Summertime is a time for adventure, fun, and travel. Traveling is so much fun whether it be a few hours Up North to the lake, spending a few months backpacking through Europe, or flying across the country to explore California. However, traveling requires packing and if you're like me the packing part isn't much fun.
I'm usually the one with a list pre-planned for everything in my life, from my daily to-do lists to the order of how I'm going to organize my closet. But when it comes to packing, this doesn't work so well because no matter how many lists that I make, I end up sitting on the floor staring at an empty suitcase with stuff strewn across the room. The process of packing is overwhelming and I dread having to pack anything.
I know I'm only going to be gone for a week but I always want to take enough clothes for two weeks. I end up having to limit what I'm taking, which is stressful. I need to have clothes in case I get invited to a Royal Tea (ya girl can dream) so I get overwhelmed when the dress I would need won't fit into my suitcase. If you're like me, packing is a five stage process.
1. Making a list
The very first stage of packing, when you are still smiling and filled with excitement for your adventures. You make a list thinking that making a list will make your life easier and that packing will be a breeze.
Your list is organized by day with each outfit and any extra clothes you want to bring just in case you happen to run into your celebrity crush and they ask you to dinner *looking at you Chace Crawford*. One last look at your list before you start what you think will be the easy-breezy process of finding your clothes.
2. Finding your clothes
You are still smiling as you start to find your clothes. You mark the first two clothing items off of you list and you think "this packing thing is so easy". Now, you are trying to find your blue pin-striped dress that you need because it will go so well with the atmosphere of the place your family gets brunch at while on vacation. How else are you supposed to get Instagram worthy pictures of you at brunch if you can't find that dress.
It has been half-an-hour and you still can't find your dress and you need to have it. You give up looking through your closet and you find it hanging in the front of you sister's closet, but you have no time to ask questions. You still have a whole list of clothes to find.
The process of finding your clothes ends up taking a few hours and has involved the help of your mom, sister, and your grandma who lives next door. You no longer have a smile on your face and you just want to get your suitcase packed so you can go to sleep.
3. Packing your suitcase
You are sitting on your bedroom floor surrounded by the pile of clothes you just found and you have no idea where to begin. You look at that dreaded list again and start to fold the planned outfits together. Your outfits are packed in the order that you want to wear them. You keep packing and packing until you realize that you have packed all of your clothes.
At this point, you want to jump up and down because all your clothes are packed; BUT, you have no room in your suitcase left for your shoes or anything else that you need like shampoo, conditioner, soap, you know, the important stuff. You are ready to cry because you know have to unpack everything that you just packed.
4. Unpacking your suitcase
This is the easiest stage of packing... you turn that dang suitcase upside down and just let everything tumble to the ground. With all your clothes tumbling to the ground, your hopes of getting to sleep soon will go along with it.
5. Revising your list
Now, you have finally reached the last step of packing which means you have to edit that packing list you made during Stage One. You will have to make the choice between the cocktail dress that you are packing just in case some guy you meet at the beach invited you to a fancy dinner party or the more practical sundress that you need to take for the family pictures that have been planned for weeks. Continue to make those difficult decisions until you think you have taken out enough outfits so you have room for the important stuff.
Congratulations, you made it through all five stages and now you get to repeat these steps until everything fits into your suitcase. The smile will soon return as you finally get to fall asleep to dreams of the vacation that you will soon be on.
