Organize With an Evolving Checklist

Over at Unclutterer is a nice collection of travel tips that I recommend going over, and not just for the purpose at hand. Some of these generalize to other situations, particularly the packing checklist, as you will see:

Image via Pixabay.

Use a consistent packing checklist. I have used hand-written lists in the past, as well as the LobotoME Pack-Me List (pictured). Your packing checklist should be a standard template, not a fresh list each time. This helps you standardize your packing, which means less thinking and fewer on-the-spot decisions. [bold and link in original]

I began packing for each trip based on a standard list long before I read this, and I was happy to be able to rid myself of that part of the stress of travel.

I also realized three further good things about starting with a packing list template before each trip:

1. As Monica Ricci implies, the template can be adjusted for particular trips,
2. It can be expanded to include pre-packing (water plants) and post-trip (get keys back from house sitter) items, as well as notes for places one visits frequently (It takes several minutes for the shower at the McGillicuddy's to heat up.); and
3. it should be updated on an incremental basis to make future trips go smoothly (Uncle Bill's kid has a peanut allergy.).

To make the last thing happen, part of my post-trip checklist includes making any needed changes or additions to the template.

-- CAV