How to pack

[roadrunnertwice]

Okay, here's my technique for packing stuff for a trip:

• Keep a persistent template packing list, so you don't have to conjure your list from the void every time. (Actually keep a couple templates, for different kinds of trips.)
• Make a separate disposable "last call" list once you're almost done packing.
• Take your list with you, and update it with anything you acquire during the trip.
• Use your list again for re-packing.

I have hella ADHD, and yet I almost never lose things while traveling or forget to bring crucial items.

List Stuff

Right, so first off, you need to sort out some way to wrangle your packing lists that makes it easy to:

• Check and re-check. Gotta be able to check an item off the same list multiple times.
• Update. Add new items to a list as soon as they occur to you.
• Template. Well, really just, like, copy-paste or save-as. Nothing fancy.

Personally, I use my home-grown text file system ("FMP") and TaskPaper / TaskMator (for checking stuff off in a plain text file), and I un-check items instead of re-checking them when I'm re-packing. I can do text files from my phone, so that tends to work pretty well for me.

A printed lists setup would work just as well — maybe print multiple columns (4?) of checkboxes next to the list items, and use a new column for each re-pack during the trip.

Templates

My parents used to re-use the same packing list for car camping ever year, and I basically copied this practice from that once I realized how HARD it was to create a packing list from scratch every time. Start with a copy of your last packing list, and update it every time with whatever you forgot.

Also, I found that I go on different kinds of trips, and I need pretty different combinations of stuff for them:

• Backpacking
• Car camping
• Day hikes
• Work trips or "civilization" vacations or visiting my fam

So, I keep separate packing templates for each of them.

Packing

To pack, copy a template to a new packing list and then go through and make any adjustments it needs — there's usually some stuff I decide not to bring, maybe I need to change the amounts of clothing, maybe I'm bringing some gifts or something. Also, pro-tip, include the clothes you're wearing on the list.

Then collect everything into a couple big piles, checking items off as you go. Once almost everything's collected, go ahead and actually pack things into your bag(s).

There's always some stuff that I can't pack until the very last second — my phone and its charger, my water bottle, my notebook — so what I do at this point is copy those items to a secondary "last call" list (on a scrap of paper), and check them off on the main list as I do so. The last call list also gets items for each bag or un-bagged item (hiking poles, etc.) I need to grab when I'm saddling up. I use the last call list to sweep up when it's time to go, and that's that.

Mid-trip Updates

Bring the list with you when you go.

If you acquire something important during the trip, add it to the list. Same if you belatedly realize you brought something that wasn't originally listed. This is probably the hardest bit of the strategy to adopt, but whenever you can manage it, it helps.

Re-packing

When it's time to re-pack your stuff (at the end of the trip, or in the middle of it when you're moving to a new location), get the list out and pack the exact same way you originally did, re-checking each item off as you find it and add it to the pile. Make a last call list again if that makes sense. Etc.

I don't usually need to do this when backpacking, but for anything where there's one or more rooms involved, this has saved me from losing SO MANY freaking objects. The number of times I would have had to replace my whole toiletries kit alone... whew.

Updating Templates

If you added anything to your list during initial packing that really ought to be on the template for next time, copy it over! Same if you found yourself stuck without something you wanted.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Extremely useful method!

I don't really have anywhere to implement that in my life right now, but I do have a couple packing templates in my Keep notes, just waiting to be busted out for when something exciting does happen.