Category Archives: Travel

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Minimalist Travel Wardrobe: Work Conference Day #3

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Whew! It has been a long week already, and there are still two more days to go! Here is what I wore today: grey trousers, colorful shirt, black short sleeve cardigan, and black flats. I had switched into this cardigan on Monday, so I have worn it twice so far on this trip. I have worn these black flats twice as well. It’s hard to tell, but I am also wearing the same jewelry as what I wore on Monday – orange dangle earrings and my blue ring. I have one more day of this trip, so check back tomorrow to see what I wear on my last day!

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Minimalist Travel Wardrobe: Work Conference Day #1

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Hey! I have job! AND I am traveling for four days to a conference. Fun! Here is my outfit for the first day: black pencil skirt, black blazer, funky shirt, and navy sparkle flats. I think this is a flattering outfit. I look purty. :)

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Two New (to Me) Minimalist Travel Organizing Tools

Hi all! I just made it home from the big weekend trip, and I hope to share some more pictures with you as soon as I get time to organize and edit them.

I want to share with you two new minimalist organizing tools I used that you might find helpful for any travel you are doing in the future. Both are up-cycled, and you could devise them out of things that you already own.

This first one takes a bit more effort: I actually sewed a shoe bag. I found the basic pattern here, although I altered the size a bit. (And I couldn’t tell you what that size was. I just measured a pair of shoes and tried to make it bigger than that.)

I used an old shirt from the Man for the outside of the bag, and the inside is a piece of red flannel that I had lying around. The ribbon was something my mom had. Voila! Free and useful travel item!

This second item was even easier to put together. I actually saw this travel hack on another blog a few months ago and had to give it a try. (If it was your blog, let me know! I will add the link.)

That is a glasses case that I used to carry my jewelry. This might get dicey if you have a lot of fancy necklaces that you don’t want to get tangled up, but for what I was bringing, this was a perfect solution. Bonus: if you have big glasses like I do, then you probably have a big glasses case, too.

So there you go. Think about trying these two organizing tools for your next trip.

Do you have any other travel organizing tips to share? I would love to hear them.

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Lovely Summer Days

 

Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop in and say hello. Here’s what I was wearing yesterday – chilling at my parents’ house with this sweet little fashionista. It was pretty windy, which is why we have wild hair.

Anyway, I have lots of pictures to share with you in the next couple of days. So far – minimalist travel wardrobe success!

Hope you all had wonderful weekends too! Be back soon with normal posting. Promise. :)

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My bags are packed, I’m ready to go

I am headed on a trip to my cousin’s wedding! I’m so excited. But before I dash off to catch my plane, I want to share my packing list with you. I used the printable packing list and calendar that I posted here.

 

As you can see, I changed my mind a few times. That’s ok! That is the whole point of this process – to be brutally honest about what things will be helpful and necessary, and what things will just be dead weight. As I was filling this out, I laid everything out on my bed to see how all of the outfits would go together and check to see if I was missing any sundry items (like a slip). And it all fit into my carry on and regular purse! How great is that.

And here is my calendar.

My scanner chopped off a bunch of graphics and pretty things. :( C’est la vie. Anyway, I am going to be gone from Friday until Tuesday. So you can see how I started on the right and wrapped back around to Tuesday. I want to demonstrate how you can use this calendar – especially with the days divided into three large sections – to really get nitty-gritty about what kind of things you will need.

I hope this is useful to people. I know that it is for me.

Ok time to catch a plane! I hope everyone has a great weekend.

 

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Just For You! A Printable Packing List

This has taken me a little while to put together, but I think it’s been worth the wait. I give you: a women’s minimalist travel packing list.

How beautiful is that!

In addition, here is a calendar to help when planning:

So here’s how it works. You would start with the calendar. Fill in the dates and activities that you have going on for your trip. Start thinking about what types of activities and/or weather you expect.

For my upcoming trip, I have to go to a wedding. I need to plan a fancy outfit for the ceremony and reception. However, it’s a rainy time of year, so I also need to bring a rain coat and waterproof shoes. And I want to have some comfortable, casual outfits for traveling and chilling out with my family.

Once you have all of those considerations, start filling in the packing list. Actually write down what items you will bring. Focus on multi functional items (ie a scarf that can double as a shawl when it gets chilly).

Go back to the calendar and fill in the outfits that you will wear down to the shoes and accessories. See if there are any items that you only plan to wear once. What if you didn’t bring them? Is there something you are bringing that you could use instead? The point here is to eliminate any extraneous items. You only want to bring essential items, and hopefully they won’t take up more space than you have in your carry on.

The packing list is set up with black and grey items. Black items are essentials that should be brought on any overnight to three-day trip. For trips longer than three days, use both the black and grey items. This should get you to 5 – 7 days, and for any trips that are longer than that, you will probably have to wash your clothes anyway. This packing list is pretty comprehensive and should be enough to last you for multi-week trip if you pack efficiently.

I am going to fill out these forms for my upcoming trip and share them with you next week so you can see how these two documents work together.

What do you think? Is this helpful? If you use them, please let me know how they work for you!

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What to Wear: Wedding Plans

No, not me. I’m already married. :)

My cousin is getting married in a few weeks, so I’m trying to get prepared for it. I decided to try on some things that I already own and see what I could wear. This is what I put together:

I was afraid that I had “outgrown” this awesome navy dress, but I tried it on and it fits fine. I have a couple of fancy dress party things stashed away, so that’s why you probably haven’t seen those shoes and that bag before. But they are perfect for situations like this – which is why I keep them around.

I bought this ring recently, and I think it’s awesome. The earrings were a gift from a friend.

I love to wear all of my pretty clothes!

You know one of the unforeseen advantages of having a small wardrobe? I don’t spend so much time shopping! The money savings is a big deal, obviously, but in the heyday of my shopping gluttony, I would spend two to three Saturdays a month at the mall. I was constantly looking for the next great deal. Now I don’t really shop because I know if I get something new, something that I already have and love will have to go. Instead, I can use my time to do other things like go for a bike ride, clean my house, blog, or create something like a quilt. I’m really happy to have my time back.

Maybe I’ll use some of my time to watch YouTube videos about how to do my hair for this wedding!

I hope you all have a relaxing weekend! See you next week!

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Minimalist Travel Hack: Unders

When I was in high school, I went on a school trip to Europe. One of the teacher/chaperons shared some packing advice with us. He would bring his old unders that he was going to throw out anyway along with him on the trip and then throw them away when he was done wearing them. Since he was going to get rid of them anyway, he would do it while on vacation, and it would free up space in his luggage for the return trip.

That idea always made me smile, and I’ve implemented it a few times. Just thought I would pass along that sage piece of advice to all you other minimalist travelers out there!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! BTW, I stole the term “unders” from Anthea. I think it perfectly describes them. :)

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Providence – the clothes

For those of you interested in minimalist travel wardrobes, I wanted to share what I wore in Providence. It was just an overnight, but I love the challenge of only bringing one bag. I also decided to run on Sunday, so I had to bring my workout clothes as well as street clothes. All in one bag.

Here’s what I wore for the first day:

I was pretty strategic about a couple of things. First, it was supposed to rain, and I didn’t want to have wet feet. So I wore my leather boots, which I have water proofed. Since I was wearing boots, I decided to bring my denim skirt. This is one of those perfect basics; it goes with everything! When I was thinking about what to bring for Sunday, all I really needed was a second pair of tights and another shirt. Voila! Easy peasy packing.

Here’s what I wore on Sunday:

That’s a teal, cowl-necked sweater with a red scarf. This was the first time that I wore that combination, and I really like it! It looks so sophisticated. :)

(PS Look at those wide plank wood floors! *drool*)

So what do you usually pack for a two-day trip? How many bags do you bring?