Is the bulging suitcase worth it?
And here I thought I packed well. It’s incredible what happens when you carry your entire life around in a suitcase.
Last month I was rooming with a guy from the group I’m traveling with. It’s not the first time we’ve lived together and both times he walked by my room on packing day and said—
‘So much stuff.’
Which to me is always ironic because we all travel with the same weight allotment, yet why did I seemingly have ‘so much stuff.’
Last time I sort of brushed it off as, well if you only knew me before with my closet and two dressers busting at the seams, this is pretty darn good.
But the last couple of months purging has been at the back of my mind and not for the reasons you might think. The amount of time it takes me to strategically pack everything amongst my bags to make the airline size and weight limits is like a full day affair and quite frankly I’m just over it.
Much less walking through the airport with it all— every single month.
I’d definitely been pushing the limits anyways, running on luck that the airlines never actually check the carry on or personal items weight.
I’m envious of my smooth gliding friends not fumbling around with their luggage like I do— mind you I travel with a rolling duffle that broke a wheel last month so it’s basically me dragging 50lbs of nonsense across the ground. It’s enough to make anyone want to pitch the thing. The same guy who says I have so much stuff always nicely offers to help me with my bag though— gem of a guy really.
But this month I said no more! I’m purging! I want that free-wheeling lifestyle!
So I went and got myself a 64Euro roller bag and said here I go on a purge spree.
Flash forward to a long sit with all my clothes laid out on the bed not even knowing where to start, going back on myself being like is it actually bad to have all these. And easy for a guy to say I have so much stuff, guys have it easy. And then rational mind decides to show up and I’m like, well girls can have it easy too, just like guys who prioritize style might have as much if not more than I do. Cue style guy vs chill guy. Aha! Maybe the key is to swap to being chill girl instead of style girl. Buttttt I loveeee style. And therein pops that can of worms. And then there’s all those life things that I just want to be prepared for because the path ahead is so unknown.
So here’s some thoughts I use to dissect this—
Minimalism
The high cost of low quality goods
Stereotypes
The style rabbit hole
How prepared is too prepared
The capsule wardrobe goal
And then considering, what would minimalist functional style look like? Ohh, your girl likes a good challenge! So far my style is neutral chic as coined by my fellow travelers. And rumor has it there’s a guy in the group ahead of us that travels with a single carry on and a backpack! Now I’m not sure about getting there but I darn well wouldn’t mind getting as close as I can.
And for this reason too, I’ve been wanting to start my own fashion line. What I’ve been after is a versatile yet stylish wardrobe that can accommodate all the climates I’ll encounter while traveling. We’re in a pretty moderate range so I have to believe it’s possible!
Today I found a brand called Vetta Capsule. They had so much variety in 5-pieces and I dug in investigating how they did it cuz the example shots they provided were quite impressive. And then I realized their sample shots had alt colors and def more than 5-pieces. But it prompted an interesting thought— how little could I actually get away with?
So I’ll probs take this on, cuz I really want to get that initial number down.
UPDATE: I took it on— rid my suitcases of 3-shopping bags worth of stuff and felt lighter than ever! It’s been a 2-months without now, and you’ll still catch me on occasion being like dang I got rid of that. Even so, I think the only thing I really miss are my sneakers that slip on and off without tying them. They were a bit worn out so figured I’d get new ones but haven’t been able to rationalize the spend/add when all my other shoes work just fine. The travel ease has been so worth it though. Highly recommend.