Monsters in the Closets: Planning Ahead

image credit: Emilie Ogez, Flickr

Lets talk about...not putting things off until the last possible minute!

I wish I could say I knew a lot about this topic, but sadly, no. In college, I was queen of "finish the paper an hour before class starts." Now, I wait until the day of the deadline party to buy the groceries and clean the house. My worst last minute trait is how long I can put off packing. Often when I am taking a car trip, I actually start packing about 15 minutes before I plan to leave. This means I am always late, and I think it leads to extra luggage because I end up tossing things into the bag willy-nilly rather than taking time to decide what I really need.

Last week, before I left for Ireland, somehow the universe aligned correctly and I was 95% packed the day before I left! It was great and it took so much stress out of the process. I had the time to really think about what I was bringing, and how to best get it packed. I still had a fairly inappropriate amount of luggage, but after all this is more of a journey than a destination.

Packing in advance meant that I could meet some friends for a drink the night before. It meant that I could get up at a decent hour in the morning and hit the gym before spending 10 hours strapped into a tiny seat. It meant that I spent the better part of the day feeling calm and not frazzled.

I can't imagine that I will kick the procrastination habit entirely, but this was a really great example of why it's better to do things ahead of time. The next travel challenge will be learning to bring just what I want in a less giant suitcase. We stayed in a different hotel each night on the tour, and a lot stairs were involved- some of the older hotels have expanded into the next building, so to get to the third floor you have to take the elevator to the second, go up a flight of stairs, down another flight, across a hallaway and through two fire doors. I refuse to make someone else carry my luggage, so needless to say it was a challenging process with a 40-pound suitcase.

You didn't think I would get through an entire post without making you look at some photos, did you? Here are just a few so I don't crash your server!