I confess to not usually using a checklist when I travel because most times are a bit different. What I do though--I travel a lot--is I have a couple containers of "travel stuff" down in my kitchen including some pre-made kits that I just throw in my bag. I pick out what I need, add clothes as needed, and that works pretty well.
> I confess to not usually using a checklist when I travel because most times are a bit different.
Don't you find that most trips have a ton of stuff in common though? Pajamas, contact case/solution, loofah, spare phone battery, ear plugs, phone charger & battery charger, reusable water bottle, etc. always go with me on every trip.
IMO the stuff that always goes is the stuff that I tend to forget, exactly because there's nothing unique about this trip that would make me remember it. If I'm going to the beach I know I need my swimsuit and beach shirts because I can walk through my activities and think about what I need for each one. But I'm likely to forget pajamas because I'm not thinking about "go to bed every night" as an activity to plan for.
A lot of the things you describe (or my versions thereof) are in one of the kits I always bring and the others are elsewhere in the container I rifle through when packing. Sure, I could have a checklist (and probably should) but forgetting the basic stuff isn't something I have a regular problem with. I do travel every few weeks so I have the routine pretty well down.
Apart from the pajamas, you could easily just buy extras of those things and keep them together for travelling. It's so much easier just to grab a set and check afterwards what needs to be replaced or refilled.
This is why I use OmniFocus for my travel checklist: nested lists. If I’m not going on a ‘work trip’ I can just tick that whole sub-list off with one tap.
Checklists FTW. Nobody above me has mentioned Atul Gawande’s book ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ so, just on the off-chance you’re not aware of it, there you go. I loved it. (Gawande is the doctor who implemented the checklist in this article.)
The bottom line, if you travel a lot, is to essentially leave your bags packed for a typical trip. I might need to top some medications off, pack the right amount of socks and underwear, decide on the clothes for a particular trip given weather/activities, electronics, etc. It sounds like a lot of stuff but I can basically grab what I need for a typical 3-7 day trip in less than 30 minutes.
The other thing is just bring less stuff. A lot of people are amazed by how little I carry and I don't consider myself extreme. Consider what you really need as opposed to want.
I started using a hanging basket in my bathroom I can just throw in, but it's not feasible to leave my bags backed if for no other reason than the clothes would wrinkle.
(Then again maybe I'm not travelling enough for your advice to apply...)
I agree on the bringing less stuff front. I've slowly pared down a lot of what I bring, and just stop in a drugstore to pick up if I forgot some minor thing.
A good reusable checklist system can help with this. I've been using an app called SplashShopper since the Palm Pilot days that lets me choose what I need for any particular trip from a list of common items. This lets the list adapt to the particular needs of each trip. It's the only app I've ever found that hits this sweet spot of reusability. Unfortunately the company that makes it does a poor job of updating it for iOS, so I keep an ancient iPad around just so I can keep using it.
