Decluttering my suitcase

Share your decluttering activities and ideas.
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Kathryn-in-Canada
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Decluttering my suitcase

Postby Kathryn-in-Canada » Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:13 am

I've put this in the declutter forum because I'm trying to declutter my suitcase.

Here's a picture of what I'm proposing I'll take on my 35 day trip. This doesn't include the formal outfits but does include the semi-formal ones. Missing from the picture is a red turtleneck.

I laid everything out because I couldn't decide whether to take my stone or khaki green capris so I wanted to get a sense of what colours I'll be wearing. I decided on stone because the green were dull coloured and I didn't see a lot of brightness in my outfits.

So, it will be mainly black, red and stone.

There is a predominately blue dress and I might bring a blue bolero jacket to go over my black dress for a formal outfit, but that will be the only blue my the wardrobe for a month except for a blue cloth belt for my travel skirt and pants. It is reversible so is black on the other side. I'll have a reversible black/brown leather belt and a cloth/brown stone belt. Plus a couple of dress belts for my travel dress - if I cinch a belt tight enough, I can pull it up, let the excess drape over the belt and thus shorten it to just under my knee, making a different look (it is full length normally.)

I could swap the red turtleneck for blue or purple but then it won't go with the red skirt. Not sure I need it to, so I'll consider that.

I've added in purple using scarves and shawls and there is a green blouse. But my base colours will be black or stone. That means two pairs of walking sandals (stone and black), two dressy sandals (cream to go with the blue dress and the red/tan skirt, and black) and one pair of pumps (gold metalic for formal wear.) Plus my stone coloured running shoes which are going to look a bit out of place with my black jeans but so be it, I'm not packing any more shoes!

According to my outfit calculator, I can make 51 daytime outfits out of this. Obviously more than enough. Logically, I could leave my jeans behind but they are comfortable to travel in (stretch!) and I'm afraid I'll be cold and end up wearing my only pair of pants all the time as a result. That happened last summer (it was 100 the day we arrived and then only got over 75 once) and I got bored with my outfits.

If I leave a t-shirt behind, that will also cut the number of outfits but I can't decide which one to leave. I have two wool ones that I need to take because they are great travel companions, warm in a/c, cool outside. So really, I'm only taking two others, one solid black, one solid white. I might leave one of the flowered tops behind but they are part of night-time wear as well and I'm a bit short on those.

Writing this out, I can see I really have to get over caring about what I wear to the dining room. That is my biggest stumbling block.

I added in the green shirt because I was looking for something else with long sleeves for warmth. It is a travel shirt so the sleeves roll up and button in place. I can wear one of the wool tees underneath for a warmer outfit if I need to. And, after last summer, I know how important it is to have fleece so there's a fleece jacket and fleece vest, along with a regular black cardigan (for extra warmth in a/c) and my travel blazer (which has enough pick-proof pockets that I won't have to carry a purse while on tour, especially important in Morocco and Barcelona because of the petty crime.)

If you care:

Starting at the back left, coming forward:

- sheer flowered top with a sleeveless, shell underneath (the shell has crystal in it.)
- flowered jersey top
- synthetic red/tan blouse
- white safari shirt
- green safari shirt

Next column:
- black dressy t-shirt (good enough to wear in the evening)
- red wool t-shirt
- white cotton t-shirt
- black patterned wool t-shirt

Next column
- travel blazer (hanging - it has 16 pockets)
- black cardigan (with zippered passport pocket)
- red fleece jacket (with unzippered passport pocket)
- reversible (khaki/black) vest with slash pockets on both sides.

Next column
- black travel dress (can be worn on a beach as a sun dress or with a sparkly jacket for formal nights depending on how I dress it up.)
- blue dress for semi-formal nights (my only single use item but I love this dress.)
- black crepe culottes for the main dining room (depending on the top they are either semi-formal or dressy.)

Across the bottom:
- Stone pants
- black jeans
- stone capris
- stone travel skirt (required because there will squat toilets so I'll have to tour in a skirt in order to use them, plus it has pick-proof pockets.)
- red/tan skirt (matches the blouse but looks great with a black or plain red top)
- coloured skirt - goes with every plain top I've packed

Across the window blind:

- sheer black wrap with blue beading
- multi-coloured wrap (won't be coming, I've already talked myself out of it!)
- purple/gold wrap, it shimmers
- my pashmina from Hong Kong - green and purple on cream
- purple/black large scarf
- black and white thin scarf
- black and gold large scarf
- red and cream large scarf
(the large scarves can be worn as a shawl, or even made into a purse.)

Looking at all this, I figure that is a full wardrobe, not simply a travel wardrobe. I'll be paring it down. If I get too bored with my outfits, I can boost the economy in the ports we visit.

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OKay
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Re: Decluttering my suitcase

Postby OKay » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:08 pm

I find this fascinating! Thank you for sharing it.

We used to discuss "clothes capsules" (I think that was the term used) on the old SHE board. There was one SHE (Sharon) that really used this concept and had developed her clothes closet into an amazing amount of outfits by paying attention to the concept. Because she got bored wearing the same clothes over and over she would change out capsules frequently (I'm thinking it was monthly) and have a complete fresh wardrobe ready to wear and everything already coordinated with each other.

Part of this clothes capsule planning was knowing what color went well with complexion, skin, season, etc. It was brilliantly simple but so very complex in the amount of detail that went into the planning development of it.

ANYWAY - all that to say - your clothing selection for this cruise reminds me of the clothing capsule concept and I think you did an EXCELLENT job planning and developing your outfits.


VBPOTB!!

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Harmony
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Re: Decluttering my suitcase

Postby Harmony » Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:10 pm

Yikes! I don't think I have that many clothes that fit me! You're doing a great job. How do they all pack, do they get very wrinkled with that much?

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Kathryn-in-Canada
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Re: Decluttering my suitcase

Postby Kathryn-in-Canada » Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:44 pm

The white t-shirt, capris and pants (not jeans) will wrinkle. But there is an iron on board.

My travel skirt, the white shirt and blazer will be wrinkled out of the suitcase, but the wrinkles come out when they are hung up (it takes about 5 hours, less if I steam them in a bathroom.)

All but the jeans, capris and pants and my turtleneck sweater will dry overnight if I wash them in the sink. That includes the long black dress - it is a travel knit and dries fast. It is too big to wash in a sink but I could do it in the tub if I had to.

My wardrobe is about 70% travel clothes so they are designed not to wrinkle. The downside is they are also delicate, so I'm not sure how much I'll let the free laundry service have them. For the jeans and capris and some of t-shirts - no problem.

My big problem with wrinkles will be with my evening gown which is tricky to iron as it is layered levels of material on the bodice and they tend to get uneven when packed. Dh's tux and other dress jacket will also need to be pressed. The pressing service is not included with the laundry service so I'll be doing those, with the help of a pillow case from the room, on my own. The rest of my formal wear will be fine, except, perhaps one wrap but I'll press it before I leave and roll it around a tube, so it might be OK. The sari is actually packed in a zip lock bag.

All of the clothes, except my travel dress, are also quite light, so I should be able to fit them all into my carry-on and main suitcase. I'll actually be spreading things around 4 bags. We are checking 3 bags and I'll have enough to get by in my carry-on. Dh doesn't bother with that, he just checks everything. This time I'll cross pack so that if any one bag gets lost, I'll still have a formal outfit. With dh, I'll pack one pair of dress pants in each bag and his tux jacket and reversible formal jacket in separate bags with a dark suit in the third bag. That means he'll have one thing for formal nights should the other two bags not make it. (I'm really worried about bags catching up to us in Africa since we are at sea most of the time.)

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Kathryn-in-Canada
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Re: Decluttering my suitcase

Postby Kathryn-in-Canada » Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:49 pm

I've removed one of the flowered tops from the pile.

I decided on the red turtleneck (instead of purple.) It looked better.

I have one formal top that will have to pass inspection (I haven't tried it with the bottoms I intend to wear it with and sometimes things that should match don't.)

If I was deleting anything else, it would be the red skirt/blouse, but I want to keep them in because of the patterns. They add variety.

I'll travel in the jeans, a wool t-shirt, my red fleece jacket (with my rain jacket over top and those two can zip together) and the running shoes so there won't be as much to pack since I'm wearing the bulkiest stuff.


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