Packing Issues, anyone??

As some of you might know, my job invloves a lot of travel - pretty much every week. This means I am constantly packing. I personally find packing very stressful. I am one of those over-packers. So last week while the rest of my colleagues had managed to pack their clothes into a laptop backpack along with the laptop (we just needed clothes for the night & the next day) - I was lugging around a suitcase with enough clothes to last me a week & all kinds of occasions (dinner, campfire, DJ party, serious meeting, top to wear on flight back - ok you get the drift, right?), plus I also tend to dress according to my moods - so I need to carry clothes for all moods you know.

I thought I was the only one, untill.....

I was reading the book - Shopaholic Takes Manhatten (Shopaholic Abroad) by Sophie Kinsella (I love the series, I absol adore Becky - but I hated the movie. The movie just didn't do justice to Beaky - they made her seem mad & so flaky) - when I suddenly realised that Becky actually packs just like me. Not that arn't any other similarities between Becky & me, but we won't talk about those right now. Over to Beaky:

Jeans: two pairs. Easy. Scruffy and not quite so scruffy.

T-shirts:

Actually, make that three pairs of jeans. I've got to take my new Diesel ones, they're just so cool, even if they are a bit tight. I'll just wear them for a few hours in the evening or something.

T-shirts:

Oh, and my embroidered cutoffs from Oasis, because I haven't worn them yet. But they don't really count because they're practically shorts. And anyway, jeans hardly take up any room, do they?

OK, that's probably enough jeans. I can always add some more if I need to.

T-shirts: selection. So let's see. Plain white, obviously. Gray, ditto. Black cropped, black vest (Calvin Klein), other black vest (Warehouse, but actually looks nicer), pink sleeveless, pink sparkly, pink --

I stop, halfway through transferring folded-up T-shirts into my case. This is stupid. How am I supposed to predict which T-shirts I'm going to want to wear? The whole point about T-shirts is you choose them in the morning according to your mood, like crystals, or aromatherapy oils. Imagine if I woke up in the mood for my "Elvis Is Groovy" T-shirt and I didn't have it with me?

You know, I think I'll just take them all. I mean, a few T-shirts aren't going to take up much room. I'll hardly even notice them.

I tip them all into my case and add a couple of cropped bra-tops for luck.

Excellent. This capsule approach is working really well. OK, what's next?

Ten minutes later, Suze wanders back into the room, holding two mugs of tea and three KitKats to share. (We've come to agree that four sticks, frankly, doesn't do it.)

"Here you are," she says -- then gives me a closer look. "Bex, are you OK?"

"I'm fine," I say, rather pink in the face. "I'm just trying to fold up this insulated vest a bit smaller."

I've already packed a denim jacket and a leather jacket, but you just can't count on September weather, can you? I mean, at the moment it's hot and sunny, but it might well start snowing tomorrow. And what happens if Luke and I go for a really rustic country walk?

What I don't understand is, how do other people manage to pack so lightly? You see businesspeople all the time, striding onto planes with only a tiny shoe-box suitcase on wheels. How do they do it? Do they have magic shrinking clothes?

Excerpted from SHOPAHOLIC TAKES MANHATTAN © Copyright 2003 by Sophie Kinsella.

Have you read the Shopaholic Series? If not, you must! It is really funny & my 2nd favourite Chick-lit book of all time (first being Bridget Jones)