My Favorite Travel-Packing List

But before we get there, let’s just try to understand why we need to hack what we are hacking. To date, the majority of us grew up without the technology at the palm of our hands. Hence, speaking from experience, the only organized way where I can pack for my travel would be to jot down what I need for the trip on a piece of paper (preferably a light foldable one piece that I can chuck it inside my travel bag after I’m done just in case I need to refer to it again along the trip). Needless to say, I had to re-write that list numerous times because it was either lost in transit, turned irrelevant, or unpleasant to look at overtime. With this re-writing task, travel packing has not been made easier. If we can take a step back to look at the big picture, travel packing now would involve 2 rounds of effort, namely (i) time and patience to re-think and re-write that list, and (ii) the action of packing. If you have tried choosing to go freestyle once in a while by packing just what came into your mind, you would then tend to miss out a thing or two essentials that you would have to pay for it ultimately, either in terms of monetary or nonmonetary form. Nah…not the way of hacking what we are hacking! There must be a way!

Thankfully, it is safe to say that the majority of us can now do away with that crumpled list with the advancement of technology. Do not overthink. It’s just a simple To-Do List on our smartphones! Woahhh… Personally, my current most effective hack is the simple yet useful “Reminders” application on my Apple iPhone (P/S: not advertising for the phone per se, just maximizing my resources!). There are plenty of free To-Do List applications that you can download to your smartphone. Just find a simple list that would allow you to “tick” and “un-tick”. Check out a snapshot of my packing list:

1. Basics: List down the basics that you would need during your travel by picturing what you would use in a normal day at home. The quantity of an item to pack would then depend on the number of days of your trip.
2. Supplementary: List down the items that you would need based on the type of your vacation. For example, you would need shades, sunscreen, swimwear etc. for a beach holiday. This portion of the list might need to be updated from time to time as you plan for different types of vacation. [Note: you need not discard what you have listed down for a beach holiday from your master list as you start to do listing for a winter holiday. Keep everything there and just un-tick those that are not applicable as you pack.]
3. You can group the items that belong in the same family OR items that you would usually pack together in order to avoid a long packing list. For example: toothpaste/toothbrush/dental floss/tongue cleaner can be an item instead of 4 items. Unless of course, “un-ticking” the checklist is one of your favorite things to do. Then, by all means!
4. Finally, un-tick your list as you pack those items into your travel bags so that you would not be confused by what you have or have not packed!
5. Bonus: you can crosscheck the list again as you are packing home towards the end of your vacation! This way, you will never forget to bring an essential item home, except for what you have shopped from the vacation of course. Simple, add another item into your list: “Newly Shopped Items”. Voila!