Traveling Lightly
Several years ago I had a job where I had to travel quite a bit, and the experience taught me a lot about how to streamline the process of preparing for a trip without forgeting just about everything I needed to bring with me.
The first thing I did was pin a piece of paper to the bathroom mirror. On it I wrote every item I used in the morning and evening in my normal routine. After a few days, I used that list to assemble a travel toiletries kit. Initially I bought sample-sized bottles of stuff, but in the years since then I have switched to little travel bottles meant to deal with the pressure changes in an airplane. The kit was left, packed, in the bathroom. When I got home from a trip I would replenish it, so it was always ready to go.
Clothing is pretty easy, too: for every day I pack one shirt, socks, and underwear. Depending on how long I will be gone I will bring one or two extra sets. Also depending on how long I will be gone, I might bring an extra pair of pants. If I'm planning to go out, I bring one simple evening outfit (a long black skirt that never wrinkles, nice shoes and tights, and a dressy top).
Then there's the other crap.
For whatever reason, going on vacation seems to be a time when we lose all sense of what we actually do on a daily basis. People haul along games, sporting equipment, musical instruments, half their library, and a dozen odd electronic devices. This stuff is heavy and bulky and as far as I can tell half of it doesn't even get used, and the other half only gets used because it happens to be there.
When I travel, I bring the following extras: my cell phone, my iPod, one or two books, and the digital camera. If I read the books and need more reading material, I give myself permission to buy magazines or more books. The iPod is actually a recent addition to the crew, and I'm not sure it's going to stay; I like listening to radio shows, but it takes up room and is one more thing to worry about losing, damaging, or having stolen.
The next step, after you've pared down, is fine-tuning your packing. This means that when you are travelling, if you need something, write down what it was. If you end up having to buy something (like, say, deodorant), keep the one you bought in your travel kit.
But more critical than adding to the pile of stuff you carry everywhere is subtracting. There are some things I've just stopped carrying with me. They were things that I thought were important for a long time, but when I looked at my own behaviour on trips, it turned out that they were not. Things like lots of little packets of pills for various ailments (it turned out that most of the time I didn't use them and they expired, and when I did need them I could easily buy them where I was), or sunblock (which I rarely use). Also, I no longer pretend I will keep a perfect travel diary. I used to lug along a little blank book and it would sit, unused, for the entire trip. Sometimes just subtracting that much stuff makes it possible to put everything in the overhead bin and travel with no checked luggage.
After every trip I go through the toiletries kit and consider the other things I brought. If I used them, they probably get to stay, although if I only used them because I brought them then they might go anyway (bringing my own stash of tea with me was one of these things). If I didn't use them, they probably go, although there are afew things I haven't used that travel with me anyway (like my inhaler).
Paring down the stuff I travel with, while also making sure I have everything I need, has really changed the way I travel. I can pack for a weeklong stay abroad in fifteen minutes, for one thing, so there are no hectic nights before departure. And I remember (almost) everything, so there's not as much feeling like a total moron at my destination. Most important, though, is the feeling that I carried only what I needed to bring and that when I needed something, I had it. It makes travelling less hectic and disruptive, and it means that I can really relax and enjoy my destination. Not to mention how much easier it is to get through airports and train stations and taxi queues with one or two smaller bags.
After posting this, I happened across this web site, which has similar advice (if somewhat more extreme) and offers some good reviews of luggage.