The Practice Pack

The way we understand it, we will only be taking 2 bags each for our 2-3 year stay in Colombia. That's one bag a year. Each bag can max out at 70 lbs. That's 35 lbs a year. That puts things in perspective.

Yesterday, we decided to see just how far 4 bags will get us. It turns out that Heather and I have different strategies for this. She neatly and concisely went through the closet, placing each article in a take or don't take pile. The don't take pile then went into a box that will disappear for the next few months, to find out if they truly are don't take items. The take items then went into a suitcase.

We have two suitcases each. Actually, they are duffel bags - El El Bean Adventure Bags. Mine are bright yellow, hers are bright red. We figured that this would be better for spotting on airport carosels. And monograms, just in case!

Anyway, all of the clothes in Heather's take pile filled about 2/3 of one bag. We then walked through the house and grabbed anything else that we planned to bring - electric teapot, jewelry box, way too many books, etc. We removed some clothes from the first bag and used them as padding to fill both bags up. No problem, room to spare. The best part: once packed, neither bag weighed over 40 lbs!

Oh yeah - I mentioned that Heather's strategy differed from mine. You could also read that as my strategy didn't exist. I gave up after about 10 minutes with the realization that I do not even own a full week's worth of work clothes. Arghhh!
-sean