. You can always buy what you need, I find. Myself, I am a female shopping-hater, 10 minutes to get ready person. Every male I have ever traveled with has appreciated this- my sons especially.

Shoes are the biggest space takers for me. I can underpack well and look ok in every other way, but I need some variety in shoes. My arches need it, as well as my eyes. My biggest wish is to get him to &quot;do&quot; only a carry-on for 4 or 5 day jaunts. He won't and there we are at the luggage pick-up turnstyles!

But I do not complain, as after having packed and dealt with ski trips, the travel we now do otherwise is such a breeze in comparison; like corvette driving vs. semi-truck plowing downgrade with a ply-separated set of tires. We once waited at O'Hare for 3 hours just to get the skis themselves off. They don't have special carriers for them like in Denver etc. Plus I have never had anyone shlep my stuff, ever. In Europe, there have been a few times when I though I just couldn't move the &quot;stuff&quot; anymore. Cured me young.