Packing for a long trip…
A friend of mine is setting out on a new adventure. She is moving to Japan where her husband has been transferred with his job! While this in itself would be more then enough to frazzle the average person, she has handled every step of the process with grace. I am not at all saying that she has been stress free, not even close. However, she has stayed organized enough to keep track of every little detail and agreed to chronicle some of her experiences for this blog.
The Japanese word for friend is tomodachi. It’s phonetically pronounced “toh-moh-dah-chee“. Be looking for blogs from my tomodachi like the one included below.
Notes from Tomodachi:
Packing for 2 months… in 2 suitcases under 50 pounds!
No, I’m not kidding! To say the least, I was shocked when I found out we would be moving to Japan, but learning that the movers would be coming to pick up our belongings at the beginning of December and that we would not see any of it again until the end of January floored me! I have been know to take 2 full suitcases for a week trip, I couldn’t even imagine packing for 8 weeks! And not just any 8 weeks, the next two months includes holiday parties with both sets of families in two different states (AZ and IL, talk about different climates!) not to mention it’s winter and clothes are much bulkier (and take up more room in your suitcase) this time of year! What’s a girl to do? Especially a girl that likes to accessorize. (Shoes weigh a lot more then you would think!)
My husband, un-phased by the entire situation, wrote a list of what he would need for the next 2 months of his life…. transcribed verbadum below.
6 pair of white socks, 3 dressy pair of socks, 6 pair of underware, 4 t-shirts (one white), 2 pair jeans, 1 cargo pant, 2 dressy pants, 3 long sleeves shirts, 2 button up (nice) shirts, 2 sweaters, 1 hat, 1 belt, dress shoes, tennis shoes, pajama pants, and a jacket.
Simple, yet with no thought to whether the shoes would be black and the belt brown or whether his nice shirt would match his slacks! Probably safe to assume he was expecting me to worry about those tiny deatils.
I needed a strategy! It was clear that packing was going to be more detailed for me. I came up with a great one that I think is worth sharing with everyone (regardless of whether you are packing for a week or 2 months). If you think about this when packing, you will save room!
First I decided that I had to pick one base color… black or brown. By choosing only one, I cut half the shoes, jewerly, and other accessories that would be needed. Second, I choose 3 accent colors; blue, purple, and green. I made this decision purely on the fact that the clothes I have in these colors can be multi purpose (dressy or casual). After setting guidelines, packing seemed easy. I didn’t pick out outfits ( as I normally would for a trip). Instead I compiled separates; tops, pants, skirts, and jackets that fit into my color scheme. In the end, I fit eveything into my two suitcases with room to spare. Believe it or not, I have enough to mix and match that I may not have to wear the exact same outfit more then once (just the same colors). This made accessorizing easy too. I just picked out silver, black, green, blue, and purple jewerly that would match anything in my suitcase then threw in a pair of black flipflops (for AZ), black high heels, and a pair of black boots (OK, two pair).
If the test was to fit into the suitcases, I passed. We will see if I need to supplement my wardrobe during the next two months. I will let you know!
