All y’all probably have your packing and preparations down pat and don’t stress out the day of a trip. I, on the other hand, tend to wake up on a travel day with some anxiety.

You see, I make my travel plans for sometime in the future and then proceed to pretty much forget about them until either the day of or the day before. I’ve always preferred to pack at the last minute, but I also recognize that I worry then about forgetting something. Of course, forgetting something probably wouldn’t be the end of the world. I have proof of this from a trip Greg and I took years ago where we were packing our clothing in the same suitcase and he alertly removed my little stack o’ undies in order to reorganize the clothing, but he left the little stack o’ undies on the closet shelf. TMI! But we made it through and I’m here to tell about it.

It’s been over a year since I have been preparing for a trip, so I decided to see what I might apply with all my new learnings about offloading mental things into a written list, and asking questions, etc.

First thing I did was to ask myself what result I wanted from packing. Seems like an obvious question, right? But asking it helped me to think about the fact that there are two fairly different portions of this upcoming trip which will require different types of clothing. When I realized exactly what kind of clothes I wanted for Part A, and what kind for Part B, it helped me relax about figuring out what to take.

Next thing I did was eschew my policy of bringing all the groceries in in one trip, no matter how many bags there are. What I mean by that is sometimes I tend to think too small, too “efficient,” and it limits me unnecessarily. When I decided to just take two suitcases instead of cramming everything into one suitcase, my stress level dropped considerably.

First thing before the first thing actually was to use my wunderlist app to offload everything I could think of that I needed to pack and do before we leave. Although I did that instead of sleep for part of the night, I was glad to wake up and have the list already made. So far today, I have completed 36 of the 51 items. I love crossing things off of a list just about as much as I love having a list.

So I’m still in process, but I feel confident that I will be prepared, and that if I forget something it will be provided for me. I feel confident that I am leaving my family prepared for the upcoming week. And I’m excited about my trip.

You have probably figured out I am heading to Alaska later today. North to the Future!

Bonus! The reader who comes up with the most creative reason why I might be going to Alaska will receive a little something from my trip. Leave your suggestion in the comments.