How to and How Not to Pack

Information for lazy packers, like myself, or people who simply don’t have the time to pack their luggage (but have time to read blogs!).

It's time for me to leave home again soon, to start a brand new semester at Uni.

I tried to persuade my parents to let me stay at home - I begged, I pouted, I extorted, I stomped my feet, I tried out the psychological manipulation techniques freshly learnt from psych class... but all my parents did was shake their heads and grin at me.

"You'll enjoy it again in no time," they told me.

To make things worse, I'm gonna have to pack again! Unfortunately, as always, I left packing till the last minute... but since I hate packing so much, I decided to come online and write a blog post instead - about packing!

And so viola - here's my guide to packing for the moderately insane like myself.

1. Don’t pack your mobile phone and forget your battery recharger. If you do, your phone won’t be much use after a couple of days, unless it’s one of those high-tech solar charging ones.

2. If leaving for overseas, don’t bring a mobile phone that doesn’t have Roaming (ability to make calls in any country). Otherwise, it won’t be much use, unless you brought it along to be your lucky talisman.

3. Don’t pack your passport in a bag that you don’t personally carry. By “personally carry”, I mean that your passport containing bag has to be on you at all times. Yes, even when you are in the toilet. Afterall, you don't want people to steal your identity and do crazy things while pretending to be you.

4. If your luggage is in danger of being “overweight”, don’t pack anything that’s useless, like blank notebooks to scribble in or that Twilight novel you've read 20 times already. Did I just hear complaints? Well, at least I didn't say to put your luggage on a diet & exercise regime... which is guaranteed to work, except it might take a few months.

5. Pack early. Otherwise you’ll be buzzing around trying to find your favorite pair of jeans which seems to have “disappeared”. Oh, and you are assured that packing the day before your trip will result in an empty luggage and a mad luggage-holder. (Now, if only I listened to my own advice!)

6. Don’t count the number of books/CDs/etc that you bring to make sure that it doesn’t amount to thirteen. Packing isn’t the time for being superstitious.

7. Don’t waste time writing blogs like this one. There’ll be plenty of time for that when you get to your destination. 

Well, if you follow those seven commandments above, you should be fine for packing. If you don’t, I’m sure you’ll be fine too, as long as you keep a level head and don’t stress too much. If you are one of those lucky people with a robotic luggage packer or equivalent (i.e. if someone else helps you pack your luggage), don’t forget to thank whomever it is with a hug and a kiss.