Packing for your travels is an art learned through experience and practice. I am a traveller at heart and completely love the idea of stepping out of routine, visiting new locales, and seeing new cultures.
Sometimes in this excitement, I get a tad bit carried away and pack more than a few must-haves. After visiting the headquarters of Natura Bisse in Barcelona last week, as their Middle East brand ambassador, I found while unpacking that half the items were as I took them, which means, I either didn’t use them or didn’t notice their presence.
When I travel for work, I want to be sure I don’t miss out on anything and in the process end up dragging half my house across the globe. Sun hats to trench coats to boots, nothing can be left behind. No matter how hard I try, and how short the trip, I always end up looking like I’m taking a 5-month sojourn.
Are you like me? Then welcome to Over-Packers Anonymous. Don’t worry, I know many seasoned travellers who still struggle with packing light. But this summer I’m determined to find a remedy for us all.
Speaking to a few friends from the fashion industry to find out their packing secrets, the remedy turned out to be no secret. Dipesh Depala, managing partner of The Qode PR Agency, is a transformed over-packer who has learnt how to pack smart the hard way. If it’s a short whistle-stop trip, he says, plan each day’s look in advance and take exactly what you will use.
For a longer trip, he carries five or six jeans in different colours and a variety of shirts, T-shirts and sweaters. Keep a blazer to smarten a casual look. His incentive to travel light, he says, is to leave space in his bag for shopping.
Rosemin Manji, founder of RR&Co PR Agency, also admits to have had FOFT — Fear of Forgetting Things. But, she too found her way around this, editing out items to travel light.
Manji always checks the weather before hand and carries clothes accordingly. She also takes into account the culture of the country she is visiting. In Dubai, we tend to glam things up with cocktail dresses and high heels. But in the US, for instance, she prefers to keep it light with sundresses, which she can glam up from day to evening wear by adding heels and a clutch.
I realise that packing, at its very core, is a statement about who you are. And since I am usually a person with zero tolerance for clutter, I should be a light traveller. So next week, when I travel to Tanzania to film an episode of The Uma Show, I’m going to travel stylish, but light.
— Catch The Uma Show on Colors on Sundays at 7.30pm and on MTV India on Wednesdays at 7pm. Follow Uma on social media on @umagd
