How to Pack for a Weekend Getaway
Searching for best packing practices for a weekend getaway is a numbers game: the 1-2-3-4-5-6 Rule, the 5-4-3-2-1 Rule, the 3-3-3 Rule.
The point of all these packing plans is to show how to pack sufficiently for your days away without overpacking. What you wear when you travel isn’t like looking into your closet every morning and choosing between a bunch of suits, dresses or skirts. Packing for a couple of days to a specific destination takes planning.
Decades ago, a college friend took a summer and bounced around Europe with a backpack staying in hostiles. Her motto when traveling: Everyday is a new audience. There’s something about that motto that still rings true.
To see which packing plan works best for you, try on the lowest number first, the 3-3-3 Rule. The Huffpost.com advises travelers to pack 3 tops, 3 bottoms/dresses, and 3 pair shoes.
The second lowest number, 5-4-3-2-1, recommends packing 5 tops, 4 bottoms, 3 pair shoes, two dresses, and an accessory set of jewelry, sunglasses and a hat.
The highest number rule, 1-2-3-4-5-6, recommends packing 1 hat, 2 pair shoes, 3 bottoms, 4 tops, 5 pair socks, 6 pair underwear.
A fourth packing practice recommends packing for 3 distinct days: Essential Day, Every Day and Travel Day.
Packing smart is particularly important for a short getaway trip. It’s about having what you need so that you don’t have to spend time in your short stay shopping for what you forgot at home in your closet.
Are you headed to a rustic cabin miles from the nearest gas station that sells whatever if you run low? Are you staying at a luxury hotel that provides it all: hairdryer, shampoo, body wash and fluffy bathrobe as amenities? Is yours a quick beach break that requires only swimsuits and a couple of sun dresses? Are you touring the Vatican and need an outfit that covers your shoulders and knees? Or are you speaking at a Ted Talk and want to look your most professional?
Think through your itinerary.
Famous organizer Marie Kondo has a plan for you that includes her trademark motto: Spark Joy.
Her website (Konmari.com) recommends that before you pack you lay out each item you intend to take on your bed and then filter what’s necessary from the rest. She provides instruction how to pack clothing in an upright fashion which minimizes wrinkles and allows you to easily view your outfit options when opening your suitcase. No more rifling through your bag. Kondo’s style of organization eliminates potential stressors allowing you to make the most of your time away…the same practice and results of her home organization makeovers.
Tenured travelers tell tales of learning to pack both a carryon and suitcase when headed to business duties. Traveling to Barbados at the invitation of that country’s travel marketing team, I purposely determined to carry only my purse and computer bag from Denver, Colorado through JFK to Bridgetown, Barbados. It was 84° and humid in Barbados in January when I landed wearing my winter coat, long sleeves and jeans. I stood in line at the airport for hours to report my missing luggage to officials. The woman in line ahead of me muttered, “Good luck, I’ve been here 4 days in a row.”
I bought a toothbrush, t-shirt, and hairbrush from the hotel lobby shop. They were out of toothpaste. My credit card company thought my card had been stolen and froze it until I made a call to report I was traveling. The next morning the Marketing PR rep drove me to a mall shop to buy a swimsuit and urged me to hop to it. The store was closing in the next 20 minutes for a holiday weekend. (In my experience buying a swimsuit is a 6-month event. You try on suits, go home and lose 20 pounds and go back to make your final swimwear purchase.) The PR rep felt my pain. She drove me to her house and handed me a tube of toothpaste she hadn’t yet opened. Later that afternoon, she took me on a tour of the golf course where Tiger Woods married Elin Nordegren, and there I snagged a pair of enviable knee-length linen shorts from the golf shop.
Four days later my lost luggage showed up in time for the press farewell dinner. My fellow journalists were happy to see me dressed in something other than what I’d been wearing for the first 4 of the 5-day tour.
If I’d gone the carryon plus checked bag route, I would have had what I needed albeit more limited than I’d planned.
Want a carryon with everything? See the TUMI International Dual Access 4-Wheeled Carryon with built-in USB port and separate garment sleeve at Amazon.com.