What type of packer are you?

In my previous job I travelled quite a bit and I must say that I got pretty good at packing - for business trips that is. When I go on vacation however I will keep adding things until I fill up all the available space in my bag. Anyone else do this?

I think the way you pack can tell a lot about a person. Actually traveling in general tells you a lot about a person. You really don't know a person until you go on a week long vacation with them, but I digress.

Types of packers:

The week before packer: Do they do this because they are the occasional, nervous nelly traveler? Or if they travel a bit more frequently, perhaps they are one of those super organized freaks. Or worse, they just have too much time on their hands. Regardless of the reason, traveling with them would annoy me.

The night before packer: This one I can deal with. It's reasonable. The trip is tomorrow after all. And this way you have time to remember something that you might have forgotten and it gives you time to recover if something you planned on bringing needs to be washed. This person is probably a stable, dependable, not overly neurotic person.

The very last second packer: This is the person that will get up at 3am to pack, water the plants, send out a few emails and set the out of office message on before leaving the house at 4:30 (meant to leave by 4:15 at the latest) to get on the 6:15am flight to somewhere wonderful. This person is clearly insane. But let's face it. They don't let the details bother them. They're spontaneous. If they forgot something, they'll just live without it or buy one on their travels. They may be insane, slightly irresponsible, and definitely disorganized, but also probably fun.

And finally, the person who doesn't pack for themselves: Assuming that this isn't a child, this one is just inexcusable. If you are able to dress yourself in the morning, then you should be able to pack yourself. Getting someone else to pack for you indicates laziness.

Did I forget any? Are you or do you live with a different type of packer?

So.... if you've been reading my posts for the past few days you already know that I'm a procrastinator so it should be no surprise that I'm a very last minute packer. I'm right now sitting in my cube thinking of the things I forgot for the trip that I'm leaving for directly from work. No worries. I'll just get them when I get there if it turns out I can't live without band-aids. (I packed cute, but bad shoes for the party I'm going to). And chances are my sister, who I'm going on the trip with, will have some. She's a pack the night before type, or at least she was before the kids. And she's an over-packer, which can come in handy for the forgetful types like myself.

Bon Voyage! And you never know, the next post may be live from Dublin....