Thoughts on packing

If I’m an average American, then Americans have too many t-shirts. I decided this while I was packing my bags tonight. Naturally, I left everything to the last minute, so while I was gathering the clothes I want to take to Peru for a year I was simultaneously folding up and putting away all of my other clothes that I’ll have to store back in the States. And that’s when I realized how many t-shirts I have. I picked out about ten to take to Peru and put all the others away. And I’d say I put away about three times as many as I packed. Meaning I have probably over 40 t-shirts. Ridiculous.

But t-shirts aren’t the only thing I have too much of. I have way more shorts, pants, shoes, and underwear than necessary, too. The only thing I don’t have too much of is socks – you really can’t ever have too many socks. I started thinking about all of this tonight, because in many ways, packing was a struggle. I ALWAYS overpack. I think it’s probably because I was an Eagle Scout. I pretty much have “Be Prepared” tattooed on my brain. I mean hey, you never know when there are going to be formal dinners on back to back nights – that extra suit and tie might really come in handy. So for Peru, I am determined not to overpack… too much. But as I began to weed out some of the unnecessary clothes and stuff, I started to realize that a lot of the reasons I thought I “needed” various things were really, really silly. For example, I decided to take a warm coat with insulation that can be “zipped out” so it functions as two coats in one. But for awhile I was also planning to take a lighter raincoat as well. That is, until I figured out that really the only reasons I was taking the lighter jacket were the possibility that the other one might get dirty and more importantly the fact that the outer shell of the heavier jacket still makes you look like you’re wearing a ridiculously large winter coat even after you’ve zipped out the insulation to turn it into the raincoat. So I was worried that everyone in Lima would think I was some weirdo walking around in a winter coat when it was just 60 degrees and raining.

Ridiculous, I know. I’m not sure why my thought process works that way. For 90% of the world, if it’s raining outside and you have a jacket, you wear it. Period. No matter if it “looks funny” or doesn’t match the rest of your outfit. I should just be thankful that I have a jacket, let alone TWO, and I have the luxury of leaving the other one at home, allowing me to have more space to pack things like a laptop and digital video camera (but we won’t go into that). Let’s just say I have a long, long way to go before I really have the whole “living simply” thing down.