A few years ago, I first encountered the term decision paralysis. Even though I had experienced it plenty of times, I never had a good name for it. As you can infer, decision paralysis is when you have so many choices that you can't decide, so you do nothing.
We've never been minimalists when it comes to packing. The thought of going on an impromptu camping trip and just throwing a tent and some sleeping bags in the back of the van sounds robust and romantic, but we've never done it that way. We make a list. It includes everything we could possibly need to make sleeping in the woods a comfortable experience. And we still wind up forgetting things. I'll admit that it's great to have packed a broom and dustpan for sweeping out the tent before we strike camp, but the price we pay for that kind of preparation is spending a loooong time making that list and checking it twice before setting out for the great outdoors.
We bought a rooftop cargo carrier the first time we drove from Arizona to Florida. Our van is a 1997 Honda Odyssey, when they still made 'em small. It's almost sedan-size. It's only got four cylinders, for Pete's sake. But we love our little van. We've put over 200,000 miles on it, and we have no plans to get rid of it. By this point it's a part of the family. It will be a sad day when it eventually goes to the automotive netherworld. (Maybe that's why so many people have broken down cars gathering rust in their yards...they can't emotionally let go.) The rooftop carrier, henceforth known as "the attic," was the best travel investment we ever made (well, second maybe to our Garmin GPS). The struggles of five traveling within the relatively small confines of our old Odyssey were lessened with the attic, capable of being packed with more stuff than you would think could fit.
And now we're going to Europe.
And we'll be in a rental car. For about 8 weeks.
Car. Not van. And no attic.
We are forced to minimalize. Yes, we could have rented a van, but the cost was about twice as much, and we're already on a shoestring budget. We've road-tripped to North Carolina in our even-smaller-than-the-Odyssey Subaru, and lived to tell the tale (although we also had the attic). We can do it. We have to.
I recently watched a video on Facebook for clean drinking water that had people from third world countries reciting first-world problems, like I hate when my house is so big I have to have two wireless routers. It's a powerful video (you can watch it here) and all the first world "problems" that our culture complains about become glaringly apparent after watching the video. And no doubt, complaining about forced downsizing because our rental car will be smallish is a first world problem. So I will attempt not to complain.
Knowing that we will probably be in cars about the size of our Subaru, we had an ambitious plan. We would pack for Europe during Spring Break (back in March), pack the bags into our Subaru to see how they fit, and adjust as needed. I was the only one who actually packed a bag during Spring Break, and because I didn't want to unpack it and pack again in June, I left the bag packed. So I've been packed for Europe since March. Woo hoo!
Now we're 6 days away from leaving. The packing is fully underway. Not only is space going to be limited in our rental cars, we're also limited by the fact that two inter-European flights on lowfare airline Easyjet required payment for any checked bags. To minimize expenses, we paid for only 4 bags. So our goal is to pack for 5 people in 4 bags for 8 weeks. For some people, that sounds easy. But for most people with kids, traveling to an area where it will occasionally get chilly even in June or July, they recognize the challenge.
The reason we didn't pack during Spring Break is the same reason we typically wait til the last minute to pack for a trip. Decision paralysis. We (thankfully) have so many clothes that it becomes overwhelming to choose what 5 or 6 outfits you want to wear over and over for 8 weeks. Ever hear of the 80/20 rule? The 80/20 rule says that we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. So this should make it easier to pack. Nah. Because suddenly, the palette for choosing clothes becomes 100% of the wardrobe. So many choices. And we have six more days. I think I'll check Facebook. Or blog.
All I know for sure is that in six days, we'll be on our way to Europe. And we will have bags with us. The details are yet to be determined.
2 comments:
Why don't you have me on your blog watch? Out of all the blogs you have on there, I've written the most recently. Maybe you should update that. Also, I'll start packing soon. ;)
When I packed for Europe last year I did the same thing. Made a list months in advance...Because I packed mostly for moderate weather and the weather turned out to be cooler, I wound up wearing the same thing for most of the trip. So, in reality you really can take very few clothes and get by. For me the other stuff seemed to be what messed me up. Towels (I bought small microfiber). Shoes for water and shoes for walking. And all the emergency things really add up--q tips, rubber bands, safety pins, first aid supplies, medicines, blister relief supplies, etc. But I tell you what, my travel mate was calling on me all the time for something I might be carrying in my Mary Poppins bag as she called it. I wish I could have been there longer than 2 weeks!
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