The Art of Packing

I am not the type that travels light. If I could I took ALL my clothes, shoes, makeup and jools with me. But over time I have become better at limiting myself. Many times I've come home and have put lots of clean clothes back into my closet, so I started noticing what I really used at my holidays. Of course it depends on the season and where you are going. In our summer holiday we went to Austria, where the weather is a lot like Denmark - both warm and sun, but also rain and cool days.

A starter tip is to write a list. I love writing packing lists, it is part of looking forward to the holiday to write what I want to bring with me. When you have written a great list you can reuse it, since there are some things you always bring with you. Here are all the things I brought with me and my vintage suitcase which is definately not very big and don't have wheels, which also helps limiting what to pack:

What have I packed for a week in Austria? The pile at the right contains two pairs of capri jeans, a long pair of jeans and a skirt. The left one contains five blouses (thick and thin) that matches all the jeans and the skirt, plus a shawl with vintage maps, which does not match anything:

I also packed three dresses, which are nice with both heels and flats, a cardigan or the shawl over. They are placed at the top of the suitcase, slightly folded, so they are not crinkled when I arrive, but it is only the pink one that gets a few folds:

The trick is to fold the clothes as few times as possible. You can also roll it, but I have never liked that method.

My lingerie is pink, because it is invisible under all my clothes. Ooooh no, she shows her lingerie! No, I don't, it is just piles of pink fabric. My lovely Miracle bathing suit with blue/green leaves from the US is at the right. It is not sure I will use it, but I always bring it with me, because I hate buying one:

Shoes, oh shoes. I would prefer to bring at least 20 pairs with me, but here I have limited myself to five pairs, where I wear one of them pairs:

The red flats matches all the jeans, the silver flip-flops are both nice and practical and does not take up much space. The sound, but quite nice, Rieker sandals in the middle are my favourite, since they are fantastic to walk in all day long. And then there are my fabulous clear Miss L Fire retro shoes, that match everything. At last my lovely Steve Madden rhinestone sandals, which also are comfy and matches everything from the jeans to the tight dresses.

Here everything is packed into the suitcase:

At the left the pile of blouses, at the right a pile of jeans, a thin white cardigan (which matches everything, have you got the idea now?), and the shawl. At the back against the suitcase lid are my shoes in shoe bags, which are easy to sew yourself if you cannot find any like them, or you can use plastic bags. In the middle lies my lingerie and on top of if comes "various". At last comes the dresses at the top.

Various is jools and electronic. Here are the jools I brought with me:

I am a jool nerd, I even have my own shop, since I now and then have to clear something out of my huge collection. Here I have packed my favourite ring, the change-ring from Runa, because then I have colours for everhting in just one ring. And my nice little box with magnetical ear clips from the fifties. The dark blue bag is quite old, but very practical to pack holiday jools in.

This is how it looks inside:

When packing jools for a holiday you can chose to go the classic way, like e.g. white pearls, which is always good and matches everything. Or you can pack for the season instead of mathing your clothes. I chose the season, so I packed my dessert bracelet, sea shell jools, ladybug and beach themed jools. A jool bag like mine can be found at Etsy.

Various is also a few electronic things and extra sun cream:

Well, yes, I know I could have all the music at my new smartphone, but I happen to love my little, old ZenStone with matching loud speaker.

And here is evertyhing I bring with me on my holiday:

It is not more than I can carry myself. The suitcase in my hand and the train case and my lovely new green holiday purse over my shoulder.

The train case is always ready for use. I have collected everything I need in mini and I really mean everything. But I think I will write about it another time.

I also bring a book and a new magazine with me.

A last tip is to bring some empty plastic bags with you for the laundry.

I hope you liked my packing guide, and if you have a holiday tip, do share it in the comments.