The Art of Packing

Well  this packing for the Peace Corps has been a challenge to say the least.  I had given away most of my clothes and everything else.  I had a week before leaving for North Carolina to pack a duffel and large suitcase.  We are allowed two pieces of luggage that weighs up to 50 lbs each.  And we must be able to carry this luggage around until we are settled.  Hmmm..  well, I packed (using the space bags) oh yeah, this gets it all in, but it weighs twice as much.  I am given a list of what to bring and what not to bring. I packed most of what I was to bring. And I definitely didn't bring a pet, a car, or bike (where could I fit it??) on the "Do not bring list".  So I took everything out and repacked leaving out one large garbage bag of clothes to goodwill.  Weighed them again and darn, still overweight.  Okay, I guess I don't need the 8 pair of shoes..  So again, I unpacked and went through everything, pulling another garbage bag of clothes out for goodwill.   My duffel has all of my hiking and backpacking gear..  I refuse to part with that, well almost.  So I jam pack my carry on with the rest of my clothes and in my backpack I packed all my electronics gear (which probably weighed another 50lbs).  I had a heavy duty cart that I was able to balance everything on, hoping the bags were not over 50 lbs.  Okay, now to get it to North Carolina...  Fortunately my son went with me to the airport and when I weigh in... yes, you guess it... my large suitcase was 5lbs over (not bad) and my duffel was 12lbs over.  Darn.. we had to repack right there in the airport.  Tony opened my duffel and the first thing he took was my wine opener..  That's a necessity I said..  I need that, I left the can opener !!, but I really need the wine opener.  He looks at me and said "Really mom???"...  Darn, I then took out a couple of space bags and sure enough the bags weigh in at 50lbs..  Oh.. I had to take out my sleeping bag..  My son promised to mail it to me. See my stuff below.. Now to get it to staging and Azerbaijan.

Life Challenge:  Do you really need all of that "stuff" you have.  Take a bag of "stuff" to goodwill especially if you haven't used it for six months...