5 days and counting...
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for attending tonight's showing of "Stuff It and Cram It: Packing for a Life Abroad." Let me begin by pointing out the obvious things one needs while packing. First and foremost on the list is clothes. Life abroad would be very difficult if one were to neglect these necessities. Especially if, like myself, you're bound for a country where a majority of the population wears an inseam a good six inches shorter than your own. However, one should be keen to recognize the common affliction of overpacking. Set yourself a limit on how many items of clothing you're taking. If your primary purpose abroad is a business setting, keep in mind that 5 days of the weeks will be spent in a coat and tie. Casual clothing will certainly take a backseat and therefore should be limited to 7-10 days worth. Keep in mind that less is always best. At least that's what I keep telling myself. If you can get your hands on one or two of those vacuum packed bags (my mom likes to call them sucky bags), the kind you can squeeze the air out of yourself without the use of a vacuum, I think they do a wonderful job of compacting clothing and other things. They can make for some odd bumps and lumps amongst the rest of your things, but a few well placed t-shirts can feel in those gaps nicely.
Thinking within the parameters of the "less is best" theme, don't bring anything that you can't pick up while settling in at your new home. This list can include, but is not limited to, towels, laundry bags, hangers, etc. Everyone needs a souvenir mug so don't worry about bringing your favorite one along. In that same vein, not all of your stuff should be expecting to make the round trip to the foreign country and back. For example, in Japan I'll need a couple of pairs of slippers. Finding my size there will probably be a difficult venture, so I've opted to bring them from home. Now, don't tell them, but one if not both pairs won't be coming back to the states. I invested in something cheap that'll get the job done, but the likelihood that I'll need two pairs of slippers outside of the setting of Japan is quite small. Not everything that you'll be taking abroad will need to last a life time, they'll only need to last as long as you're abroad.
Necessity can often be an attention hog, and rightfully so. One must certainly plan efficiently in order to be sure that everything you need is readily available for you. However, you certainly can't neglect entertainment that you may need en route or while abroad. Because books are so dreadfully bulky and heavy, bibliophiles like myself may find it difficult to pack what they feel they need. Unfortunately the only thing that people like you and I can do is limit ourselves. How unbelievably horrid, I know. If you do bring multiple books, be sure to distribute them evenly in your luggage so that one bag isn't bogged down more than the others.
You are certainly in luck, however, if your passion is more along the lines of music or film. God bless the technological advancements of mp3 players. CD's can take up an enormous amount of room, room that can be much more efficiently allocated to necessary items. Like more books :). Or, for the more focused, a decent set of travel speakers. To digress momentarily, there are some incredibly lightweight and compact speakers out there, many of which are now mp3 ready. There are even some deemed travel ready, offering a protective case built around the speakers if you're planning on any strenuous travel. Anyway, if you're able to invest in an mp3 player with a sizeable amount of memory, there's even more incentive to leave things like laptops behind, though, to be honest, computers can be a little more difficult to escape than CD's. Another thing to keep in mind when debating the mp3 player issue is the ease of replacability. Let's say, God forbid, your music collection is lost or stolen. It will certainly be easier to replace an mp3 player than it will a cherished stack of CD's.
While there are certain programs in the world that will readily rip a DVD onto your laptop hard drive, I question their legality and efficiency. It can be a bit of a pain, but I think the best thing to do is to bring along your DVD's if you're intent on taking them with you. But to cut down on the bulk, leave all your DVD cases behind. Keep your film collection down to the basics and put the DVD's into a small CD case. While you're at it, be sure to remember the operating system and any other essential software CD's your laptop might need in case it comes down with a terrible cold. You probably won't need those, but it's certainly better to bring along those small pieces of plastic than be stuck without them.
Now that I've wasted a good chunk of your time blabbing on about things you're probably not at all interested in, I'd like to open the floor for questions. Anybody? Anybody? No? Alright, then. In closing, I'd like to remind you once more that less is best. I made the mistake of moving to Scotland with far too much luggage, 6 bags in total, at least 2 of them weighing in at around 70 lbs. This time around, if all goes as planned, I'll have managed to pack in 3 weighing no more than 50 lbs each and probably no less than 20. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything.
Thinking within the parameters of the "less is best" theme, don't bring anything that you can't pick up while settling in at your new home. This list can include, but is not limited to, towels, laundry bags, hangers, etc. Everyone needs a souvenir mug so don't worry about bringing your favorite one along. In that same vein, not all of your stuff should be expecting to make the round trip to the foreign country and back. For example, in Japan I'll need a couple of pairs of slippers. Finding my size there will probably be a difficult venture, so I've opted to bring them from home. Now, don't tell them, but one if not both pairs won't be coming back to the states. I invested in something cheap that'll get the job done, but the likelihood that I'll need two pairs of slippers outside of the setting of Japan is quite small. Not everything that you'll be taking abroad will need to last a life time, they'll only need to last as long as you're abroad.
Necessity can often be an attention hog, and rightfully so. One must certainly plan efficiently in order to be sure that everything you need is readily available for you. However, you certainly can't neglect entertainment that you may need en route or while abroad. Because books are so dreadfully bulky and heavy, bibliophiles like myself may find it difficult to pack what they feel they need. Unfortunately the only thing that people like you and I can do is limit ourselves. How unbelievably horrid, I know. If you do bring multiple books, be sure to distribute them evenly in your luggage so that one bag isn't bogged down more than the others.
You are certainly in luck, however, if your passion is more along the lines of music or film. God bless the technological advancements of mp3 players. CD's can take up an enormous amount of room, room that can be much more efficiently allocated to necessary items. Like more books :). Or, for the more focused, a decent set of travel speakers. To digress momentarily, there are some incredibly lightweight and compact speakers out there, many of which are now mp3 ready. There are even some deemed travel ready, offering a protective case built around the speakers if you're planning on any strenuous travel. Anyway, if you're able to invest in an mp3 player with a sizeable amount of memory, there's even more incentive to leave things like laptops behind, though, to be honest, computers can be a little more difficult to escape than CD's. Another thing to keep in mind when debating the mp3 player issue is the ease of replacability. Let's say, God forbid, your music collection is lost or stolen. It will certainly be easier to replace an mp3 player than it will a cherished stack of CD's.
While there are certain programs in the world that will readily rip a DVD onto your laptop hard drive, I question their legality and efficiency. It can be a bit of a pain, but I think the best thing to do is to bring along your DVD's if you're intent on taking them with you. But to cut down on the bulk, leave all your DVD cases behind. Keep your film collection down to the basics and put the DVD's into a small CD case. While you're at it, be sure to remember the operating system and any other essential software CD's your laptop might need in case it comes down with a terrible cold. You probably won't need those, but it's certainly better to bring along those small pieces of plastic than be stuck without them.
Now that I've wasted a good chunk of your time blabbing on about things you're probably not at all interested in, I'd like to open the floor for questions. Anybody? Anybody? No? Alright, then. In closing, I'd like to remind you once more that less is best. I made the mistake of moving to Scotland with far too much luggage, 6 bags in total, at least 2 of them weighing in at around 70 lbs. This time around, if all goes as planned, I'll have managed to pack in 3 weighing no more than 50 lbs each and probably no less than 20. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything.
posted by Chris at 2:13 PM
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