What I packed for two weeks in Italy
And how I fit it all in a carry-on. Plus what's on the blog this week.
It would be a logical assumption that, as woman who loves clothes and writes about them for a living, I’d be someone who overpacks for a trip. However, you’d be wrong, because I am really efficient at packing (if anything, I tend to under-pack) and am frequently able to fit everything into a carry-on. I first challenged myself to packing for two weeks in a carry-on a few years ago when I went to Croatia; I will say, a smaller suitcase makes navigating trains a lot easier (convenient for Europe and Japan), and if you have a connecting flight, it eliminates a lot of worrying over whether your luggage will make it. (This happened to me once and while everything worked out, I was panicked for a good eight or hours until my suitcase finally showed up.) It takes a bit of careful planning, but I have packing for a trip down to a science. Here’s how I do it.
This Sienna Miller x Marks & Spencer dress is definitely coming with me.
Step one: plan your color scheme
I stick to all neutrals with one accent color—in this case, red. This way, nearly everything I’ve brought can be mixed and matched, and I have options if the weather changes or if I’m just not feeling a particular outfit.
Step two: make a list
I start with how many days I’ll be gone, then work backward from there in terms of what I’ll be doing and what I’ll want to wear. I figure I’ll wear most bottoms at least twice, so I should have more tops that. I am probably bringing one dress too many, but one night is a very special occasion, so I needed to make room for a very special dress. I am also bringing one more pair of shoes than I normally would, but the sneakers will fit in my personal item and the other pairs are very squishable. Thankfully most of my summer clothes are on the lighter side, but that leads me to my next point, which is very important in making sure everything actually fits in your carry-on.
Step three: roll everything up and put it in packing cubes
When I say that packing cubes have changed my life, I am not exaggerating. They not only help you maximize the amount of stuff you’re packing, but they help you stay super-organized too. My packing cubes are from Flight 001, which has sadly gone out of business, but these Eagle Creek cubes are very similar to mine in that they have clean and dirty sides. I roll my clothes and stand them up so I can see everything I packed at a glance; my swimsuits get folded because they’re a little more complicated in terms of padding and construction. I know these pouches look like they’re bursting at the seams—and they are—but once you zip them up, they’re all compressed and neat.
Step four: pack it all in
This can become a game of Tetris to a certain degree, but you’ll figure it out. The packing cubes make it easy to squish everything in (my big one on the right is still unzipped). Here’s my suitcase with my main clothing cube, my swimwear cube, my undergarment cube, my toiletry bag, three pairs of shoes, and a few other odds and ends that go in my zip pockets.
Step five: get dressed for the plane
I have a go-to plane outfit, which is a blazer, T-shirt, jeans or wide-leg pants, and sandals or sneakers depending on time of year. This is what I wore last year to Japan, but I’m planning on the exact same outfit for Italy, except that I just got a slightly larger belt bag from Quince. Don’t forget your personal item with all your essentials—I put a change of clothes, another pair of shoes, my vitamins, power cords, and iPad in mine.
This week on the blog
I shared a throwback photo from my last trip to Italy 10 years ago (!!!) and explained why I made the move to Substack, which is kind of a moot point for this newsletter, since you’re already here.
I also just realized that I forgot to share last week’s post, which was an honest review of Iris & Romeo makeup (no wonder traffic was so low on that one!). Spoiler alert: I am really a fan of the Weekend Skin tinted moisturizer, but read on for my thoughts on the rest of the line.
I will be taking next week off from blogging, but I’ll be back in September with so much Italy Content™, so stay tuned!