Are men better at packing luggage than women?

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This was published 7 years ago

Are men better at packing luggage than women?

By Lee Tulloch
Are you a procrastinator, or a panicker?

Are you a procrastinator, or a panicker?

Are you a premature packer? I am.

Last week I was staying with a friend who had to head off to the airport early in the morning for a flight to the US. It wasn't any kind of usual holiday – he was meeting his partner there to get married.

Ninety minutes before the taxi was due, he still hadn't packed! He was perfectly calm but I was a bundle of nerves. What about a suit for the wedding? Why was he still folding his washing? Did he have all his chargers? I couldn't help it – his casual approach made me feel like a mother sending her child off to camp for the first time.

Do men and women pack differently?

Do men and women pack differently?

I wonder if this is a male-female thing. Certainly my husband is way more relaxed than I am when it comes to getting ready for a trip. I might prepare weeks ahead, but for him, it's hours.

But perhaps female packing is a more complicated thing than male packing? Just putting it out there. Consider the choice of footwear. I normally have three times as many options as my husband. Will these flats work for day as well as night? Should I bring heels for this dress? Do I really need five pairs?

Anyway, the shoe issue is one of the reasons I pack early. Shoes weigh a lot and I have to be ruthless. I need time to work out the pants and dresses I'm taking before matching them with shoes. And then I need time to make sure everything I want to take has been cleaned and repaired. I need time to get my toiletry kit in order, to refill the travel-sized bottles and check if I'm getting low on something.

And then there is my travelling iron and the devices and batteries that have to be charged and the usual mad hunt for the electrical adaptors that I've misplaced since the last time that I went to that particular country.

I need time to select the right book for the plane and refill prescriptions for the sleeping pills and probiotics I always carry with me. Not to mention making sure passports and visas are correct and the departure card is filled before I leave home.

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But still I panic that I won't be ready, that the taxi/car will be at the door before I've found everything I need. I'm afraid I will sleep in the day of the flight, even if it's in the afternoon.

I keep a checklist in a top drawer, in case of any last-minute emergency, which will render me temporarily senseless and unable to tell a skirt from a scarf.

Sound familiar?

I believe the world is divided into premature packers and procrastinating packers with few practical packers in between.

My behaviour might be nutty, but I'm not alone. But I've heard of people who go so far as to keep packing spreadsheets on their computer, divided into lists for the type of trip – resort, ski, cold weather, summer, etc.

Why start packing weeks ahead? Many people say they do this because it enhances the excitement around the trip. Having an open suitcase in a spare room is a reminder that the holiday will be here soon. Slowly filling it prolongs the pleasure. It's a bit like those people who love Christmas and start shopping for the next one on Boxing Day.

I find that a 20-kilogram limit focuses the mind. If it were the old days and we could travel with trunks of clothes and have porters to carry them everywhere, it would be a different matter. But I quake at the thought of those excess baggage fees, lost luggage and dragging a heavy suitcase around. Usually five pairs of shoes are out of the question. And I'm careful not to pack my very best stuff or anything of sentimental value.

You see – it has to be a military strategy. Few armies go to war without weeks of preparation.

On the other hand, packing too far ahead is possibly even crazier. Clothes develop creases that can't be easily smoothed out. Worse still, if you change your mind about something, or find the weather will be warmer than you thought, adding something or taking something out creates havoc. And in that havoc there is the possibility that you'll remove something you really do need to take.

Happens to me all the time.

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