Packers Remorse

How does one pack for a six month adventure?  Very carefully as every item must have many purposes.  Less is always more.  Good thing that I had a three week trial trip to Greece and Turkey to test out equipment and see what was a necessity vs what was a "nice to have". 

My real challenge was packing for 3 seasons plus Christmas.  Shoes are the bane of luggage as they tend to take up the most room and are heavy.  I Love shoes so it is just cruel to limit my happiness with minimal and utilitarian footware.  I packed and re-packed, rolled and used the zip lock method.   Everything fit into the three pieces of luggage - small piece of luggage for John and medium pieces for Elizabeth and myself but as I soon found out just because things fit into the luggage and are under the max weight doesn't automatically mean that you are good to go.  I knew after our first two flights to Abbotsford that I had packed way too much.  Just rolling my luggage around was a strain due to the weight.  I was already suffering from packers remorse.  It didn't help the situation that Jim man handled John's small carry on rollie on our first flight and broke the handle right off the luggage - we hadn't even left Ottawa and we were already pulling up lame in the luggage department. 

A cull was required.  I took time while Elizabeth was napping and Jim and John were out visiting and re-scrutinized each and every item and managed to fill up a large box.  Tomorrow it will be shipped back to Ottawa and then and only then will I really feel ready for Asia.