Packing for a work trip or vacation doesn’t have to be stressful. Good systems work for easy packing and keep you on track to have everything you need and not much excess. This episode is full of packing tips that will help simplify your packing struggles and lighten your luggage for your next destination.
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Full Episode Transcription (not edited):
Packing for a work trip or vacation, doesn’t have to be stressful. Good systems work for easy packing and keep you on track to have everything you need and not much excess. This episode is full of packing tips that will help you simplify your packing struggles and lighten your luggage for your next destination.
(00:18):
Hey friends, quick tips that make a big impact in your daily life are my favorite ways to implement systems around the house. I’ve been sharing easy strategies and my go-to organizing products for tip Tuesday on the intentional at Instagram feed for a few years. Now I’m excited to bring it to the podcast with short episodes, answering your questions every Tuesday. If you want me to answer your questions, go to the podcast page on intentional, edit.com and submit your questions there. Let’s get started on this tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast.
(00:50):
Hey there, thank you for joining me for episode 75 of the intentional edit podcast on this tip Tuesday episode, we’re going to talk about packing because some of you still have trips and travel for this summer happening and some of us are already back in school. So will you do me a favor? And if you haven’t already joined the Facebook group for the intentional edit podcast community, go over to Facebook and join the group it’s called declutter organize and create systems to simplify your home in life and just post in there. Let me know. When did school start for you or when does school start for you? Are you still on summer vacation? Do you still have travel coming up or are you already back to school? I wanna know. And let me know where you’re from too. What part of the country are you in?
(01:41):
When does school start or do you still have summer break? Because I know there are lots of changes that have happened with some schools starting earlier and some schools starting later, switches going back and forth, both directions all over the place. And it’s interesting as I get to talk with more of you, it’s interesting to hear about the school calendars and journeys that have happened kind of where you are living. And some schools have decided to start later and then after a year or two, it is not working like they thought so they move it back. And of course it goes the other way around too. So I just think this is interesting head over to the Facebook group, declutter organize and create systems to simplify your home and life. That’s on Facebook. And it’s just a private group for the intentional edit podcast community.
(02:30):
And let me know what’s going on with your school start dates and if you’re still on summer vacation or not, let’s get to the question that came in and I will answer it for this tip Tuesday episode. So the question of the day is it starts with chronic over packer here. Do you ever take too much when traveling, how can I cut down on what I pack, but not forget anything that I might need on the trip? I always return from travel with things that were never used on my trip. I think that happens to a lot of people and there’s definitely some things you can do to simplify your packing. One thing is go listen to episode 12 of the intentional edit podcast. That’s all about packing specifically for air travel, carry on and tons of tips in there. Those are things that I actually do to simplify my packing, to make it easy.
(03:22):
And no one wants to carry around and Lu around heavy luggage with too much stuff. Especially if you don’t end up using all of those belongings or the majority of those belongings, you always wanna have what you need. Of course you don’t wanna have to be in a situation where you need something and you don’t have it and you have to purchase a duplicate or something like that, but you don’t wanna take too much stuff. So I have a couple suggestions. One thing that I would recommend is have a system and a bag for your toiletry items. Anything that you would use like skincare, toothbrush, toothpaste, hair, brush all of those things and get those in travel sizes. Sometimes even the travel size is huge. The travel size of a face wash could last me for a month or two. You can get smaller containers from Amazon or target or a drugstore, places like that and get containers that make sense for the size that you actually will use the amount that you will actually use up on a trip and then keep those things fully stocked.
(04:32):
So whenever you return from a trip and you unpack take five minutes to refill the body wash to refill the shampoo, the lotion, all those things, and put them back into your toilet tree bag, zip it up. And it is ready for the next trip. A lot of people seem to bring extra products that they get from the travel section because they see them there. And it’s like, oh, I’ll try this. I don’t use hair gel, but I’ll grab this travel size hair gel. Oh, now I need this new package of razors just because it’s in the travel section doesn’t mean that you need it, or because it comes in travel size. It doesn’t mean you need it. Take inventory of the things that you use on a daily basis, come up with a container for the travel size amount that you use. I have these little silicone containers that I use for my face moisturizer or night cream or things like that.
(05:25):
And when I am going on a trip, I make sure that I have enough pumps in that little thing for the week. If I’m gonna be gone 10 days, I put about 12 pumps in there and it lasts me the entire trip. That is a way to make sure that I am taking small amounts and small containers instead of huge containers that I will never get through. If you need a weekend trip, of course, that’s less than if you’re going away for three weeks, take what you need and use the products you have. Don’t take extra stuff just because it is for sale and available in a travel size in terms of clothes, of course, clothes take up more space than a toiletry bag with your clothes. Think about what you are doing. You usually have an overall idea of what the itinerary is for the trip you’re going on.
(06:18):
So you will look at the itinerary. You’ll think about the activities that you are participating in on this trip. And then you will take a glance at the weather and pack accordingly pack, things that you can use for a number of outfits. A Jean jacket can go over a dress. It can also be used with pants and an outfit on another day. You don’t need a different jacket for every single day. Taking less can mean things that can duplicate or think about the shoes. Do you have a pair of sporty shoes that you can wear hiking or in an outdoor activity or to workout, but you could also use those as a shoe for an outfit on vacations, especially quick trips or weekend getaways. Sometimes people say they have the intention to workout. So they bring workout a workout clothes for each day, but then they never use the workout outfit, or they only use one of those.
(07:16):
Can you wear the workout outfit twice? If you’re going hiking and doing some outdoor activities or excursions that are physical, you are probably not going to fit in a separate workout or a trip to the hotel gym. So that extra workout outfit can be left at home. If it’s not going to rain where you’re going, there’s no rain in the forecast. You don’t need to put the umbrella and the rain jacket in take inventory of what is happening. Look at that itinerary and plan accordingly, try to plan your outfits. That make sense where the thing is that you’re doing and try not to be an over packer, an extra outfit that is small, that can fit in, or just an extra shirt you could wear with a pair of jeans. You’re already bringing. If you need extras, think like that, you don’t need a whole new outfit with an entire different pair of shoes you want to minimize.
(08:08):
And this takes practice. What I have found is I used to be more of an over backer. I was intentional, made an effort to put some of these things into effect, have that toilet tree bag ready to go with only the products that I need and looking at the itinerary and the weather ahead of time made it so that I would pack less. And I wasn’t as much of an over packer after doing that for a couple trips, then I scale it down even more because you know what you will use and you know what? You will have time for what is practical for this type of a trip? I think this is a thing where practice makes progress and any little bit of progress is an improvement from what you were doing. When you were a chronic over packer, you can totally do this.
(08:55):
I have faith in you. I know you can take less and still have everything that you need on your next trip. Don’t forget to join the Facebook group for the intentional edit podcast, community declutter, organize and create systems to simplify your home in life is the name of it. Or scroll down in the podcast description and just click on the link to head over to Facebook and join the group. And let me know, are you still on summer vacation? Do you have trips coming up or are you back in school and make sure you let me know the city where you live. So I know where all this is happening and taking place. Thank you so much for listening to this tip. Tuesday episode was episode 75. If you have questions for me, you can always leave them by heading to intentional edit.com clicking on the record. Now button that will pop up and leave your question or your struggle so that I can help you find a solution and an answer on future tip Tuesday episode, I’ll meet you back here on Friday for another episode of the intentional edit podcast.
(09:54):
Thanks for listening to another tip Tuesday episode on the intentional edit podcast. Keep submitting your questions so that I can keep answering them on these episodes. They’re quick episodes and I love to share actionable solutions for you to implement at home. You can always send me an email or direct message on Instagram, but I have added a cool way to submit voice questions on the website. It’s honestly my favorite way to take questions. Now, head over to intentional edit.com, click on the podcast page and scroll down to where it says, submit your questions for the podcast. Ask me anything there. And you can even be featured on the show. Questions can be about creating systems in your house, decluttering, how to manage family schedules, getting kids on board with organizing, managing, and maintaining systems. Honestly, they can be personal questions of things you wanna know about how I do something in my house. I want to know what you want to know if you’re struggling with it. Other people are too ready set, go over right now to intentional edit.com and ask your questions.
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Lauren is the founder of Intentional Edit, a home organization and lifestyle company focused on consciously editing to create efficient and organized spaces. Lauren believes that a functional home that looks and feels good has a positive influence on all aspects of life. Creating systems that allow for the home to function more efficiently, therefore, eliminating most of the clutter and chaos is her priority. While trends come and go organization is always in style!
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I’m Lauren, and I’m passionate about being organized and efficient and making spaces beautiful at the same time. I hope to inspire you to live your best organized life.
