Recently, Anne Lene over at Minimalist Sometimes did a post about her one bag only packing for a 3 week trip to Houston. It got me thinking about doing a similar post about our 3 week honeymoon.
For our honeymoon, my husband and I wanted to use trains and public transit (with quite a bit of walking in between) for most of our travel, so we decided to try to pack as minimalist as possible. We each brought only a carry-on roll-y suitcase and a small backpack.
Packing for 3 weeks of travel in a small suitcase was a little tough, mostly because of the time of year we were traveling. March and April are transition months for weather in the north-western area of Europe where we were traveling. Some mornings at the beginning of the trip we would get up and there would be remnants of frost on the ground… And by the end of our trip, my husband was in shorts and a t-shirt and was plenty warm. (As you’ll see a bit later, I didn’t bring shorts, so this wasn’t an option for me…)
When I was packing, I also wanted to make sure that I packed for all the possible activities that we might be doing. We didn’t go to Europe with a set itinerary planned out, so we had no idea what we might end up doing. As such, I ended up with a lot of things that I packed “just in case we spend a day or two doing this…” or “we might go to something fancy and need to dress up…” And I didn’t want to look totally out of place in fashionable Paris… not that I ever claim to be fashionable, but thought it best to try and look a little nicer than if I was backpacking through the woods in rural BC.
Oh, and the last thing I wanted to avoid was having to do laundry all the time. It was vacation time, and so I wanted enough clothing that I could get away with only one or two required laundry stops. We ended up only doing one major laundry wash (while staying with family in Belgium) and then did a couple “hand wash in the sink and hang in the bathroom overnight to dry” type cleanings for a few key items.
So, with all that in mind, how did I do? Did I pack too much? Did I use everything I took? Would I do something different “next time”? (I don’t anticipate another honeymoon, but you get the idea…) Let’s go over everything in detail… Continue reading →
All-Round Better Me 