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.

Yep my husband does this. The reason he can pack light is because some other mug has remembered to pack calpol, immodium, insect repellant, kids snorkels, chargers, books and games for the kids, a beach bag, beach towelled,sun cream, eczema body wash, trainers for sightseeing, backpack for sightseeing, water bottles, hats etc

Don't get me started on the camping What have you put in the car, you're going to break the suspension. Followed, upon arrival at the campsite, by Have we got a football? Have we got a coffee pot? Have we got wetsuits? Did you pack waterproofs? Did you bring a picnic blanket?

They would have shit / or very expensive holidays without me.

Well to be honest that’s a hopeless husband problem, not a packing problem. 🤷‍♀️

I think you are taking what I said a bit too literally. But anyway when I say 2 pairs of gold sandles I mean 2 that do the same job. Like these. Just chose a pair. I'm not saying a pair of beach sandals and a pair of heeled sandals are the same.

And someone who buys a whole new wardrobe every summer when there is nothing wrong with the clothes they bought the year before and wore for 2 weeks before coming back to British weather and putting them in the attic, are over consumers.

Yeah, this!
All that nonsense about dressing up a beach dress with jewellery for the evening…
Why the hell would I want to wear a sweaty dress covered in sun cream to go out to dinner? Gives me the rage 😂

Hardly. The upper classes bring an entire luggage trolley with them, pulled up by a bell boy in a hat.

My DH used to make me feel like this because i do struggle to pack light.
I think its a difficulty in decision making on my part,i just cant decide so take more than i need and feel more secure having options.
I think the cost implications can make some people upset about overpacking.Being found overweight at the airport and either being charged excessively or scrambling around to decant bits and bobs is an ordeal.
I have now bought a weighing gadget so hopefully will be ok.
Im packing currently and its not looking light!
I just cant cope with the sudoku,54321,packing cube, fit everything in a handbag ideas.
Ive accepted its a moral failure... and im ok with that,there are worse crimes.

Agree. The richest people I know take the most bags as they get the extra allowance in business/first and have private transfers so don’t have to worry about lugging it on the train.

I hear you! Yes there's shops so if you forget something it's not the end of the world but do I want to spend all my time in shops? NO! And it would be me trawling about, buying the whatever we needed at the time, not DH.

Oh Lord, I couldn't give a toss if its considered cool to pack light.

Fuck that! I always take a huge suitcase with me (preferably two)- I'm high maintenance- I look after myself and have a lot of skincare products, makeup, vitamins and loads of outfit changes. So sue me. It's not illegal and it doesnt affect anyone else and actually the smug "pack light" people often look grubby and scruffy as hell after a day or two- I see them at breakfast looking like a homeless person whilst I look fabulous and grateful for my huge suitcases 🤭

Agreed - my friend with 3 kids under 5 was telling me they won’t book suitcases due to the cost, do take hand luggage only on a weeks holiday.

Absolute madness.

Holiday probably cost £8k but you don’t want to spend an extra £100 on having enough clean clothes for everyone.

I’ll take a full suitcase, plus my hand luggage, on the train! I’m the one that has to lift it 🤣

Like @QwestSprout I have to take medical items, leg frame to put on my compression stockings and plenty of colostomy bags. The glamour! But it means I can take plenty of clothes and shoes, which I would do anyway, but I can be morally superior to any light packers because of medical conditions 😹

I can do a week-10 days in a hold baggage, if I need to. But, I have largely uncontrollable hair, which needs quite a lot of products and hair tools. Then, I've got a number of lovely summer dresses, I take great pleasure in wearing, so I like to take them too.
So, if I have the choice of a hold bag without a lot of extra cost, I'll do that. Otherwise, if I know I don't have to do too much to my hair, (say over a weekend), then I don't bother.
This is coming from someone who backpacked around the world with one 65L pack, for 3 years. I remember wearing some things until they literally fell to pieces on my body!

Too many flights over the past 40 years when my luggage has been delayed, sent to another destination, or gone missing forever, so I never check luggage anymore. Carry on only, and I got very used to packing carefully and selectively when travelling for work. Most of my holidays are now travel to see family, who do not live in the middle of nowhere, so I can buy anything I've forgotten, or borrow from family. Not sure how I would cope now if I needed to travel to somewhere remote for two weeks! I'm used to just making do with less.

FIL is awful for this, lifting my case saying it’s too heavy, told him I had weighed it, lifting it again shaking his head and clearly worrying. Constantly asking what I’ve got in it. Got to the villa and he’s borrowing shower gel, deodorant, DPs slippers because he hasn’t packed any. Then same performance on the way home.

Urgh yes- this is what annoys me- critical comments about packing so much then asking to borrow everything because they havent got it.

I now say no. If you want it, you bloody bring it.

Too many flights over the past 40 years when my luggage has been delayed, sent to another destination, or gone missing forever, so I never check luggage anymore.

I've been on hundreds of flights (both short haul and long haul) and this has never once happened to me or anyone I've been travelling with thank goodness! I dont think this is super common

I totally agree, I am crap at packing light even if I try really hard. When we went to Florida when DSs were 6 months and 3 someone at the airport asked us if we were moving out there 😆

Lucky you. It’s happened to me probably half a dozen times. I now take a couple of outfits and mini sized toiletries in my carry on even if I’ve checked a big case in.

Credit card and toothbrush is the minimum for me, especially for the for East
India e tc. Everything else I can get a arrival

Mine are the same. Perhaps they are expecting a medal at some point.
🏅Congratulations! You spent the most holidays enduring the annoyance of having virtually no necessary items around you! 🏅

This is why I book package hols with jet2, due the 22k and 10 k hand luggage. I like to take everything with me, but coming back I’ve probably left half of it at the destination as I leave my old clothes there. Then gives me an excuse to buy new when I get home. The hand luggage is usually taken up with overnight stuff as we do twilight drop off.
So much easier with toiletries now there’s no stupid micro limit. Just don’t need them on the way back.

I don't know how common it is, or how unlucky I am, but it once happened when I travelled to the US for my grandmother's funeral! So, the day before the funeral, instead of being with family, I had to spend most of the day looking for funeral clothes, including shoes, and all the replacement things I needed. Now everything is in one bag, with me, on the plane.

There are also some US airlines, on international flights, which will not let you travel unless they can match you to your checked luggage. Nearly missed my connecting flight in Frankfurt once because my checked luggage was not transferred to the connecting flight until the last minute. They wouldn't let me on the plane without my luggage. American Airlines from Frankfurt to Seattle, I think it was. But this was right after 9/11 so that might've been why.

I used to do a lot of travelling internationally, so maybe that's why it happened a lot?

My DH is obsessed with packing light, he likes to tell me often and repeatedly how he doesn’t need much he’s just going to take 2 pairs of shorts and a couple of t-shirts.

He’s also someone who really has no interest in clothes and genuinely doesn’t give a shit what he looks like so I guess it works for him.

Like you OP, I like to have options and see holidays as an excuse to wear my nice stuff and also to dress DD in her nicer stuff too. DH, inexplicably, sees it as a reason to wear even tattier stuff than usual because he thinks his nice stuff will somehow suffer from being taken away on holiday - if we’re just doing our usual uk self catering I leave him to it but if we’re going anywhere even slightly nicer I do bully him into taking a couple of better options.

No problem at all unless you are impacting others. Does it all fit into the hold? Do you take more in hand luggage than some take in luggage? One of these is fine, the other is not.