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Welcome back to Built for Weekends, the podcast for people who work all week and live for
the weekends.
I'm your host Marc and thanks for joining me for this episode.
Today we're talking about something that sounds simple but can absolutely make or break a
trip.
How you pack your gear for your trip.
Not what gear to buy, not the fanciest setups, but how you pack what you already have so
your trip is smoother, safer and way less stressful.
Because nothing kills the vibe faster than digging through bins on the side of the highway
realizing the thing you need is buried under everything else, or you left it at home.
This episode is about packing with intention, so when the road opens up, you're actually
ready for it.
Alright, start with the trip, not the gear.
So before you load a single item ask yourself one question.
What kind of trip am I actually going on?
Not the Instagram version, the real one.
How many days am I gone for?
Where am I sleeping?
How far am I driving between stops?
Am I moving camp every night or setting it up just once?
This matters greatly because packing for a 3 day base camp trip is very different from
packing a multi stop road trip.
Your goal isn't to bring everything, your goal is to bring what you'll actually use.
Plus some bonus items you can always pack if you have space.
But if you pack without answering this question first, you're going to over pack every single
time.
Next thing to do is going to be pack in zones, not piles.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is packing everything in different piles.
Instead make it easier for yourself and think about it in zones.
I like to break gear into 5 main categories.
Sleep, food, recovery, emergency and fun.
Each zone gets its own bin, bag or space.
Why this matters, you don't want to unpack your kitchen to find your headlamp.
You don't want your sleeping gear buried under tools and you don't want to have to think
during an emergency.
When everything has a zone, your brain can relax.
And that's what weekends are all about.
Next, accessibility is more important than aesthetics.
Here's the hard truth.
The prettiest loadout isn't usually the most reliable or usable.
Ask yourself, what do I need daily?
What do I need while at camp?
What do I only need if something goes wrong?
Those daily use items will go closest to the tailgate or rear hatch and those things include
things such as snacks, water, jackets, headlamps, toilet kit.
Camp only gear can live a little bit deeper such as stoves, chairs, a table, your sleeping
set up.
Everything else, such as emergency gear, needs to be accessible, always in the same
spot so anybody can get it and never buried.
You shouldn't have to repack just to grab those essential items.
Now for packing, soft bags beat hard cases most of the time.
Hard cases can look great but sometimes they waste space depending on what you're packing
in.
For road trips, soft bags and duffels are usually better because they compress, they
fit into weird gaps, they're quieter and they're easier to move around.
I like to use one duffel per person for clothing, one shared bag or backpack for weather layers.
If you'll grab one bag and you can be fully dressed in any condition, that's a win.
Once you have a set up that works you can always look into mixing in a few hard cases
to make things quicker to grab and pack.
My current set up has a mix of both just to maximize the space I have in the truck.
The next section is going to talk about food gear because here simple wins every time.
Food packing doesn't need to be complicated, you're going to want to think about meals
and not ingredients.
Instead of one random bin of food and a cooler, try breakfast bag, dinner bag, snack bag.
Pre-packed meals that you make at home are great if you can do it.
Even just grouping the item together saves time and frustration when you're tired and
just want to have something easy to cook.
Always also think about packing one extra easy to make meal.
You're going to want more water than you think and very important a way to make coffee without
unpacking everything because mornings on the road or a camp should feel calm and not chaotic.
Now I also have the end of day rule and it's a question that saved me more than once and
that is if you arrive late and tired, can you still set up easy?
That means things are accessible, you're sleeping gear is reachable, you've got a light source
like a headlamp or a little lantern ready and minimal decisions are required in order
to set up.
If you have to think too much at the end of the day, your packing system needs a little
work.
Good packing removes decisions and just happens.
Another big thing to think about is leaving space on purpose and this one's a little underrated.
You're going to want to leave 10 to 15% empty space because chances are on the road you'll
buy food, you're going to add some wet gear, you'll reorganize and things will never go
back exactly the same.
A fully packed vehicle looks efficient but it's fragile.
Space gives you flexibility.
Now as we wrap up here, just remember packing gear for a road trip isn't about perfection,
it's about flow.
When your gear is packed well you can drive longer, stop less, stress less and you'll
enjoy the trip more and that's what Build for Weekends is all about.
Making space for the moments that matter.
So if this episode helped, share with someone planning a trip and if you've got a packing
system that works for you, I'd love to hear it.
So until next time, pack smart, travel far and build your weekends.
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