Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to pack about a day before a major trip.
Speaker 1: There is no point packing a long time ahead of time,
Speaker 1: as you will run out of clean clothes and maybe
Speaker 1: spend more time packing than you need to. But if
Speaker 1: you've got at least twenty four hours, then there is
Speaker 1: usually time to solve any major problems and think of
Speaker 1: anything you forgot. I have a lot of children, and
Speaker 1: even if I am only traveling with a few of them,
Speaker 1: travel tends to involve a lot of logistics. If we
Speaker 1: are flying, we aim to travel carry on only. That
Speaker 1: means pack needs to be strategic. I'd like to think
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good at it. However, one strategy that is
Speaker 1: particularly helpful is not just thinking about what I pack,
Speaker 1: but when I pack. If I personally am traveling solo
Speaker 1: on an overnight work trip, I can throw my stuff
Speaker 1: in my bag in five minutes. If I'm traveling for
Speaker 1: several days, on the other hand, and traveling with kids,
Speaker 1: then I follow this rule pack at least twenty four
Speaker 1: hours ahead of time. There is no need to pack
Speaker 1: multiple days ahead of time and less. You're doing something
Speaker 1: so incredibly specific that you need to procure and make
Speaker 1: sure you have lots of special equipment. Packing expands to
Speaker 1: fill the available space. If you give yourself five days
Speaker 1: to pack, your packing will fill five days, and who
Speaker 1: needs that? But giving yourself at least one day to
Speaker 1: pack is wise. You can do a load of laundry
Speaker 1: if it turns out you need to. If you need
Speaker 1: to buy anything, you still have time to run to Target.
Speaker 1: You probably don't have time to order from Amazon, though
Speaker 1: sometimes same day shipping is an option, say you might
Speaker 1: not even need to rule that out. You also have
Speaker 1: time to think about what you might be forgetting. If
Speaker 1: you realize you don't have enough reading material, you have
Speaker 1: time to grab something from the house or download an ebook.
Speaker 1: That is always an option. You can think through whether
Speaker 1: you will need another snack. As you are walking around
Speaker 1: the house that night, you will see something like a
Speaker 1: pack of earplugs and realize, hey, that might be wise
Speaker 1: to stick in my bag. You will double check that
Speaker 1: you have all your prescription medications, and maybe you will
Speaker 1: grab some tile in all or other such things that
Speaker 1: it is just convenient to have. If you have a
Speaker 1: tendency to overpack. Filling your suit case about twenty four
Speaker 1: hours ahead of time also allows you to reconsider. You
Speaker 1: can see that not everything is fitting and so you
Speaker 1: will need to do some editing. A little bit of
Speaker 1: time allows you to do this thoughtfully versus as a
Speaker 1: last minute rush. In any case, there is no perfect
Speaker 1: packing job, but it generally doesn't matter that much. Most
Speaker 1: places around the world have stores, so if you forget something,
Speaker 1: you can buy it. On my recent trip to Spain
Speaker 1: with my two older boys, we wound up buying a
Speaker 1: hoodie when it was colder than expected. We bought two
Speaker 1: more umbrellas when it was rainier than expected. All good,
Speaker 1: but as with much in life, planning and preparation are
Speaker 1: always about optimizing within certain constraints. Doing too much ahead
Speaker 1: of time as a problem, as it takes more time.
Speaker 1: Life can change, and it is frustrating to do a
Speaker 1: stellar packing job for a trip that gets canceled or
Speaker 1: shifts significantly. But you don't want to be underprepared either.
Speaker 1: I think packing about twenty four hours before is a
Speaker 1: good balance, so that is what I do, and maybe
Speaker 1: you would like to make it a general policy too.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast this is a production of iHeartMedia. For more
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