It’s taken me years to figure out how to pack for vacation or an extended trip. I’m not the most organized person on earth and also someone who loves to travel with everything but the kitchen sink (just in case,) so packing used to be quite a stressful experience for me – that is, until I worked out a fool-proof plan: It’s all about taking snapshots on your phone of outfits you love, starting about 2 weeks before you leave. The key word here is OUTFIT, because you need to know what the desired ensemble is, way before you pack.
Here’s how I do it:
1. About 2 weeks prior to your trip, start checking the long term weather forecast of where I’m planning to travel to.
2. As I go about your day-to-day business, I begin visualizing the kind of looks I might want for this trip that are compatible with the weather.
3. Make a list of:
A) Any “special” outfits that you may need – this could include: theater, fancy restaurant, dinner party etc
B) Any sporting events – this could include trips to the gym, yoga studio, hike, fishing, sky diving etc
4. With your above lists to hand, it’s time to start trying on outfits. This should be done at least 10 days prior to leaving. Have someone nearby (family member or girlfriend,) who can snap shots of final outfits when you are ready. This step is the real key and may take a good hour. Pull out all the garments you love and put them on the bed on couch. You need to have a full length mirror nearby.
Start with the fancy outfits for special events. Once you have the dress, skirt & top picked out, find the shoes, belts, scarves, jewelry etc that might go with it. Once you are entirely satisfied, it’s time to get your friend to snap a full length shot of you.
Next move on to the sporting looks. I always think that it won’t really matter what I look like for these, and then I get there and find that my shorts are crumbled and look terrible with every shirt I have. So it’s worth making sure you have all the bits and pieces picked out, including sports bra and tennis shoes.
Finally, and almost the most important is your casual day-to-day outfits. This is where I used to go astray because usually I think, okay I need 4 pairs of pants, 4 tops, a sweater and a belt, but when I get to my destination, I’d never have the right shirt for the look, or a sweater that would match with all the looks. I’d forget a matching belt or most importantly shoes to go with different pants. So choose an outfit for every day of your trip and photograph it, even if you’re doing tons of repeats (based on being able to wash clothes at your destination).
5) With at least a week to go, make a list of any gifts you want to take to people, as you don’t want to be rushing around in a panic the day prior to your trip.
6) Beauty/Skin care: Buy some really great skin care travel containers (I love Gotoob,) or purchase a travel kit from your favorite line. I 
love travel kits because they pretty much guarantee that I’ll have all the components I need for my skin care regime. Make sure you own a large enough cosmetic bag to house all the different things you might need, including makeup brushes. Gotoob containers are great for shampoos, conditioners and styling creams, as they are squeezey and come in a bunch of sizes.
If you are traveling Internationally, remember to purchase a travel adapter plug for your hair appliances. There’s nothing more annoying than arriving and not being able to plug in your curling tongs or flat iron.
7. Underwear: Don’t leave underwear as an after thought, but treat it as an important category of it’s own. How many times have you found yourself without the right bra to go with a certain outfit. Before packing, go through your outfit photos and write a quick list of all the bras that you need to go with specific tops/dresses (black, nude, racer-back, strapless etc). I use a pretty pillow case for my underwear and once all the underwear is in, I give it a good spritz of my favorite perfume.
8. Jewelry: Go through your snapshots as you pack your jewelry bag. You want to make sure that you have the exact earrings, necklaces etc that you want for each look
My essentials:
- My favorite nail file
- A bottle of tea tree oil (great antiseptic for everything
- A day-of-the-week pill container
- Tea Travel mug/glass ( I love Libre) if you are a tea drinker, with a bag of your favorite loose tea
- Eye glasses (Take a couple of extra pairs, as they are so easy to loose.)
- Sunscreen (this is important as you don’t want to run out of your favorite non-toxic brand and have to buy some crappy chemical sunscreen if you’re in the middle of nowhere. Same goes for insect repellant.
Finally, I have searched how and low for the best carry-on bag for the plane (or any kind of trip for that matter,) and hand’s down the best is the Bungalow 360 Travel Bag. It has a separate & easy-to-get-at pocket for your iPhone, keys, passport, book etc and enough space in the middle for a small computer, iPad, large wallet, books/magazines and even your lunch!
Using one’s phone to catalogue outfit photos. Brilliant! Also a good idea to keep record of special outfits and different combinaions of accessories. I was going to use my digital camera and then keep photos in a binder. Too much extra work!
If a friend is not available to take photo, take one of yourself in front of long mirror.