Pack With Me
A review of how packing went for my 25-day trip
I just got back from one of the many trips I have planned this year. I spent a beautiful 25 days in the pacific northwest (a week and a half in Portland followed by two weeks in Seattle). There are many things to worry about when traveling but one thing I thought about several times leading up to it was clothes.
Some people wouldn’t even give this a second thought; they’d just throw a handful of things in a suitcase and zip it up. If you’re one of those people, this blog is not for you but also please write a blog about how you do that. Here were the things I was thinking through as I decided, in order of biggest concern to smallest:
I hadn’t worn ‘real’ clothes in over a year. Almost nothing I’ve had on would even remotely be considered an outfit and I have spent a considerable amount of time barefoot. Over the pandemic, my priorities (about clothing), my style, and my body had all changed. So I needed to find clothes that would accommodate that.
It needed to cover a variety of activities. I worked during this trip so I would need clothes that would be appropriate for meetings. But I also needed clothes that could go easily from hiking to drinks to a museum.
I would definitely need to reuse pieces. Traveling or not, most people don’t go 25 days without repeating an outfit. But I also didn’t want to feel like I was re-wearing the same thing over and over again. So I tried very hard to pack items that made a lot of different combinations.
I obviously wanted to look cute. Obviously. This one should probably be up higher but I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.
The Items
illustrations by me and inspired by this graphic of Oscar dresses worn by best actress winners
So what did I end up with? Well I packed 22 pieces (25 if you count shoes). What I packed came out to 2 single pieces, 7 bottoms, 13 tops, and 3 sneakers.
I won’t go through everything I brought but there are three things I do want to call out. The first is my leotard. I’ve had it for 9 years and I’d buy it 60 times over. It’s very flattering on, it goes with everything, and it looks nice with how seamlessly it fits into bottoms. The next is my midi skirt. I liked it so much after I bought it I bought a second one in a different color. It is so comfortable I can honestly wear it for 24 hours and it’s very easy to either dress up or dress down. It’s also a great length. A random thing to note is the material is the fabric version of a sharpei. While this means it always looks wrinkly it also means it never looks wrinkly because that’s just how it is. And lastly, there is something about a white canvas sneaker. I brought two pairs: my high-top Supergas and platform vans. There’s not a single outfit that these shoes didn’t go with. The only supplement I really needed was a proper sneaker for hikes but honestly, I could’ve gotten away with just bringing one pair of shoes for this whole trip.
The Outfits
One thing you’ll see is there are two colors that appear across several items: army green and burnt orange. Packing items with similar colors made mixing and matching to create new outfits a lot easier. I was able to make 20 unique outfits out of what I packed which means only a fifth of the time was I wearing something I already wore. Does this really matter? No, I’m not actively worried about repeating outfits. It was just nice because it kept me from feeling tired/bored/stagnant while getting ready which happens pretty easily when you’re living out of suitcase.
Conclusion
I’m happy with what I packed and learned a lot which I’ll take with me (figuratively and literally) on my next 3 trips. My findings:
Favorite Outfit: leotard, jeans, hawaiian shirt.
It was right at the intersection of me feeling comfortable and cute and I definitely plan on bringing it with me on future trips.
Most Complimented: cheech & chong tee, jeans
This may seem like a weird thing to call out but I kept getting comments on this outfit on the day that I wore it. Which is pretty strange to me because it’s a t-shirt and jeans but it was popular. I think the combination of the shoes, the sunglasses, and the way my hair was styled may have added something.
More Worn Piece(s): black cropped tee, biker shorts
I wore both of these pieces 6 times each which I think is a lot!
Something I Wish I Brought: sandals
I don’t love sandals and definitely not while traveling because I don’t think they offer the support I need for the amount of walking I do. But I realized pretty early in the trip that I didn’t have any shoes that I could throw on quickly. While I probably wouldn’t wear them for long periods of time, simpler shoes would be great for a quick coffee shop trip.
Let me know what your must-have item for traveling is.
