How to Fit a Week's Worth of Clothing in a Carry-On

I am an expert at packing.

My strategy is to pull out everything I want to wear, or that I think looks vacation-ey, and throw it on the bed. Once I've pulled out at least half of my wardrobe, I get out my suitcase and proceed to stuff until my arms get tired. When I realize that it won't fit, I dump it all back on my bed, toss a few things on the floor, and start over. Then I repeat until I can close the suitcase.

This method usually leaves me with an overload of one thing (like, five different black swing dance t-shirts) and a severe lacking of another thing. I recently went to India and forgot my pajama pants, meaning that I spent my nights sleeping in the same jeans that I had just gotten monkey poo all over earlier in the day. I also forgot a warm jacket and spent many a night shivering in cold train stations and envying the local people huddled on the floor with warm blankets. Okay, there were also rats on the floor, so maybe I didn't envy them too much.

I'm apparently not an expert at packing.

But I could be, if I packed smart! Here's a checklist of clothing to bring on your next 7 day vacation:

• 6 tops (Spring/Fall: 3 long sleeve/3 short sleeve, Winter: 2 short/4 long, Summer: 2 long/4 short)
  
• 1 dress
• 1 skirt
• 1 pair of dress pants
• 1 pair of jeans
• 1 sweatshirt/light jacket
• 1 pair of pajamas
• 7 pairs of socks
• 7 pairs of underwear
• 3 bras
• 1 bathing suit

Winter Additions:

• 2 pairs of long underwear/underarmor
• 1 winter coat
• 1 hat 
• 1 pair of gloves
• 1 scarf

(For an even better idea, make your own personal list of clothes, print it out, laminate it, and keep it in your suitcase with a marker to check off as you're packing for your next trip.)

So, you get all your clothes in your suitcase and fold them up neat, and it looks like this:

But if you're like me, there's no way it's going to stay like this as soon as you start taking clothes out. Me and neatly folding things go together like orange juice and toothpaste. Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes to the rescue!

For my imaginary 1 week vacation I used 2 Half-Cubes and 2 Regular Cubes.

• Regular Cube #1: Tops
• Regular Cube #2: Dress, Skirt, Jeans, Dress pants

• Half-Cube #1: Socks, Underwear
• Half-Cube #2: Bathing Suit, Bras, Pajamas

And the jacket got thrown on top of it all. I may be organized, but I'm far from perfect.

How to Prevent Fan Death

In South Korea, fan death is a very serious concern. Even the smallest personal cooling device can suck the oxygen right out the room, leaving you suffocating with carbon dioxide poisoning while you sleep. The wild vortex alone that is created during this can cause massive bronchial damage, as well as mess up your perfect hairstyle and change the color of your nail polish. In addition, some fans prefer air-alterations, rather than simple stealing.  These fans chop your precious oxygen up into a million pieces, attach the molecules back together with death extract, and return it to your room while you peacefully dream of sunshine and lollipops.

If you're not toast by morning, the fans might try a different aproach. As you know, fans are the cornerstone of recent AI development, which means that as soon as they see you are asleep, they will lower their own temperature in attempt to turn you into a human popsicle.Then they will pummel your popsicle self with high speed winds until you shatter on the floor.

Today's post will teach you how to avoid fan death with 5 simple ideas!

1. Kimchi Vitamins
2. Cute Socks
3. A Face Mask
4. A Plastic Ziploc Bag
5. An Emergency Fan-Death Kit

1. Kimchi Vitamins 

As you must know, kimchi, the popular Korean side dish, is not only good for your health, but it can also cure all sorts of diseases. Now in vitamin form, you can get the benefits of kimchi anytime! Coming down with a case of swine flu? Kimchi vitamin. Stuck at the bus stop in radioactive rain? Kimchi vitamin. Co-teachers think you're having a bad day? Kimchi vitamin. Got a bad case of fan death? Kimchi vitamin.

2. Cute Socks

Another preventative measure you can take against fan death is the wearing of cute socks. Wearing socks at night will keep your body temperature up and prevent all of the oxygen in your body from leaking out of your feet. As an added bonus, evil vortexes are repelled by cuteness, so the cuter your bedtime apparel, the less likely you are to have your slumber disturbed by those pesky killer fans.

3. A Face Mask

A face mask, popularized by old women on subway trains, are now finding a place in the home. Face masks will keep out death extracts that may be attached to your oxygen, as well as harmful carbon-dioxide and just about everything else in the whole world. Again, it has been proved that fan death risks are greatly reduced with the addition of "cuteness" into the nighttime routine, so be sure that your mask is decorated with an animal face or cartoon character for maximum effect. Also, fans are highly susceptible to style influences, so make certain that your mask is not actually covering your mouth, but that it is resting gently on your chin while hanging from one ear.

4. A Plastic Ziploc Bag

If the above tips don't help you feel more comfortable with sleeping with your fan on, just turn it off! (But make sure that you've removed all batteries from the fan's remote control, as well as unplugged it and smashed all visible working parts with a large hammer first)

To keep cool on a hot night with no fan, stick your pillowcase cover in a plastic ziploc bag and throw it in the freezer before you go to work. By the time it's bedtime, your pillow will be nice and cold!

(Or just throw the whole pillow in there. If it gets melted ice cream on it, just think of it as a midnight snack...)

5. An Emergency Fan-Death Kit

You can store all of the above items in a small plastic bag near your bed, for easy access should you experience any signs of fan death. In case of an emergency, first take several kimchi vitamins. Then put on your mask and socks and quietly approach the fan with your large hammer. If you do several really cool dance moves while moving towards the fan, you will be less likely to be detected and will remain under stealth. Strike quickly while the fan is facing the other way and continue to whack it until it stops moving. Be sure to bury the remaining pieces 10 feet deep in solid concrete to avoid reoccurring attacks that may cause additional fan death. Then, go back to bed and snuggle with your nice cold pillow.

The Organized Classroom

This week I had to give a lecture to new English teachers on how to create lessons, manage your classroom, etc. I put together a slide show of ideas for organizing your classroom too. Here it is!

 

Trouble with Toiletries

The main trouble with toiletries is that I can never remember how to spell "toilet." I always put the "I" in the wrong place, like "toliet" or "tiolet" or "toleit" or  just to be safe "Itioilieiti."

The secondary main trouble with toiletries is that that they don't expire quickly and are such meaningless objects that we don't really think of them when we're going through our emotional purging states. "What should I do with my limited edition copy of Lord of the Rings that my friend gave me even though I hate the picture of Orlando Bloom's hair on the cover? (keep it, but hide it on the back of the bookshelf) What should I do with my mini-puzzle of Orlando Bloom's face? (keep it in a really big box and hide that box in the attic) What should I do with my life-size gigantic stand-up cutout of Orlando Bloom that serves no purpose other than to guard my room while I'm away? (keep it and put it right smack in the middle of my room) What should I do with my small collection of extra dental floss? (umm....keep it?)"

But, I'm moving soon, and it was time to deal with the dental floss. So, emulating my Clean Sweep idol Peter Walsh, I dumped everything from my hall closet, bathroom cabinet, and purses onto the coffee table. Actually it was too big to all fit on the coffee table so some of it went on the floor too.

Extra unopened shampoo, conditioner, soaps, and toothpaste went back into the hall closet for the next teacher that gets the apartment. Things like hairspray, hair gel, and nail polish remover that would too much of a mess to pack went back into the bathroom cabinet for the next teacher. Everything that looked gross went into the trash.

Trash

• expired medicines
• half-used deodorants, shaving creams, and other things that the next teacher would not want to use
• broken jewelry that is beyond repair
• my collection of free samples of lotions, sunscreens, etc.
• makeup over 3 years old (for an exact list of when to throw away your makeup, read Makeup Shelf Life)
• Things I didn't like in the first place.
• Trash

The rest looked like this:

So I dumped out all the bags of stuff and sorted everything into piles:

• Top row: Deodorant, shower stuff (soap, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, razors), chapstick, lotions (sunscreen, face lotion, body lotion, hand lotion), storage containers/bags

• Middle row: makeup, nail stuff, extra buttons, medicines

• Bottom row: hair stuff, more makeup, jewelry, tooth stuff (toothpaste, floss, toothbrushes), q-tips

Then I went through each pile and thew away things that were on that trash list up top that I had ignored the first time around. Like old makeup. I don't actually wear makeup, but I still feel bad throwing it away.  I feel less bad if it's on an official list with the expiration dates of makeup. Then I tried to realistically think about how many of each thing I really needed. Like deodorant. In countries such as France and Korea, deodorant is a rare commodity, so over the past 3 years I've been stocking up. It's hard to remember that back in America, you can buy deodorant easily at your local convenience/grocery store. Against my better judgement, I picked two, put aside one unopened stick for the next teacher, and threw the rest away. I probably should have only picked one, but I'm headed to France next...and I feel scared.

Then I put it all back in storage containers.

All my hair stuff went into a little purple box that used to hold beads from my magic beading machine when I was a kid.  If it didn't fit into the box, I threw it in the trash can. If you didn't keep your bead box, you can use a non-magical version like this: 6 Compartment Unbreakable Box or Infinite Divider Box.

My jewelry used to be kept in small tins that my brie cheese came in. Dancing competition jewelry (i.e., shiny jewelry that I actually like) went into a small pink case.

The rest went into a plastic bag, to go back into my jewelry box when I get back home. I don't really wear jewelry that much either...

If you care about your jewelry, you might not want to store it in a plastic bag. Try one of the divided boxes mentioned above (to keep things from getting tangled) or a Velvet Jewelry Roll or Jewelry Portfolio.

Next comes the shower and tooth brushing stuff. It all went into a clear plastic case to keep it separate for easy access and to keep it from spilling all over everything in case a bottle leaks. And, it comes with a nice handle that can be hung on an s-hook if you're in one of those hostel bathrooms with no hooks... see my blog entry on packing for a youth hostel .

A small silver case holds emergency essentials like a needle and thread, advil, clear nail polish, breath mints, and a moist towelette. It's called a minimergency kit.

Extra Buttons, safety pins and q-tips went into a divided pill box.

Everything else went into my weekender bag Normally I try to keep EVERYTHING in this bag, and make sure to limit myself to it, but after 3 years of traveling, I just have too much stuff. I'm a bad, bad pack-rat.

Here's what's in it:

• Left-most pocket: Compact Mirror, chapstick, nail clippers
• Middle pocket: deodorant, lotions and creams (in a plastic bag to contain spills), extra medicines
• Right-most pocket: purple case of hair stuff, pink case of competition jewelry, plastic bag of regular jewelry

So, put it all together and you get this:

Tada! Let's look at the before and after pictures one more time!

Before & After

And the dental floss? It may look like I pared it down, but that's a lie. I kept it all. You don't want to make your dentist more angry that he already will be when he finds out that you've been hoarding and not using your dental floss...

Remember the Milk

When I was in middle school, I walked into the public library with a list of books I wanted written on my hand in black marker. I walked right up to the information desk to ask where I could find the books I wanted, pointed to my hand, and the librarian stared at me in shock. "You'll get ink poisoning!" she yelled.

Fearful of dying from marker ink, I switched to pens clearly labeled "non-toxic" and tried to find other ways to remind myself to do things. Like post-it notes. But those are easily lost and crumpled and accidentally thrown away. I tried computer sticky notes, but they didn't transfer from computer to computer. For awhile, I had a paper planner that I carried around everywhere, but trying to find the perfect planner for my OCD self is a challenge in itself. And it became full of neatly handwritten notes, with cross-outs all over them, which quickly became a mess.

And then I discovered "Remember the Milk." It's an online list program which can be synced across almost any electronic device with internet access. And you can make different kinds of lists for different parts of your life. (My current lists are "Graduate School", "Personal", "School") And it's free. You can sign up here: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

One of the best things about Remember the Milk is that you can put it on your desktop, so you can see it even if your internet isn't working. For Mac/Windows, download "App for the Milk" from http://www.chrillo.info/apps/app-for-the-milk/

You can also sync it with Google so that it shows up on your Google homepage, or on the left-hand side of your Gmail account. And do a zillion other things with it.

And, my personal favorite thing to do, is to embed it in your Windows desktop, to make everything look nice and clean and organized. Here are instructions on how to do just that!

Step 1: Right click on your desktop and select "properties."

Step 2: Click on the "Desktop" tab in the "Display Properties" window.

Step 3: Click "Customize Desktop."

Step 4: Click on the "Web" tab in the "Desktop Items" window and then click "New."

Step 5: Next to "Location" type in: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/googleig/ and click "OK"

Step 6: Go to http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/googleig/ and type in your username and password, and check "remember me."

Step 7: Go back to your desktop to re-size and move around your new Remember the Milk list.

AND if that's not reason enough to sign up for Remember the Milk, you can also sync it to your iPhone, so you'll always have that list with you wherever you go!

(But I still like to write on my hands every now and again, just to spite that librarian...)

Flashcard Frenzy

The first 6 months that I was at my school, nobody would tell me where the laminating machine or the color printer were. Begging my co-teachers to help me didn't amount to anything, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I looked in classrooms, checked supply rooms, and broke into empty offices on my search. Finally, behind a mound of paperwork in a nearby office, I found the color printer, and began the tedious task of trying to decipher the Korean enough to remotely hook it up to my computer. I had to go through almost every single computer in the system before I found the one with the matching Korean symbols, but it was worth it. I now had access to the color printer.

The laminating machine proved a more daunting challenge. I finally located it under a pile of trash and extra signs in a downstairs supply room next to a red machine that looks like it's meant for small-scale torturing. I snuck in with my newly printed color copies when the repair guy (who actually doesn't really do anything but watch TV all day) was out having lunch. But confronted with the Korean machine, I failed miserably. My usually tactic of button-mashing didn't work, and I found myself unable to turn the thing on. So I moved on to Plan B, which was tricking a Korean teacher to help me, as the English teachers still insisted that they didn't know anything about lamination. Ha.

One year and eight months later, I had accumulated a massive collection of flashcards, which looked like this:

This is no way to store flashcards! So I decided to separate them into categories by grade, as well as an extra category for flashcards that can be used for all grades, and one for flashcards that are part of a board game, like Clue or Guess Who?

Inside each box, each set of cards is stored in a plastic Ziploc bag and labeled with a small piece of paper with grade number, lesson number, and general subject of the flashcards.

My board game box also has dice and little plastic animals to use as pieces.

Now, I'm in Korea, so all of these boxes (which my school bought for me) feel awful, like nails on a chalkboard, and have the following picture on top:

If you do this in your own classroom, I suggest a nice plastic box and a label-maker!

Hostel Checklist

Tick-tock, tick-tock. It's 3 am, and you're finally just about to fall asleep. You've been awake for the past 24 hours, because there's a 8 hour time difference in this new country, which makes it 11 am back home. Or is that 7 pm? Is it daylight savings time back home? Do they have daylight savings time in this new country? What time is it really? What is time? But you don't really care, because all this math is making you sleepy...and you're just about to fall asleep...

Then SNAP! Suddenly your hostel room crammed with 6 bunk beds and 9 other sleeping people is filled with sunshine...no wait, it's not sunshine, it's 3 am- it's the glaring overhead lights. You lean over the side your bunk to see what the problem is. Two girls in mini-skirts are frantically digging through their bags looking for a hairbrush to prepare for their evening out. They quickly snap the lights back off, but it's too late. You're wide awake and dreading another 24 hours with no sleep.

This could have all been prevented if the girls had remembered one thing: a flashlight.

To prevent making immediate enemies with your roommates in your next youth hostel, and to cope with other problems like lost shoes and moldy shower floors, here’s a checklist of things to bring:

Sleeping

• flashlight
• sweatshirt (those dorm rooms can get really cold)
• sleeping mask
• iPod/ear plugs (to drown out the sound of people talking)
• travel alarm clock

Shower

• s-hooks (to hang things on the shower/bathroom door or on the side of your bunk bed)
• reusable folding tote bag
• plastic bags
• travel towel
• flip-flops
• toilet paper

Other

• travel locks (some hostels provide lockers with no locks for your valuables)
• plug adapter (check your voltage ratings on your electronics to see if you need a power convertor instead)
• clips (to attach shoes/other easily misplaced items to your suitcase)

And, as a bonus, most of these things will fit nicely inside a plastic ziploc bag:

Travel towels are an  important thing to remember, as most hostels do not provide free towels. Choose a towel that dries easily and folds up small to save space in your suitcase. I like Eagle Creek Travel Towels because they last many years and come with a black drawstring bag to stuff your wet towel in. The X-Large size is big enough to wrap around yourself and walk down the hall, but it takes up more precious packing space.I would recommend the medium/large size for infrequent or short-trip travelers and the x-large for those moving to a foreign country or those planning on spending an extended period of time in one place.

Also, don't forget to bring toilet paper. Many places in the world provide free toilet paper, but you don't want to book the one hostel that doesn't have it. It may result in fruitless trips to nearby markets trying to figure out the local word for "toilet paper" while you resort to stealing napkins from the upstairs restaurant in the meantime. Bring a large roll for trips to places such as India, where toilet paper is a rare commodity, and bring a small pack of tissues for places such as France, where you think there will always be toilet paper, but you can never be 100% certain.

Finally, reusable folding totes are your new best friend. You can use them for everything, from an impromptu shopping bag to a last minute carry-on filled with souvenirs. My favorite use it to fill it with clothes while you're taking a shower, and hang it on the back of the shower door/curtain using an s-hook. There's nothing worse than accidentally spraying all your clothes with water, dropping them on a wet floor, or even worse, dropping them into a toilet. And they fold up so small! An organizer's dream come true!