On packing

It really isn't hard to pack for a six month trip.  You pack one week of summer clothes, and one week of winter clothes.  Add toothbrush and other toiletries, a few electronics, and you're done.  The end.

The tricky part comes when you realize that one week of clothes fills a whole suitcase, and there are three of you, and you were hoping to check most of the luggage, but the airline permits just one checked bag each. 

Then you start thinking that maybe you don't need a whole week of summer clothes.  If you bring a long-sleeved button-up shirt, you can roll up the sleeves to 3/4 length and wear that in the summer.  Roll them down for winter.

So you take out two short sleeved shirts.  And then you look at the pile of luggage, unchanged except for the removal of two short sleeved shirts, and you realize that those two shirts really don't make a difference.  So you put one back and keep the other. 

And then Tim suggests taking another bag anyway.  Because you technically can add another carry on, even if you count the giant stuffed bunny as a carry on.  Or is the backpack the carry on and the stuffed bunny the personal item?  It is immaterial.  One person can drag another suitcase through LAX.  So why not?

Then you remind Tim that there is always more stuff coming back.  If you have already maxed out your luggage, how will you possibly deal with the stuff you've acquired when you pack to come home?  And then you answer your own question. 

I know.  I'll just leave a couple of shirts there in six months.

Because you have already ascertained that two short sleeved shirts make such a vast amount of difference in packing space.