Overpacking 101: The No-Shame Guide to Stuffing Your Suitcase Silly

A travel suitcase filled with books, personal care bags, clothes and a camera.

What if it rains? What if it snows? What if I’m cold? What if I’m hot? What if I’m bored? One book? Two? Seven? Should I bring seven books?

If this is how you pack, I feel you. The high-and-mighty light packers of the world exude goody-two-shoe, early-riser vibes, but I’m here to tell you that they’re no better than you—just different. Sure, I’ve saved money by taking a budget flight to Europe with just a backpack. But I didn’t like it.

Sometimes, “overpacking” pays off. In early 2020, I packed heavy for a six-week trip to Denmark. Think board games, craft projects. The pandemic hit, and I ended up staying in Denmark for more than three years. That first year was mostly board games and craft projects. When I finally returned stateside—many European thrift stores later—I had over a dozen bags in tow.

Whether you can’t bear to travel without your favorite board games, you thrift-shop too hard on vacation, or you accidentally moved to another country and are finally coming home, you have plenty of good reasons to pack heavy.

Here are a few tricks to make it work.



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