Packing for Bliss

Suitcase Stuff

• Work out gear
• My lunch box
• Toiletries
• Office Supplies (this gets transferred to my purse when I go into the office)
• Clothes

Purse Stuff

• Electronic gear
• Medical supplies
• Travel Documents
• Shopping bags

I came up with a list for each of these items and I make sure that everything on the list is in the kit before I put it goes into the suitcase. Each of my lists is highly personalized because my kits/ modules need to fit my life; however, I’ll share some of the basics to help you build your own kits. Most of my kits go into my suitcase, but I always carry my medical supplies, my electronic gear, and my travel documents kits with me.

Work Out Gear

What I pack for workout gear varies depending upon the trip and how I think I’m most likely to exercise. For instance, this trip I’ll be staying at a hotel with an outside pool and it’s too cold to swim, so my swim suit will stay home. My exercise options will most likely be walking or doing yoga in my room, so this trip I’ll take shorts, a t-shirt, and socks, my yoga mat, and sneakers. If I end up walking, I’ll wear street clothes so I don’t need to pack any sweat pants. I have a big enough yoga bag that the shorts, t-shirt, and socks can go right inside so everything is handy. My pedometer always is with me so I can track my steps each day.

My Lunch box

My lunch box is the most essential of my travel modules because it helps me make sure I can eat healthy on the road. My kit includes a tea cup, a knife, fork, spoon, cereal bowl, a small cutting board, tea, honey, and a few other small things. It all fits into a plastic shoebox that I got at Target that fits perfectly into my suitcase. By making sure I have the utensils that I need on hand to eat healthy, I have a better chance of success.

Toiletries

Although most hotels have soap and shampoo, I always like to take my own so that I’m sure I’ll have shampoo that doesn’t dry out my hair. I also use business trips as a chance to indulge in soaps and lotions that I don’t normally use at home so my toiletries kit has some good soap and expensive lotion so that I feel pampered on the road. My toiletries stay in a thick plastic bag so that if something leaks it doesn’t get all over everything else in my bag.

Office Supplies

Most people, especially those traveling for business, don’t often think to travel office supplies as the assumption is that since you’re going to an office they should have everything you need. However, after one two many trips getting stuck without a stapler, tape, scissors, or other essentials, I soon learned that I needed to make sure I had my own basic office supplies. My little black bag contains the basics, please note cards and stamps in case I have time to write notes home, highlighters, and a notebook and pen to make sure I can capture notes if I need to. My bag also contains a small spice jar filled with ink cartridges for my fountain pens, paper clips, staples and some small binder clips. Because TSA gets a little cranky if you try to bring scissors onto a plane, this one travels in my checked luggage until I reach my destination, then it goes in my purse. My little black bag of tricks also contains a change purse with a few dollars and change enough to get a soda or something from the vending machine in case no one has change.

Clothes

Typically the purpose of your trip are going to dictate what clothes you take, but I’ve found a few simple rules of thumb for traveling. If you’re going to a location where the travel is business casual, don’t pack sports coats or suits as they are bulky and unwieldy. In most environments that are business casual, a light sweater or polo shirt works. Also don’t get into the trap of thinking that you need a pair of pants for every day. I’m going to Chattanooga for a week and I’ve packed underwear for the week, two parts of pants, a pair of jeans, and four tops. I’ll go right to the plant from the airport, so I’ll wear the clothes that I’m going into the office in on Monday to save packing another outfit. In terms of shoes, I typically pack one pair of flats and a pair of heels. You can look nice and put together without packing ten suitcases full of clothes.

Electronic Gear

We live in a digital age and all of our electronic accessories need to be powered up to operate. All too often, I’ve gotten somewhere and realized that I’d forgotten the charger for my computer or cell phone and then had to go running all over town to find one. I found a really cool floral cosmetics bag that I use for my electronics gear. It contains my computer charger, my phone charger, a USB cable to connect my phone to my computer, headphones, and a Webcam so I can communicate with the folks back home if need be.

Medical Supplies

I know the term medical supplies makes it sound as if I’m carrying a defibrillator around in my purse and that is so not the case. However, I’ve found that it’s helpful to have the basics on hand. My medical kit, which is a fun little pencil kit that I picked up at Borders contains lotion; aspirin or other pain killers; echnicia and goldenseal tablets to help ward off infection; hand sanitizer, which doubles as a wound cleaner, band aids, zicam for the sinus infections I always get when I’m traveling, and sinus medicine. I used to carry a few more things in my medical supply kit, but these were the things I was always using.

I hate standing behind people who are fumbling for their documents when you get to the airline check in so I wanted to make sure I never became one of those people. I also hate having to track down receipts when it came time to file my expense report so I purchased a cute little bag at World Market that holds my passport and has a pocket for me to stick all those pesky receipts in. Since it goes with my travel stuff, I know that the receipts in the bag are all travel receipts I need to file.

Shopping Bags

One of my goals is to reduce the number of paper or plastic bags that I use as they always end up getting thrown away, so I always make sure that I have a couple of reusable shopping bags tucked in my purse. They are making convenient ones these days that roll up to a small size and have their own packing case so they’re easy to stick into my purse.

As I look over this list, it seems as if I’m packing everything but the kitchen sink and maybe I am; however, as my packing has evolved over the years, I’ve found that all of the above are truly necessary in order for me to function on the road without having to constantly run to the store to get something I forgot. Since I started, packing for bliss I’m a lot happier when I travel as I’m a lot less likely to have forgotten something.