How To Pack Light For A Weekend Away

York Train Station

Last weekend I went on a girly trip to York with two of my friends, Danielle and Amelia, who I went to Uni with. We went to Uni in York and try meet up as much as we can, this time was a celebration of Amelia’s graduation!

Here’s my guide to packing light and making sure you only take the essentials.

Packing Prep

First off, I always start by deciding what we’re going to be doing each day. Once we’ve come to a conclusion, I then start planning my outfits. If you’re unsure what the weather’s going to be like, I suggest checking that first so you know what kind of outfits you’ll need. I went for 3 days, Friday – Sunday, and knew the weather was going to be rainy with possible snow, so I needed:

An outfit for travelling in (obviously I don’t need to pack this but it saves time on the day of your journey), an outfit for Friday night, an outfit for Saturday day and one for night, and an outfit to travel home in on Sunday.

In order to make the most out of the space in my case, I decided to wear leggings and boots to travel in both there and back. This means I only needed to pack a top for the last day because I was already wearing half of it on the way there!

Once you’ve decided your clothes, it’s time to make a list. I actually make two or three lists, one with all my clothing items and outfit pieces on (including extra bags, socks, underwear and jewellery), another with toiletries and then one for extras (headphones, chargers, etc).

Lets Get Packing

Shoes:

I pack shoes first as they’re heaviest so should be on the bottom. If you’re worried they might dirty your clothes, you can wrap them in bags.

Clothes:

Next I roll all my clothes up, this is a tip my mum taught me, it saves space and reduces creases. Think of the case standing up, I put clothes in the top half of my case. This is because, if you put them on the bottom and heavier things on top, the heavier things will squash the clothes down.

I put my underwear/socks/tights into the front compartment of my bag to keep them all in one place.

Toiletries:

I pack all my toiletries and make-up into this bag and try to take as many travel-sized items as possible. I use this little tin (shown on the side of my case) for storing some cotton buds, hairgrips and cotton pads. Only take as many as you need and then a couple extra. What I mean by this is; I’m going for two nights so know I’ll need four cotton pads, but I’m taking six just in case. I'm not going overboard and taking a full packet though.

A good tip is to decant some of your products. The lid on my moisturiser has gone missing so I’ve squeezed some into a little pot. You can do this with a variety of products to save some room.

Always remember to utilise your space as well as possible. For example, my heels take up a lot of room, but there are gaps in between them. In here I fit my hairbrush and small jewellery case (as shown above). If you plan to pack full sized toiletries, these can often fit inside shoes or be rolled up in clothes, also saving space and keeping them secure.

Extras:

Check on the hotel website what the rooms include. More often than not, you won’t need to take towels so don’t worry about making room for these. A lot of hotels also provide hairdryers in your room but these can be, for want of a better word, rubbish, and also sometimes painful (I’ve had my hair caught in a few before!). Therefore, if you want to take your own hairdryer I highly recommend getting a travel sized one such as the Ego Gold Travel Set, which I reviewed here. I probably won’t take a hairdryer, as one of my friends will be, but I’ll be taking my travel straighteners from the same set. They save so much room and work just as well as normal straighteners.

I put my phone charger and headphones in my handbag so I can use them on the train.

And that’s it, we’re done! Packing is a bit like playing Tetris, you just have to put the pieces where they fit together best.

Happy travels :)

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Becky
XO