Met a guy in a hostel kitchen who changed how I pack

I was in a hostel in Austin back in 2018 and this older guy named Joe was making coffee. He saw my suitcase and said 'you brought too much, you'll barely use half of it.' He showed me his setup: just a small backpack with 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants, all stuff he could wash in a sink. I still think about that whenever I pack for a trip. Anyone else had a stranger give them better advice than any travel blog?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph52910d agoMost Upvoted

Nah, I get way too anxious without my "what if" clothes.

piper_thompson3110d ago

Lol "you brought too much, you'll barely use half of it" - Joe has literally described my whole life philosophy for everything. I packed for a 3 day trip to Chicago last month with one small duffel and still somehow ended up using only 2 shirts and the same pair of jeans every day. Pretty sure my suitcase is just full of "what if" clothes that never see daylight.

garcia.casey10d ago

My husband is like old Joe, but the opposite way. He once packed for a weekend trip to visit his mom and brought a full tool kit because he was worried her faucet might leak. He didn't need any of it, but he did fix her garbage disposal two years later so I guess it worked out eventually. Most people in my family pack like they're moving out, including me with six pairs of shoes for a weeklong trip to the beach last summer. Joe's sink-wash method sounds nice in theory but I've tried it and my shirts came out looking like wrinkled napkins.