Let's Talk Luggage

Helloooo everyone! This is Su, and this is my first post!! 🙂 We are only 5 days away from leaving the US, and it’s been a mix of emotions from exciting and hectic to everything in between. We’ve researched and planned a ton, but we’ve also had many moments of “we have sooo much to do. Why don’t we watch a 1 hour episode of TV while we mentally prepare to do that?” 😆 it’s been a fun… challenge, to figure out how the heck to pack our life away for 10 months (I can actually smile and say this, now that I’m done packing).

We’re only taking 1 carryon and 1 backpack, each, for this whole trip. I can’t tell you how many jaws I’ve seen drop at this, including my own, when Aditya told me this is what we should do because it would just be easier for us as we lug our things all over the world. I didn’t even know where to start, because I’m not a minimalist at all - I love shopping and I love having a variety of clothes. But one of the most humbling things that Adi said when we first moved in together is, “you have a huge closet full of clothes yet I see you wear the same thing everyday.” I initially felt offended by this, but I knew he was right and am using this same philosophy to pack for our trip through what’s known as a “capsule wardrobe.” This is a wardrobe consisting of a small collection of basic pieces that you love, that can be mixed and matched so that every top goes with every bottom. Having this kind of wardrobe at home, but especially for travel, is just straightforward and efficient. I truly believe the style in San Francisco has prepared me well for this, since our first priority out here in NorCal is to be comfortable over cute 😉

Here’s what my style nowadays is like, following a neutral color palette:

• Simple tops and tees

• Button downs for layering and versatility

• Jeans that fit me well and I feel good in

• A couple bright colors or patterned pieces to be an accent

• A little bit of jewelry, and some sunglasses (this is key 🔑)

Have some staples like this and you’re set! I’m loving how this is exactly what’s trending right now - a simple outfit with a little jewelry, hair is simple, makeup is light. Thank you gen Z for making lazy girl outfits a thing, let’s keep this kind of minimal style trending and please, I beg you, do not bring back things like skinny eyebrows and low-rise jeans.

For shoes… this may be an unpopular opinion but I don’t think shoes are that important for your overall look. You can wear ugly shoes and brag about how comfortable you are and people will still be jealous of you. The only tip I have here is to buy wide sneakers for traveling, even if you’re not usually a wide size. I learned your feet expand when it’s hot or you’re walking a lot, so you will be fitting into this wide size by the end of the day (fun!)

Some tips for the packing part:

• Many people are already using packing cubes to help organize their suitcase, as well as compressing clothes down. I’m also trying compression packing cubes for the first time, for the clothes that don’t get wrinkled easily (like jeans, cardigans, workout items, undergarments) - these cubes have a double-zipper to compress things down even more.

• Rolling vs folding: There’s a debate everywhere about which one is better. After a lot of packing iterations, I found that folding clothes to the dimension of the packing cube is just fastest, but folding KonMari style into cubes is the neater and a little more space-saving, way.

• I almost never leave for the airport without my handy little travel steamer, but I don’t have room for it!! :( So I tried this Downy wrinkle release spray in a travel size bottle, and it worked pretty well on a linen dress!

• Help yourself with decision fatigue, and take some time before the trip to plan out your outfits (like meal prepping, but hopefully this is more fun) - I used the app Acloset to take pics of the clothes I’m taking and create outfits from them. I was able to see that my 18 pieces gave me 80 outfits! Doing the work of uploading was quick too, only took me about 15 min to take pics and upload them into a digital closet. Try it out and live your best Cher in Clueless dreams.

Ok, that’s it! Feels so good to be done with researching and packing. I swear the sweetest sound to my ears was the sound of my suitcase zipper closing without me having to sit on it. I may make an update post later to share how well this lightweight-luggage thing is going… don’t come at me though if you see me start carrying two bags 🤣

Shout-out to r/one bag for sharing allll the knowledge on this topic, and here are some of my favorite influencers whose style I love and have talked about capsule wardrobes! @missfernandez_, @sonia_dhi, and @marianna_hewitt.

See you in the next post!! :)