Stuff

 

Sometimes you leave your house to go on vacation. And you gotta take some of your stuff with you. Gotta take about two big suitcases full of stuff, when you go on vacation. You gotta take a smaller version of your house. ~ George Carlin

Honestly, I try mightily not to pack the whole house. Okay, now I try not to. For our first world cruise in 2018, I confess I pretty much emptied my closet. 

Since then, I've discovered the wonders of a "capsule wardrobe." I'm sure you've seen those packing mavens on YouTube who can travel the earth with just a carry-on. They amaze and dismay me, but I have borrowed a few of their ideas. 

• Every piece of clothing must go with more than one other piece!
• Pick a color palette centered on one or two neutrals to help with this match up.
• Jeans go with everything, and you can wear them more than once without washing them.
• Layers make it easier to change up your look.
• Limit the number of shoes you pack to 3 or less.

So for this trip, the DH and I are sharing one 50 lb suitcase. 

Then too, I'm in fear of not having our bag make the jumps from St Louis to Atlanta to Amsterdam to Bergen on Thursday. I followed the misadventures of another pair of cruisers who were on a two week voyage around the British Isles and Iceland while their suitcases remained safe in Dallas. They didn't even pack a carry-on, so they arrived at embarkation with just the clothes on their backs. None of their meds, no jackets, not even a change of underwear!

That's so not happening to us. 

So we each have a mini-capsule of pieces in our carry-ons that, in a pinch, will see us through the whole two weeks we'll be gone. Rather than take up space on this post, I've made a Packing Page that'll always be available on the blog.

The packing experts on Youtube always have the latest and greatest bags to recommend. They have matching packing cubes and a charger for your cellphone built in to the handle. I, however, will stick with my trusty old reliable. I can't tell you how old this piece is, more than a decade I'm sure, but it always fits in the overhead without a hitch and I know how to use the limited space to best advantage. And if it's a little shabby-looking, well, that just makes it like the Velveteen Rabbit. It's "real" because it's been played with so much! 

Because we have to be aware of weight in our big suitcase, I didn't roll the clothes. (You really can fit more in if you roll!) I didn't smoosh and squoosh things into every crevice like I did when we had a 70 pound limit on our bags when we traveled business where baggage fees are waived. We're flying premium economy this time, so we'll pay for our single 50 lb checked bag to ride along. 

Of course, in addition to our carry-ons and our checked bag, we are also traveling with medical equipment. We each have a shoulder bag for cpaps, and of course I'm bringing Herkimer & Percival, my portable oxygen concentrators. The DH will be carrying a backpack that holds all the extra POC batteries (which are wicked heavy!), the power cords, extra canulas, and charging cords for our cellphones and computer. All told, once we check our big suitcase, we'll still have 6 items to wrangle from the Midwest to Norway. 

Fortunately, none of the medical devices count when it comes to what you can bring on a plane, so only the DH's backpack will count as his "personal item." My hands will be too full with the POC's and my rolling carry-on to have a personal item.   

Anyway, the lion's share of everything is packed. I'm still using a checklist, trying to dispel the sense that I'm forgetting something vital...