What I Have Learned About Packing

The big news, for anyone who hasn’t heard, is that this coming Sunday, we are being shipped back to the US. We come back for four weeks, so I have been busy trying to line up work and auditions (for film projects that will shoot while I am home), and then we come back to China for a few months, then we are slated to go to Korea for 6 weeks. I do hope it’s a sit-down and not moving around too much, or at all, if possible. Then the last month or so gets fuzzy, as they don’t know whether we will be in Thailand and Taiwan, or Singapore, it’s still pretty sketchy. I don’t know how much I trust this schedule anyway. Two weeks ago, we only had ONE contract for the entire remainder of the tour, and now they have the last 6 months booked? It seems sketchy, but they are telling people they can leave things here, so I’m assuming they expect us to have bookings in that time frame or they would tell people to bring their belongings home.

I, however, intend to completely repack. I just over packed, or at least feel I did, but now that I know how I will be living, I can definitely pare down my packing.

I hear our blogs are read by others who are preparing to tour, both with Troika and with other companies, so I thought I would do some sharing about my packing experiences and what I have learned. I hope this helps you!

I began with two suitcases. They are in a nestling set, the biggest one (possibly a 25-28”) and the medium one (probably of the 20-25”). I’m sorry, I don’t know their exact sizes. I packed all clothing items in the bigger suitcase and all toiletries in the smaller one.

As it turned out, I did buy a lot, and the two suitcases weren’t enough, considering how small the first was and how tight they both started out. Then my smaller suitcase was dropped wrong and the entire bottom shattered, so I bought a new big one about a week and a half ago, and that suitcase was destroyed by the bellboy here in the hotel.

So I will say that while you do risk your luggage being ruined (be it by overzealous bellboys and suitcase handlers at airports, or by exploding toothpaste, or by fish guts swirling around the cargo area of the plane), you DO want good quality luggage. Don’t go broke with suitcases, but don’t buy the cheapest thing you can find.

The first thing I did learn is that you need two big suitcases and to leave some empty room in them. I packed both suitcases to the very top. No empty space to be found.

Now as for specifics-

For clothes, as a girl scout and as someone who knows to plan for lack of laundry, I packed for warm/hot weather for 2 weeks and for cold weather for 2 weeks. But I also had to pack knowing that things could get ruined or need to be left behind. My basic list, estimated:

12 tank tops
8 tshirts
8 long sleeve shirts
4 layering sweaters (1 for warmth, 3 for fashion)
1 heavy sweatshirt
1 lighweight coat (like a windbreaker)
1 heavier coat (not good for winter, but heavier than windbreaker)
3 pairs of jeans
4 pairs of lounging pants
4 pairs of cotton shorts (good for pjs or working out)
2 pairs of shorts
1 set of pjs
5 dresses of various stages of “dressy”


Thus far, I have not worn the tank tops. But it’s pretty fair weathered so far.
I have only worn about 4 of the tshirts.
Likewise with the long sleeve shirts.
The 3 “for fashion” layering sweaters have not been worn.
The heavy sweatshirt I wore on the plane and sometimes during rehearsals because that space was ridiculously cold. Same with the heavier coat.
I have not worn the lightweight coat.
I’ve rotated my jeans so they all get worn and often.
I’ve worn one pair of the lounge pants often, a second pair a few times, the others not at all.
The cotton shorts I’ve worn one when working out.
No go with the shorts yet.
I’ve worn one dress once (for Christine’s party)

Now, as to why I haven’t worn much of my stuff.

The tshirts- it went from being too cold to just wear a tshirt, so I was layering a lot over long sleeve shirts. But then it got really hot, and my tshirts are tighter rather than looser, so Viv and I bought some loose cotton shirts at Meters/bonwe.

I also bought two dresses- one was fancier than anything I brought (and was only about $22) and the other I just got on Chongqing and haven’t had the opportunity to wear it yet (about $10).

Otherwise, I’ve either been too busy sightseeing to wear dresses or it’s been too cold for my taste. Do know that I don’t wear dresses often (difficult to find comfortable shoes, ya know?).

But also know that Vivian and I bought a lot of laundry tools (which combined couldn’t have cost us more than $7) that can handle whole loads of laundry and we basically do our own laundry every other day or so. It may be just washing 2 or 3 shirts and a pair of jeans, or if a few days pass, it could be a few days worth of socks/underwear, a few shirts, 2 pairs of jeans… and then everything is hung wherever we can find space. We have stuff hanging in the closet, on the closet doors, and in the shower at the moment. We see no need to pay the expensive per piece laundry rates. I think parents may want to pay for laundry as two person’s worth can probably be a lot, but then again, if done nightly or bi-nightly, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

We air-dry everything, but how long it takes to dry really depends on the article and where it is hung. In Chengdu, once we learned to open the windows, things would dry faster (about a 24 hr process). Here in Wuhan, things seem to take longer, but we only have the closet and bathroom to hang (24-36hrs). Jeans, socks, and certain items made of thicker materials take longer, but shirts seem to dry fairly fast (same 24 hrs or so).

Since we wash so often, I really think I can lighten the load of what I have packed by at least half (at least shirts wise). I’m going to leave a couple of bottoms at home, but I’m still debating about dresses. If we are really doing a 6 week sit down in Korea, I may wear more dresses since they are casual and I have two pairs of shoes that I love wearing that I could wear with them.

As for socks and undies… I prepared for two full weeks without laundry. Obviously, I didn’t need to prepare for this long. So I’m going to leave some things at home, with the exception of socks since they take so darn long to dry.

Shoes-

1 pair flip flops:
which I’ve worn once, they have not been needed in showers, and I can’t wear flip flops casually, they hurt my sensitive toes

1 pair of sandals from walmart:
Most comfortable pair of sandals I have ever bought, and they were cheapy shoes from walmart, but are cloth, so they shouldn’t get wet (like mine did when it poured yesterday). Wear fairly often, I’m sure more as it gets hotter

1 pair of sandals/heels (wedge shoes):
Haven’t worn them much yet, only a couple of times, I wear them with my dresses, but if I can find another pair, I’d wear them as casual shoes. Oh yea, payless shoes!

1 pair of heels:
My audition shoes, which are being retired here in Wuhan. They were falling apart as it was, and they just can’t stand up to heat here, so they will be trashed here in Wuhan

1 pair of good sneakers:
My exercise sneakers from home, so lightweight but sturdy. Wore them for a sightseeing adventure, and for working out, but otherwise haven’t worn yet

1 pair of cheaper sneaker-like shoes (like cheap pumas):
Wear daily, my fave shoes, but cheapies from kohls


Except for the heels, I am bringing all of the same shoes back, and hope to find another pair of wedge shoes that can be both dressy and casual.


As for toiletries:

If you are in major cities, they have most products you could need. Bring your own medicines (sinus, allergy, cold, vitamins, prescriptions, etc). If your city has a walmart, they do carry the equate brand of some drugs (I remember seeing multivitamins and some specific vitamin supplements). I did take most of my medicines out the boxes, leaving them on their blister packs, obviously, but in plastic bags. Once I’d taken a few weeks of my multivitamin, I did take all of the pills out of the container and put the remainder in a plastic bad. The container just took up too much space, considering it wasn’t full (it wasn’t full when bought, either). I think tracy bought Robitussin brand, though the box was in Chinese and she said there was no flavoring at all, unlike the american version.

The walmarts and carrefours have had many american brands of shampoos (herbal essences, dove, head and shoulders are some that I remember) and body washes. So unless you are brand specific, you can easily buy the same stuff here, but the american brands do cost a bit more, but are similar in price to what you would pay in the US (unless you bought at an american walmart which is cheaper than buying american products at an asian walmart).

I’ve seen crest and colgate toothpastes and toothbrushes. I bought Listerine here. They did have floss in Chengdu, but I haven’t looked elsewhere.

You can buy US make-up here, but it’s very different here. In the US, you can just walk the isles and pick up what you need. Here, regardless of whether you are in a department store or walmart, make-up can only be purchased at make-up specific booths, like you’d see in a US department store make-up section. And full-out like that, like, imagine a MAC counter, same thing here for maybelline and oil of olay and Neutrogena. And it’s more expensive. MUCH more expensive. A single color of maybelline eyeshadow is 39Y or about $5.5, and a quad is usually in the 59-89Y range (which is $7-13). So bring your make-up from the US. If you forget something, they have it here, but it’s EXPENSIVE. And there’s a decent chance it has been enhanced with “whitening agents” or unknown origins. The Chinese like pale skin. You can buy whitening products.

They have lots of johnsons baby products and diapers (so why are there so many naked babies and toddlers doing their business on street corners?). I bought baby powder and oil, and they were both reasonably priced.

For the ladies-
You can definitely buy feminine products. In carrefours and walmarts, I’ve seen small boxes of OB brand tampons, but no other brand, and only the small boxes. But tons of pads and liners. I didn’t see anything weird, but I can’t read Chinese, so I’m not sure what all I was looking at. Luckily, I was prepared, so I was really just looking out of curiosity.

For all-
I haven’t seen deodorant, but I haven’t looked either.

They do have Tide (in powder form), but we have been using a local brand, so no problems there.

Foodwise-
You can find pretty decent things around. I bought Skippy at Carrefour for about 28Y (or $4), but found it at walmart here in Wuhan for half that. And bread is easy enough, and I found canned fruits, but you can eat the local fruits. They love snickers here and you can find many american candies, and some other american products.


So the moral of the story is don’t bring everything you’ll ever need. Pack light, you can find stuff here. For men, you aren’t going to be as likely to be able to purchase clothing here unless you are small for a male, and heavier and taller women could have some problems, but I think everyone who wanted to find clothing has found clothing somewhere.

If you absolutely refuse to do your own laundry, laundry is pretty expensive, as the “deals” we’ve been getting have been per item rather than per load. Each city has had different laundry options. In Chongqing, they claimed to machine wash then air dry, but I heard many horror stories in regards to Chongqing laundry. And I don’t know if I trust other people doing my laundry anyway. Plus, I have no interest in spending my per diem on laundry.

I hope this helps anyone packing for a long trip overseas!