pack heavy

 There is sort of a cult of minimalism when it comes to packing. If you read travel blogs, memoirs, or magazines, you are frequently treated to articles about how to get by for the longest time on the least clothing in the smallest bag. The same goes for content aimed at digital nomads. Some frequent travelers swear by the maxim "never check a bag!"

When I read these articles I always think of Lone Star, "Take only what you need to survive."

Some of the tips in these articles are helpful. Packing cubes, for example, have changed my life. The idea of wardrobe capsules with elements that mix and match in multiple ways has helped me to have a wardrobe that spans the range of my Hashimoto's weight cycles without taking over the entire universe. 

Sometimes, like when your space Winnebago crash lands on a desert planet with no habitation in sight, it makes sense to take only what you can wear on your body and carry in your two hands. But that's not most of us most of the time. In the last several years, I've made several long-term moves and done a lot of short-term travel in between. That's a lot of packing!

Maybe some people truly are minimalists and need few things to accompany them through life. I'm not one of them.  

When Anna visited me in Yerevan last Christmas, she kept being surprised by the things she recognized--the mandala Gwen crocheted, my favorite fancy deck of playing cards, my pocket knife, the Mickey Mouse cork replacers tiny Abigail picked out for me at Disney. Anna knew that I had moved to Moscow in September 2021 with four large suitcases on the plane and 5 cubic meters of stuff in a shipping crate. I left the next March with only two large suitcases and retrieved another small suitcase worth of stuff when I returned to Moscow that August to empty my apartment. She knew that I had left all my books in my campus office and donated clothes, shoes, bedding, and yarn to charity.  Two large suitcases and one small one were all I brought with me to Armenia. And Anna was surprised by the particular objects that had made the cut.

Each time I have had to move in the last two years, I follow the same packing algorithm:

1) first the critical identity papers and the few print books I need to do my job

2) then shoes appropriate to the current weather and the next season

3) then the clothes that currently fit for the present season plus the clothes for the next size and season 

4) then my knitting and sewing tool cases and jewelry box

5) then weigh and assess weight limit and remaining space in order to pack kitchen essentials (eating spoons, rubber spatulas, wooden spoon, US-sytem measuring tools) and personal enrichment (more books, yarn, and in-progress sewing and knitting projects)

The last thing I do before zipping a suitcase during pre-move prep is look around, asking myself, "what can fit that won't put this bag overweight?" It's the tiny items that make a space feel like it's mine.

There is irony in the fact that I'm writing this now. I've been thinking about this post for a several weeks, letting the thoughts bump up against each other in my mind. And now that the gentle knocks have become an avalanche, I'm sitting down to write in my comfortable apartment in Yerevan as refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are starting over in Armenia with very little (some were able to fill their cars with the objects of life, but many came with only the clothes on their backs) and as civilians in Gaza are sheltering from aerial bombardment, not knowing how much will be left of their homes when they venture out to check. 

I don't want to discount the importance of having a go bag with identity documents, medicine, cash, and clean socks and underwear, or the willingness to leave everything behind when the situation warrants it. Ultimately, no personal property is as important as the preservation of life. 

But when we're not fleeing genocide, I think minimalism might be overrated. Checking a bag for your vacation doesn't make you (me) any less a seasoned traveler. 

So, in contrast to the popular minimalist mantra of the travel industry, I encourage you to use the biggest suitcase you can confidently manage on your travels, toss in an extra book, pack your trusted snacks, always have a second pair of shoes and a jacket, always pack your swimsuit and the serious sunscreen, and bring the things you might want, not just the things you know you need. 

Go ahead and pack heavy.