My approach to packing pretty much comes down to this:

1. What essential peices of electronics do I need?
2. Can I fit them into a suitcase?
3. What peices of clothing do I need, and will they make good padding for the aforementioned electronics?

I stand by my system, but I have to admit that Amy’s more methodic strategy made a bit of difference.

Our first attempt to pack was spearheaded by me the night before we planned to drive from home (Austin) to my parent’s house in Houston (where we’d be flying from).

The rules – two suitcases each (4 total), at 50lbs each.
The result – we ended up shoving everything we could into whatever bags we had (about 9), then shoved all that into the car, then drove to Houston knowing we’d need to repack it all once we were there. It wasn’t an outright failure – we at least weighed all of the bags and knew in theory we could make it work. But it was definitely a temporary solution.

The night before our flight to Prague, Amy took the reigns of the packing process, and I was grateful. Yes, dear – I’ll put all the shoes in that bag. Yes, dear – I will kindly weigh these bags over and over again to make sure we are using their size and space efficiently. No dear, I don’t care if you throw out those socks…

Once I knew my toys from Apple were safe, I was perfectly happy lifting and moving things from one place to another. Amy’s got a talent for order, so I opted to let her do her thing.

Examples of an approach I’d never take:

It should be noted that Amy also has a talent for getting impatient and grumpy with any project that goes past 11pm. So, I’d like to think my most important job was lifting spirits.

As the evening wore on, I realized there is no limit to the number of stupid dances to dance or silly songs to sing in order to keep Amy amused as she organized my underwear. You’ve gotta figure keeping the girl who is organizing your underwear happy is important, right? I don’t care where my underwear is packed. I do care that its not ‘forgotten’ out of spite.

In the end, we were both shocked at how much we could pack into 4 suitcases at under 200lbs. And at how many stupid dances I knew and/or was willing to do. So, packing success.