One year in London, we were meeting friends at Hillaire, a nice place in South Kensington for dinner. You must wear a jacket.
We arrived that day, never noticed anything missing until dressing for dinner, Honey, where is my jacket.
What a sick feeling that is It was hanging on the closet door......at home. We managed with a turtleneck and leather jacket, Americans! what do you expect So now I make him check the packing before it goes into the bag, to be sure I am not soley responsible again~

For our major trips, I am the planner/researcher/organizer, list maker, and the one who puts our things in the 'packing area'. My husband does all of the actual packing. He said that if I did it, our suitcases would look like beach balls!

Being a retentive type, years ago made a "Trip Take List" on a file card, a check off list to review before zipping the suitcase. A consequence of realizing when I got on the plane many years ago that my reading glasses were on the dashboard of the car.

Over the years my list has been moved to the computer, and has been refined over and over. Recent additions: plastic gripper strips and nail clippers in an exterior pocket of the suitcase to use instead of locks on checked luggage.

I pack way ahead and have realized lately that there are some items of clothing that I wear only when I travel - nylon shorts that will also work as swim trunks, gym wear, or pajamas, lightweight slip-on shoes to go through security, wear on the plane, and function as slippers in the hotel, etc.

I travel really, really light and tend toward black Dockers, black Reeboks, black poly-cotton t-shirt and a black jacket. (In tropical climates I do the same combo in tan -except for the Reeboks.) Low maintenance and appropriate in jus about any setting. I'd been rather smug about my efficiency in packing until I realized most people in my group thought I was a priest. So now I bring a few shirts that are a bit more colorful.

For long trips, I usually make a list of items to pack about a week before the trip so that I have time to launder anything that may be in the hamper. Then I pack the night before.

If it's a weekend trip, I just pack the night before, no lists needed.

I'm starting right now for our trip to Arizona. We leave early Friday am. I just put all the clothes in piles on the beds in the guestroom, I don't actually fill the suitcases until the night before.

While we're on the subject, can anyone help me? I posted a question on packing for Arizona next week. Thanks!

We went away last week, and a few days before, decided that we could do carry-ons. We purchased one new carry on and "test packed", everything that couldn't wrinkle and just added the rest the night before. It was perfect!

KenCT, thanks for the idea about the nail clippers and grippers in the an outside pocket of check in luggage.

We rarely travel with groups, s I can wear what I want. We did go with a group to Tanzania and than a few years later with a lot of the same people, to Central America. I tend to pick a few really comfortable tee shirts and wash them out regularly and re-wear them over and over. Pretty dumb, since I am left with a suitcase of clean, really really comfortable tee shirts ... makes no sense even to me. Probably because they are sprayed with mosquito repellant and I hate to spray them all.

One afternoon I put on a recently purchased t shirt, and one of the ladies in the group made a LOUD announcement, 'Nina finally changed her clothes'. If looks could kill.....In pictures from both trips, two years apart, I am wearing the same shirts. I am sue that they are all wondering what was in those suitcases that we lugged around!

I like to pack as light as possible, so for a trip of a week or more I have to try on all the clothes I want to bring and make sure they mix-and-match (including shoes), and that they fit! I do this sometime in the week before the trip.

Everything else (namely, toiletries) gets packed the day of the trip. I have everything I need (sample size) in one ziplock, and I take it on trip after trip. It makes it easy.

For weekend trips I grab the toiletry bag, a shirt and underwear and stuff it into a tote.

I make lists in advance, more out of excitment than anything else. I am always packing the morning of the flight, or late the night before. I like to start putting things in piles a few days before. I put everything on the guest room bed . . . then I whittle the pile down until I have it as small as possible. I love to travel light! I enjoy scaling back . . . I try to bring a carry-on ONLY whenever I travel, no matter where or for how long. I can usually do it. Hardest part is SHOES. I love 'em but they take up too much space!

People, why do we even unpack? Just toss everything in the laundry machine, and then back in a suitcase. Add anything forgotten on a prior trip. And then brag how good you are at packing! Was this advised in the free "how to pack" book for the first 300 to register?

Faina, that might not be a bad idea!
We have booked our Mexico trip for August. Just think~I have 4 whole months to agonize over what to pack

Well, Faina, the reason I unpack is that you can't go mountain biking in a suit. Different places require different clothing

Who un-packs????? Just kidding of course, but it seems that sometimes things don't get put away for a long time after the trip. Clothes, excluded. I always have bags or boxes with left over maps, tickets, brochures, etc.. I try to file the paper and books away neatly, but there are always things that just seem to 'lay' around. I have an office sized filing cabinet, shelves and drawers, full of travel stuff. I can't throw any of it away. What a life - an overpacker and a pack rat. I guess maybe the two go together. Why do I need _two_ brochures from a hotel that I will never stay in again????

Ooooooooh Nina, i just had to jump in here! I can soo appreciate what you mean about un-packing! My home office is FULL of travel 'STUFF', and it often takes me WEEEKS to put everything away... partly because i enjoy seeing the memory of the trip, too.

And those extra brochures do multiply like bunnies! Lets see....one copy may go into our photo album, perhaps with something clipped out of it.....and the other will stay intact in the box with receipts and other misc STUFF from the trip that won't fit into the photo album.

Funny too, while much of my planning is done on-line these days, i still love curling up in front of the fireplace pouring over travel books, too. Silly computer doesn't reach that far lol

As for packing, i find it MUCH easier packing for business than i do for pleasure. Two suits, 3-4 blouses, jammies and i'm good to go! With family fun travel, who KNOWS what adventure we'll encounter and what i'll need!!!!??? THAT is STRESSFUL! lol

Ellen, we must have been separated at birth.. everything that you wrote was so me.... including your name. My first name is Ellen, but I have always gone by my middle name, Nina. Everytimr I try to throw away anything travel related, I think of where and how I got it. I still have receipts for things that I bought years and years ago in Europe. I just recently got rid of my momentos from summer camp ...JUST KIDDING, my mother did that without my knowledge or permission years and years ago, and I never forgave her. ;-)

ROFLOL Nina!! My MIDDLE name is Ellen! But i've have used it ever since i married "clark" - well, you know the rest... LOLOL

Yes, my philosophy is this: If its worth doing, its worth remembering. There's something very sweet- ok, maybe a lil rententive - about sifting thru old travel brochures, ticket stubs, receipts etc, remembering all the fun times we've had. And as long as they're 'safely' filed away minding their own business, where's the harm? (Clark and i have our own offices so he doesn't care either

So...approximately how many rolls of film do you use each trip? On our 3-4 week cross country adventures, we take about 15 rolls between the kids and us. (Our recent trip to London however, only produced 4 rolls!?) However, now with Clarks new digital, that may change...??

Nina, LOL about the re-wearing the T-shirts.

Reminds me of when I was showing my sister-in-law our pix from London. She commented on how many things we had done in one day, when actually, the activities were scattered throughout our 2-week visit. I finally realized that she was asuming that I had brought a different outfit for each day (which is what she would have done) rather than re-wearing things several times (I'm a carryon-only person).

Anonymous .. re: tee shirts ....maybe I'll tell people that our trip(s) were only three or four days each.

Ellen, we take two cameras, one for each of us, and lots of film. We were in West Africa for close to a month and took 48 rolls. Some friends in our group didn't stay as long and gave us four or five left over rolls. Of course everyone thought that we were weird, per usual, but we have lots of great pictures. We have even managed to put _most_ of our travel pictures in albums.

I hate to have my picture taken so there are very few of me and my tee shirts in our albums. Sometimes people jokingly ask if my husband travels alone.

My husband had a bad habit of claiming that the best pictures were his ;-), so we devised a scheme to keep them staight. We number our rolls as we use them. I am even and he is odd. If the picture is especially good, he claims that he used my camera by mistake!!

I have finally realized that buildings don't move, so instead of taking four pictures of the stationary thing, I now take only two! Thanks to my husand, I now put only one picture of the same thing, in the album. He has taught me that I am under no obligation to display every picture that I take.

Now for the next question for other pack rats here~
what do you do with the photos that you do not put into the album?
I have a hard time throwing out photographs! Needless to say, we have boxes and boxes and books full, when I am old and decrepit, I wonder if I will even recognise the people in the pictures