I’m heading off to The Big Easy for ten days on Thursday. I reckon I’ll do load of laundry and pack Wednesday night. I’ve never been one to pack well ahead of time.
How long before a trip do you pack?
The night before if I’m leaving early the next day. The morning itself if I’m leaving in the afternoon. But I will have started to put aside bits and pieces in a pile several days earlier.
It depends on how long I’ll be gone, and what I’m going to be doing there.
Week-long conference, with me scheduled to give a talk (or two)? I’ll start a couple of days beforehand, so’s to make sure I’ve got everything.
Overnight camping trip? I might pack that morning and head out at noon.
You’ve reminded me that I need to start packing for my trip to MN on Tuesday. 
Usually the night before. Many of the things I pack, I use up until then, like my glasses and contacts.
Depends how much I gotta pack.
If I have a ton of luggage (2 full size bags and a carry on or 2) I will pack 48 hours or more before the trip, and just pack my carry-ons the day before or a few hours prior to flying.
If it’s just a light amount of stuff I’m taking along, usually 12 hours prior to heading out.
I pack for the same vacation every year and I have a packing list that I refine each time I use it. It’s not just what you pack, but that you actually remembered to pack it.
The list is broken down as follows:
-Medicine, insurance cards, emergency information
-Toiletries
-Clothing
-Support equipment (cameras, GPS, phone, chargers, batteries etc…)
If I’m flying my own aircraft:
-Aviation GPS
-Batteries
-Tiedowns
-Maps
-Headsets
-miners light for night flying
-spare flashlight
-multiple pens and lapboard
-preflight checklist (check oil, air tires, wash windows)
Camping would have a separate list
Packing for flying/visiting someone, then I’ll pack the night before. Packing for travel in a foreign country, I’m mentally going through lists of what I need and gathering stuff about a week ahead, but slowly, as things occur to me.
I’m most often packing the family for camping, and that has its checklists already in my computer. For the first trip of the season, I start going through the gear about a week before we leave, clean stuff, check lanterns and other gear, make lists of what I need to replace, etc.
For the rest of the year, I know I’ve got what I need, and so I pack before we leave, the night before if I can, or in the hours before we leave if the car is unavailable the night before. My personal bag and the youngest kid’s bag gets packed the night before and set by the door until I’m ready to pack the car. I encourage my husband and our teenager to pack the night before, and the teen often will, but my husband is hopeless. Generally I’m packing the car while he’s packing (too much stuff into) his bags.
I travel light. I’m going to Boston on Tuesday, and am packed already, but only because I have a ton of work tomorrow, and probably won’t get a chance. I, however, am completely ok with running out the door with a wallet and a phone; I’ve done it before. I can pack everything I need for a week and the laptop in one backpack.
I’ve trained the kids in properly. When we went to DC for 8 days, we had 6 regular sized backpacks between 7 people. Of course we stayed at condos with washers and dryers, too.
The only caveat is if I am going to a completely isolated area, such as the BWCA, with no stores or hospitals nearby. There are specialized items you need to bring. Other than that, I can buy what I need wherever I am.
No way would I put my laptop in a backpack (or bag). I did once, making sure the metal case with the computer in it was surrounded by my clothes. After passing through baggage handling a couple of times, the briefcase was dented and the metal bit holding the trap was broken. Now I carry my computer.
It’s with me-carry on.
Oh, and it took me approximately 6 minutes to pack for this trip. I will need to put this laptop in, and a phone charger, but that’s about it.
I have a carry-on designed for a laptop. There is a center compartment that you access from the side.
The computer whose case was damaged was my old 166MHz, to give you an idea how long ago this happened.
I carry my PowerBook G4 (again, showing age) in a Porta Brace Director’s Case. The computer is easily accessible, is protected with padding, and there’s lots of room for stuff. And I carry it aboard.
Ditto, except no bits and pieces pile. I will make a list a few days in advance, so I can add stuff I forgot. Business trips pretty much have the same old list, going to Europe for 3 weeks took a lot more thought.
I have a small footprint. I don’t see a need to bring a lot of stuff for a short trip. A couple of sets of clothes, and a couple of practical items, is about the extent of it. So I can jam all that in a bag in only twenty minutes or so.
I wish there was a more compact way of taking bulky items like jumpers or shoes, as they take up the most awkwardly shaped room in a small backpack.
Day before.
Same here. But I don’t go on the same vacation every year, so I have a detailed “generic” packing list which I refine, depending on each year’s trip. There are some things that I only use when traveling, and they remain in the luggage.
I’ll pack the night before for a casual trip, and maybe a full day before for a business trip. I travel VERY light and everything is carry-on. You can have my curling iron and make-up when you pry it out of my cold dead hand.
We’re taking a driving trip in a couple weeks. That’s by far the best scenario. One sleep-over, one bag, no stress.
Pretty much this. We delay getting out the suitcases as long as possible, because the dogs get very anxious when they see the suitcases. I don’t know why, because one of three things is going to happen:
- They are going with us, which they like; they are good travelers.
- One of us is going on a trip and the other is staying home with the dogs, so the dogs will miss one of us, but it’s not that traumatic.
- The dogs are going to their foster mom’s house, which they love.
But they still worry when they see the luggage. So packing happens later than earlier.
I pack for a two week trip each month. Normally I pack the night before, but only because my wife doesn’t like it when I’m packing while she sleeps. If I don’t have an early flight, I pack about an hour before I go.
Where would you be going, and for how long, that you’d need the ton of luggage?
I have multiple bags for my annual week at the shore, but I need to take my own towels and bedding, plus beach gear (tote bag, water thermos, chair, umbrella), plus a tote bag of books, in addition to a small suitcase with clothes and toiletries. I’ve been doing that trip forever, so can pull it all together the night before my 6 AM departure. For a week’s business trip in Amsterdam, I got by with a single full-sized suitcase plus the messenger bag I use as my daily purse, stuffed somewhat more fully than usual. All that was packed the night before, though obviously I’d given more thought than usual to what I’d be packing.