{"id":335,"date":"2015-04-27T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/?p=335"},"modified":"2015-05-04T13:35:27","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T20:35:27","slug":"how-to-pack-a-suitcase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/how-to-pack-a-suitcase\/","title":{"rendered":"Packing It In: How to Pack a Suitcase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most people who spend their lives within a few inches of the eyepiece of a camera are acquainted with the term \u201crun bag.\u201d They know how to pack a bag, and they know how to pack a suitcase. Depending on what your particular job is, a run bag will have different items in it, but its purpose is pretty easy to convey. A run bag contains the essential tools you need to do your job when your job changes on short notice. It\u2019s what you carry when you know you gotta run.<\/p>\n<p>I was a reporter for almost fifteen years,and one of the tools of the trade was knowing how to pack a suitcase.\u00a0Jin that same vein, though, was how to have the tools I needed on-hand when we would, as my assignment desk editor liked to say &#8220;switch gears.&#8221; I never left the house or the office without my run bag, and<!--more--> although It\u2019s been ten years since I\u2019ve raised a microphone in anger, I can still tell you exactly what was in there:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>IFB (short for \u201cInterruptible Feedback\u201d) earpiece. You use it to listen to what the producer is yelling at you to do while you\u2019re ignoring him.<\/li>\n<li>Laptop\u00a0batteries and car charger for same<\/li>\n<li>Gloves, no matter what the weather is<\/li>\n<li>Fleece jacket\u2026 same rules<\/li>\n<li>Raincoat<\/li>\n<li>Umbrella<\/li>\n<li>Extra socks<\/li>\n<li>Foundation and powder. I\u2019m not proud of this, but guys in television wear makeup. We all know this, right?<\/li>\n<li>Bug spray<\/li>\n<li>Hairbrush and hairspray (like I said, it\u2019s television)<\/li>\n<li>Pens, pens, pens<\/li>\n<li>Reporter\u2019s notebook too<\/li>\n<li>$100 in cash. You would be surprised how many places still don\u2019t accept credit or debit cards, and they\u2019re usually wherever you get on breaking news<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_338\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-338\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/runbag.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-338\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/runbag.jpg?resize=300%2C197\" alt=\"Run Bag\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/runbag.jpg?resize=300%2C197 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/runbag.jpg?w=365 365w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-338\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Run Bag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Other items would occasionally guest star, but you have likely gotten the idea. Pack efficiently, pack smart, be ready.<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s talk about packing for your travels.<\/p>\n<p>With very little repurposing, the principles behind the run bag still apply when it comes to how to pack a suitcase. You should consider your luggage your run bag, and just like a professional run bag, it shouldn\u2019t be something you have to think about all the tie. It should remain quietly in the background of your life until something within it is needed. In this case, your job is to travel, and your luggage should not be and need not be the center of your travel life.<\/p>\n<p>A word of warning. This advice is geared towards the traveler who finds himself or herself in motion, hitting multiple destinations and truly traveling. People for whom getting there is more than half he fun. If you are absolutely committed to wearing a different outfit every day during your journey and wowing your companions with your varied wardrobe, I may not be able to help you.<\/p>\n<p>However, if you\u2019re reading this because you want to do the maximum amount of traveling with the minimum amount of fuss, step right this way. Multiple suitcases that you have to sit on to close work at cross purposes to this goal. We\u2019re going for the biggest bang for the buck here. With that in mind, let\u2019s load our travel run bag.<\/p>\n<p><b>It all starts below the waist<\/b><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s right. I said it. In my experience, when packing clothing that can be most effective on the road, start by choosing which pants you\u2019ll be taking with you. In a perfect world, you would only be taking one pair, but we\u2019re going to go wild here and take two. Ask yourself the following question and stick with your decision: black or brown? Pick a lane and do not deviate from this decision, unless it\u2019s to add a pair of jeans or shorts, or ideally convertible pants. What you\u2019ll find by sticking with one color is that as you move up and down your body, it becomes a lot easier to pick only the shirts, blouses, socks and shoes you need. If fashion matters at all to you, you can keep the old \u201cbelt matches the shoes, socks match the pants\u201d guideline in mind.<\/p>\n<p><b>Your shoes are the enemy<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s talk about footwear for a moment. Your shoes will be your greatest nemesis.They\u2019re bulky, they\u2019re heavy and they don\u2019t compress. So choose a pair\u2026 <i>one pair<\/i>\u2026 that will get you through while on the road. I can hear men and women alike shrieking in agony over this tip. I don\u2019t care. If you\u2019re only going to be gone for less than two weeks, you very likely don\u2019t need more than the pair in your luggage and the pair you will wear when you leave the house. After all, they only need to match that one or two pairs of pants, right? Yes, there are exceptions for multipurpose trips like camping, skiing and the like, I get that. But if you\u2019re traveling with more than one pair of walking around shoes in your suitcase, you have too many shoes.<\/p>\n<p><b>Topping off<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I like to follow this rule when it comes to shirts and tops: I pack as many shirts as I think I need, and then I decrease that number by one-third. I have never once wished I had more when I\u2019m actually on the road. I then do the exact opposite for undershirts, underwear and socks, and thankfully I have a few extra inches to roll these items up and pack them, since I\u2019m not carrying all those shoes.<\/p>\n<p><b>Compartmentalizing<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Remember the scene in The Graduate? Of course you do. I hardly need to elaborate, so I\u2019m going to repurpose it and say that I\u2019m going to tell you two words\u2026 packing cubes. Packing cubes are your best friends when on the road. They help you compartmentalize your clothes, and they help you avoid constantly reorganizing your clothes on the road as you actually wear the items you\u2019ve packed. By the way, add one empty cube as you pack. That\u2019s where your dirty clothes go as they accumulate.<\/p>\n<p>I have traveled for two weeks on the road with three shirts, four t-shirts, four pairs of socks and underwear and one pair of shoes and never once felt like I didn\u2019t have enough to get by. In fact, I often felt like I had too many pieces. I\u2019ve actually traveled with less, by necessity, when rushed out the door on a story out of town. Granted, I was not attending any high society affairs, and I don\u2019t travel with jewelry, a non television makeup kit or the other accouterments that can crowd a suitcase. However, I was able to travel without checking\u00a0 a bag.\u00a0 Plus, and you may want to think about this, if you strip down those essentials, you may have room for all\u2026 or at least some\u2026 of those other goodies you feel you absolutely must have.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m also aware that this is pretty basic advice, but the key is discipline. In the comfort of your own home, it\u2019s easy to justify extra clothing, because every extra item seems like a small add compared to your normally sizable wardrobe, but you are most likely not on a modeling gig. Your clothing is one step removed from the purpose of your travels\u2026. which is, of course, to travel. How you look is a very distant second, third or even lower ranking on the list.<\/p>\n<p>Next Monday: making sure\u2026 or at least increasing the odds\u2026 that your luggage arrives when and where you do.<\/p>\n<p>Onwards!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most people who spend their lives within a few inches of the eyepiece of a camera are acquainted with the term \u201crun bag.\u201d They know how to pack a bag, and they know how to pack a suitcase. Depending on what your particular job is, a run bag will have different items in it, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Packing It In, new blog post from The Palette Project http:\/\/wp.me\/p5Rim5-5p","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[20,21,19,18,9,16],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel-tips","tag-baggage","tag-clothing","tag-luggage","tag-packing","tag-travel","tag-travel-tips"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Rim5-5p","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}