Are you travelling light?

We can’t avoid the fact that change is inevitable…

Nothing stays the same for long. And that includes each of us. We gradually grow and evolve throughout our lives. But sometimes we change seemingly in the blink of an eye. Our beliefs, values, and perception of the world around us turned upside down as the result of some kind of dramatic (or perhaps traumatic) life event.

I’ve never been one for things. I don’t keep things for sentimental reasons. We only have a few ornaments standing around. I like order in my cupboards and draws - everything has a place. In some cases things are even color coded. I’ve been told by an estate agent that my house looked ‘clinical’. I took it as a complement – he certainly didn’t mean it that way.

After I got sick I developed an even greater allergy to unnecessary 'things'. When you come within a hairsbreadth of dying you can’t help but look around and think about someone else having to go through your things. They would have had to decide what to do with all that stuff, if you hadn’t made it.

I take a delight these days in getting what I think of as ‘unnecessaries’ out of our house. I’ve sold things. Given away things. And generally thrown out things. I take no prisoners when it comes to things going out of the door – one way or another.

Kim is worried that if he sits on the sofa too long then he’ll be a thing and I’ll put him out on the kerb for our next large rubbish collection that comes around every couple of weeks!

But it’s not just things in the house, it’s also affected how we travel. We’ve recently come back from a ten-day transatlantic holiday. And we did the entire trip on hand luggage - taking as little as possible. A definite plus when it come to the multiple plane changes each way, but a very different way to travel for us.

In the past I used to travel with a big case that was never fully unpacked as I flew so frequently to the US and other countries for work, and we travelled a lot for holidays. I was always going somewhere. I didn’t have time to plan what to pack so that I could travel light. I lived by the ‘open the case and throw in anything I might possibly need’ philosophy.

Our lives are different now. It’s rare that I travel for work. And we don’t travel frequently for holidays either. We have more time to think and to plan. And we were looking forward to this ten-day trip so much that we started packing as soon as Christmas and New Year were over even though we wouldn’t depart until February 10th!

Our decision to travel light was cemented by a less-than-ideal experience with SAS aka Scandinavian Airlines last spring. We checked in our two big suitcases for a week away and an hour plus later turned up at the gate. That’s when it all started to go downhill. The ground crew announced that - just minutes after we dropped off our bags - their baggage handlers had walked out on strike. Oh joy – not.

We were given two choices. Travel and our bags would follow at an indeterminate time. Or decide not to travel. Well, we weren’t giving up our week in the sun, so we chose the former. We weren’t alone. That morning some 20 SAS flights left Copenhagen with no bags in the hold.

The day continued to get better. Yep, I’m being very sarcastic at this point. We were required to report our bags as ‘lost’ – really? SAS knew exactly where they were! Did we honestly have to remind them? And then after we’d submitted our report online we were left in the dark for days on end…

We found out very fast just how hard it is to buy clothes in a small holiday resort with no major shops in the vicinity, no car, and a husband who will tell you himself that he’s bigger and broader than average. My lovely Dane is true Viking size! And no, he doesn’t own one of those horned helmets.

Luckily we’d put swimming costumes in our hand luggage – I have no idea why as we never normally do that. It was a last-minute brainwave that really saved our bacon – yep, I’m still thinking about the swimming pigs from last week’s post.

We got creative – those swimming costumes doubled as underwear. The hotel robe got more use than ever before. Not that it fitted Kim though! What we weren’t wearing at any given time was being washed and hung to dry.

Finally on the morning of the fifth day the tracking finally showed that our bags had been found and were on their way. Late that evening they appeared – it was Wednesday, and we’d left Copenhagen on the Saturday morning. We had just two days left of our holiday before we headed home again on the Saturday.

Note to self – never check a bag again.

There’s an art to packing light. And we’re still on the learning curve. Even on this latest trip we still came home with clothes we hadn’t worn for one reason or another. We can definitely go lighter next time.

Versatile clothes are king. Clothes you can wear in multiple ways both day and evening. Clothes that can be washed and that dry quickly. A little bottle of fragrance-free washing liquid is a must to save you from having to use something that might bring you out in spots. Clothes that don’t crease. Clothes that can be mixed and matched. And LOTS of swimwear that are made to spend the day in the water or wherever.

Packing light has another advantage – it limits the space you have available to bring back those little holiday nick knacks. The kind of thing that you wonder, what the heck you were thinking when you bought that, when you get home.

OK, I have to admit I did buy a big straw hat while we were away. But my head was ‘free’ space on the way home, right? It didn’t take up space in my case. And I still love it in the cold light of day at home. Not sure when it will be worn again though with the weather here in Denmark!

Even with all the planning I still forgot a couple of things. First, a hairband. Sounds simple I know. But I haven’t gotten used to the fact that my hair is finally long enough to be a pain wafting in front of my goggles in the pool if I don’t have a swim cap on. I guess I need to update my spikey-haired profile picture.

And the second was a rookie mistake. Taking white shorts and not taking underwear that I could wear underneath that wouldn’t show. Ah well, I went for a swimsuit instead and made the most of the see-through colour.

There are things you can’t avoid taking. I must have my contact lenses to swim and snorkel. It’s unavoidable that I must take three pairs of glasses along for the ride – prescription normal glasses, prescription sunglasses, and normal sunglasses. Kim and I split a wash kit between us – he brought toothpaste, and I brought deodorant. We even took conventional toothbrushes instead of our electric ones to save on weight.

There are the luxuries – shoes being a great example. A pair of trainers (aka sneakers) for travelling and walking around. A pair of flip flops. And my little luxury – a pair of lilac Birkenstocks to wear in the evening. Yes, I could have chosen something smaller and lighter than my chunky cork-soled lovelies, but they’re just so pretty and comfy.

And then there’s the things I didn’t take. No laptop – just a mini-iPad and my phone. There’s nothing I can’t do on one or both of those so why carry a bulky device ‘just in case’.

I was a master practitioner of risk aversion in the past. I took so much stuff with me because of ‘just in case’. I even had shopping bags in my case! I still didn’t quite avoid it this time. I couldn’t resist taking a UK plug adaptor with me – just in case – we missed our connection in the UK. I did resist taking my US multi-plug (purple) extension lead – pat on the back to me! But we did over pack on cables in case the hotel didn’t have USB power sockets – which of course it did.

I didn’t even take a notebook – now that’s a first. I love jotting down thoughts and ideas with a pen and paper. But I knew I frequently carried one around the world and never actually opened it. I write a lot of notes these days on my phone so I’m working on training myself to jot stuff down there instead in my notes app.

But I did bring a pen. Now that was a good idea and saved a lot of hassle when it came to filling out immigration forms on the plane.

I don’t like mistakes. And I hate making them more than once. It annoys me. It gets right under my skin. I've written a packing list (on my phone) to remember all the good things to take with us. And the little things that can make a difference like the odd rubber band or zip lock bag that come in so handy but are so easily forgotten.

I plan to keep travelling light – be that at home or abroad. I like this game. I love the lightness of being that not be tied to things gives my soul. I’ll develop my skills. I don’t want to be weighed down by the physical.

So, what about you? Tell me about the things that are important to you and why? I’d love to hear about them.

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Picture credit: another of my own from our recent bucket list trip to the Bahamas. I thought this was a bit more interesting than a picture of a suitcase!

COMING ON 1^st MAY – my ‘book in parts’. In weekly posts I’ll be sharing my book Hold My Hand: A Journey Back to Life chapter by chapter. I’m so excited to finally share my story with a wider audience and to get your thoughts and feedback.