Why You Should Make a Packing List After Your Trip
Do you have something that you always forget to take with you when you travel? For a while, I always forgot to take my purse with me on work trips – I always had a laptop bag, but who wants to take it with them just for dinner? detach the little handle that my favorite campground attaches to the firewood bundles.
The best way to make sure you don’t make that packaging mistake again is to make a packing list after you get home. Whether that initial list was in a Google doc (good for you!) or on a piece of paper you’ve already lost (oops), now is the perfect time to make yourself a bulletproof list for next time. You can even do it on the plane on your way home.
Have a permanent packing list
Reusing a packing list from one trip to another is a classic trick. Joan Didion reportedly kept one on the inside of her closet door to report trips at short notice; it included clothing (two outfits), toiletries, cigarettes, bourbon, a typewriter, and a mohair throw.
I keep different packing slips for different types of trips. I go on business trips where I need beautiful clothes and a laptop; family holidays, where children’s things must be on the list; hiking, which of course requires tons of forgettable equipment; and travel to weightlifting competitions, which have their own unique requirements.
It doesn’t matter where you keep your list, as long as you can find it again next year. I like the google doc. Paper works if you don’t lose it.
Do an autopsy after the trip
After your trip — or better yet, during — make notes about what you needed but didn’t have, and, just as importantly, what you took with you but realized you didn’t need. I used up too much valuable backpack space for a pair of dress shoes when I went to Paris .
If you don’t have the original packing list, no big deal. Start one. Take notes as you unpack your bag, as everything will be right in front of you. How many outfits did you actually wear in how many days? Did you bring enough snacks or too many?
If you end up buying something during your trip, that should be on the list too. Additional phone charging cable, nail trimmers, can opener. In fact, now that you have a spare, that item you bought can live in your toiletries bag or travel box until next time.