Greetings everyone!
I have this lady friend who takes up to a week to arrange her bags (yes, many bags) whenever she's traveling home, and according to her, she does the same whenever she's traveling from home to her base. I got curious one day and asked her, "Don’t you have basic items that you pick instead of packing all the loads in your house whenever you're traveling?"
"Kingsley, you won't understand. You see everything in that bag, that one too, and the ones I'm arranging — they're all essential items. Besides, why are you bothered? You're not the one carrying them."
Her reply shut me up. Funny enough, her holiday only lasts for a week.
That's the complete opposite of me when it comes to traveling because naturally, I don't like battling with a heavy bag or many bags whenever I'm on a journey. It's stressful to me. Aside from the stress, I hate to strain my brain during packing, and also, my stay at my destination becomes more simple when I'm using limited items rather than passing through the trouble of selecting what to use from too many options.
So, if I'm to pack a suitcase for a year's journey, I'm definitely going to pick my essentials, and it reduces to the barest minimum if I'm traveling to my hometown.
Apart from my church life, which gets me to dress 'big' sometimes, I'm more of a simple wear person...just polos, jerseys, trousers, and footwear. So these enter the bag first, in limited portions, if I'm traveling home because my siblings have jerseys that I can wear. And the funny thing is, the more I pack those clothes home, the more I forget them when coming back. In my house, once an item is forgotten, it's a seized item.
My church wears, which comprise native attires, suits, and a pair of shoes, and I'm good to go. My kind of shoe allows me to wear it with any dress style. These items are usually lightweight, so I'm not going to have the trouble of wrestling with my luggage while on the journey.
The other things that come next are my power banks, phone chargers, toothbrush, and shoe polish. These ones don’t occupy much space and are very essential to me. I can't think of traveling without taking my power banks, I don't trust public power supply.
Shoe polish because people at home don't usually wear shoes to the extent of needing to polish them.
I'm very comfortable with the dark complexion cream used at home, so I won’t bother filling space with my own cream — same goes for my hairbrush and other personal effects.
What next? That’s all. I don’t overthink it. I don’t struggle to fill up my traveling bag whenever I’m packing. The things to put in are just as few as these items.
Thanks for reading.
This is my response to the #Kiss writing idea.
Photos used are mine