...if by "joy" you mean complete frustration. Packing for the next 3 years of your life seems seemingly impossible, especially when you're a chronic over packer like me. Here is the process in pictures:
It starts out a little like this. Now it could be more organized, but that has never really been my tendency in my life...against popular belief...I can usually find anything I need in this environment. Believe it not the next stage actually gets messier...here begins the process of deciding what stays and what goes...
This by far is the most frustrating stage. I would be lying if I said there was no tears involved in this stage. There were tears of confusion of not knowing what to take and what to leave...tears of frustration that not everything fits in the suitcase...and tears of humiliation that you are actually crying of insignificant things like packing.
Because of the 50lbs weight limit on bags, I love to see numbers like this on the scale:
And at this glorious point, I put like 12 more things in my bag...because of course all those things together weigh less than a pound (yeah...I know I'm dreaming). These guys pictured below are also helpful. The packing cube not only holds a lot, but allows people like me to feel organized for a least a few minutes.
I would love to show a final picture of bags that are all underweight and have everything I need. Unfortunately, we are not down to the last hour so of course there are a few more things to do ( I work best under pressure). The good thing about the packing process is at some point past all the frustration, you start not to care what is packed....and you'll just learn to live with whatever makes it. Thanks to Mom and Brittany for helping in this process. They are magicians that make a crazy amount of stuff fit into small suitcases. Here's to really nice check in people at the airport that will hopefully look past an extra pound or two.
Because of the 50lbs weight limit on bags, I love to see numbers like this on the scale:
