Why do people act like it’s a moral failure to not pack light? AIBU to enjoy taking stuff on holiday with me?

[igotitbadforyou]

I’ve noticed this on a lot of packing/holiday threads. Lots of sneering and looking down on people for packing more than is “needed”.

Technically you could go on holiday with the clothes on your back and a spare pair of underwear and that be that, but I enjoy having options and taking some of my home comforts with me.

Why do people act like it’s wrong to do this? It doesn’t impact anyone else.

We pack light because we only use public transport and cba messing about with big bags. We use rucksacks too so have to be aware that anything we pack, we have to be able to carry. I also find it much easily to keep track of things and not lose them.

I can't help but see over packing as an example of excess and consumerism though eg why does anyone need 2 pairs of gold sandles?

Choices of clothes and make up yes, but what do you mean by home comforts? What are you packing that someone has actually commented on it?

I’m an absolute over packer , a proper “prepared for wetting myself 3 times a day” kind of packer. I don’t really give a monkeys what people think of me!

Thankfully I live in a house of underpackers (aka all men), so there’s plenty of space in the car for my huge suitcase and hold-all 😵‍💫🤣🤣

Oh yes and when my DH rolls his eyes at check in at how heavy my bag is compared to his I pointedly say well as well as my own stuff I’ve also got the communal things like beach towels, sun cream, medicines, first aid kit - because of course I have. It’s the same with all the men who are like “why aren’t you ready yet we’re leaving” and you’re well, because as well as getting myself ready I made sure the children were ready / washed up the breakfast things / made the beds / chucked some loo cleaner down the loo / made sure there was nothing left in the fridge to go smelly whilst we’re away and emptied the bin. FFS.

I even take my mug and tea bags. Can't stand those piddly little mugs you get in hotels that contain two mouthfuls of tea.

💯

I’ve stopped packing everyone’s towels etc now. If they haven’t packed stuff they need, tough!

I've never had to borrow anything. Who would I borrow it from?

The only time I've had to buy something was intentional eg we travel hand luggage only so will just buy shampoo etc when we get to whether we need to be.

The exception being the time I picked up the wrong bag and didnt have any clothes! 🤣 The daft thing is I even thought it was light but still didnt realise until we were half way there!

I do try to pack light because I'm short and not particularly strong and hate pulling heavy suitcases around or trying to put heavy bags in the overhead conpartments or luggage racks. However, I'm childless so it's much easier for me.

I've never heard of the way anyone packs being associated with morality lol. It's not really a subject that comes up much anyway among friends and family. Are people actually saying that sort of thing or is it implied? I'm now wondering if people think me having a slightly smaller suitcase than them is my way of making a point or something.

Because superior women are either:
Too emersed in the cultural experience of travel to care about their appearance and look down on you for wanting to take your straighters, gold sandals and 7 different dresses for the evenings.
Or, are able to create a holiday capsule wardrobe comprised of 3 'pieces' that go with everything, turn their sweaty, sandy sarong into shorts, a hat, a swimsuit, a top and an evening gown (by the addition of a slim belt), wearing it day and night for a week, and despise you for your lack of skill to do similar.

I found my tribe

I do think it’s the cheap airlines making people think they need to cut back to bringing as little as possible.

this year we have 22kg per person hold luggage included in our holiday cost, plus 10kg each in the cabin. I already know dh is going to want all 4 of us to just take 2 hold bags and rucksacks for the plane. Understandable when the dcs were little, managing them, buggy and several suitcases was tricky, but they are teens are stronger than me now, they’ll do all the lifting and carrying.

I love packing light, I love not having to wait for bags at baggage reclaim, we move around a lot and having little luggage makes that much easier and I love that I save a ton of money on flights.

But I'm very happy for people to take loads of luggage! If everyone stopped taking hold luggage then airlines would probably start charging for underseat luggage too!

There was a cartoon about women packing for a trip. It went something like:
I'm away for 3 days so best pack 5 pairs of knickers. Let's pack another 3 pairs just in case. And 1 more for luck.
Knickers are one thing I can't help but overpack! 🤣

Amen to this!! Love strolling through the airport with just a regular handbag and not being involved in the overhead locker death match lol

Then when I'm at the hotel with a huge suitcase, a real highlight is trying all the travel sized skincare I've bought with me. More time at night for an elaborate makeup look with a bold lip or blush I wouldn't wear at home. A choice of several pairs of sandals, sunglasses etc because why not, I'm on holiday! Maybe even buy an extra suitcase while there for all my holiday shopping 😀

Yes DH too bringing very little, had to buy a sweatshirt on holiday in UK

1000% my parents hate to check baggage so I spent my childhood on holiday with one jumper. I now take multiple outfits, all the shoes I will need, a hair dryer!! It doesn’t take that much space to pack what I need and it’s so much nicer!

Do you think? Is it the middle class can be scruffy but working can’t as they get judged?

I dint like taking loads of stuff, nothing to do with class . Consequently I often end up with not enough clothes. Packing upsets me I don’t know why.

As a light packer who has probably (internally, not rude enough to say anything to anyone IRL!) judged a kitchen-sink packer a few times, I had to think about this but I think I'm assuming packing loads of stuff implies faffy, indecisive, maybe a bit precious/vain? Which is quite rude of me really. I imagine on the flip side where I'd see myself as practical and well-organised some might see my (genius, brilliant 😂) packing as being a bit joyless or unnecessarily performatively spartan, which would also absolutely be fair, haha. I do go on the kind of holidays where packing light is a necessity, though, so I wonder if that's part of it too - backpacky/moving about holiday people judging those who have the kind of holiday where you get there and don't need to move your stuff, and vice versa? My mum, who loves a resort/beach/sunbathing holiday and would take 3 cases if she could, thinks my idea of a holiday is hell on earth and I feel the same in reverse, so I do think maybe it's partially that!

I hear ya. I travel fairly light but I’m a woman who takes her oboe on holiday (if you don’t practise regularly your embrouchure suffers) so with that and my iPad with my music and my laptop as I often have to do a bit of work that’s the cabin allowance.

I prefer to pack light, where possible, but don’t view it as a morally superior thing, just a personal preference.

if you were my travel buddy and chose to pack heavy, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid, unless it impacted on me (expecting me to help you lug it around because you packed more than you can carry, taking up all of the storage space in a shared room at the expense of my things, being unable navigate airports/ bushes/ train stations in an efficient way).

Equally, I wouldn’t be asking to borrow stuff/ use your sunscreen if I hadn’t packed any, because in the same way I’d expect you to manage your oversized bags, I need to be willing to deal with the results of my own choice to pack light.

And not putting the heating on when you're cold!

I'm a carry-on person, because waiting for your luggage is dull and paying to check it is expensive and I'm just not somebody who cares about clothes. (A pp said shopping for clothes is "half the fun" of holidays. Shopping for clothes is no fun at all for me - bloody hate it. Half the fun - well, a bit of the fun - for me is not having to bloody fret about how you look, at all. Get sandy, get sweaty, get ice cream down your top, don't bother with makeup because it sweats off anyway, and don't give a monkey's. You're on holiday - relax!). But everyone is different, and I wouldn't consider it a moral issue.

Actually, it impacts me when I'm stuck queuing in the aisle of the plane because you're too tight to pay for a hold bag and are struggling to lift your heavy case into the overhead locker. For example. 😉

I don’t pack light. I once came home from a week’s holiday with 18 pairs of clean pants. I have no idea what scenario would have required that many pairs of pants.

With my daughter, it's not a moral failing, it's the DRAMA.

She knows she has 22kg or 20kg or whatever. The week running up to the holiday it's a constant dialogue about how many shoes to take, whether she should take her straighteners, what shampoo, weighing the case, weighing the case again, huffing and puffing about why 22kg is SO UNREASONABLE and how there is NO WAY that she could wear an outfit twice, eye rolling at suggestions that maybe not an entire make up case is necessary and neither is 5 pairs of trainers, huffing and puffing about being asked to bring her own case downstairs, huffing and puffing about how it's SO HEAVY and unfair..

When the rest of us are just packing our stuff and staying way under the limit.

The Kate adie thing makes sense. Personally I feel i look like shit on holiday so I don’t want to draw attention to it by overdressing so I go the other way. I try and deliberately forget things like straighteners so my hair is a mess as I haven’t done it rather than it’s a mess after I’ve spent time on it. Lipstick on a pig is the (I know awful thing to say about yourself) is what comes to mind for me. I’m ok on cooler city breaks where I can wear a coat and cover up.