The Art of Packing for 6 Months

Just the thought of packing for 6 months is daunting, exciting and quite frankly hard to make any sense of. That is, until I started searching around for blogs and articles from those who have mastered such a feat. That and…packing cubes.

Yes, packing cubes! What the heck is a packing cube, you ask? It is a small pouch made of somewhat sturdy fabric, mesh and minimizing zippers. These are hands down the most brilliant invention for the travel world. Genius!

Imagine your children arriving at their favorite vacation spot and just as quickly as the hotel room door shuts behind them, they are frantically rummaging through to the bottom of their well-packed luggage in search of their bathing suits and flop-flops and voila!…your hotel room becomes rather reminiscent of their bedroom at home…a messy, disaster.

Now, the good news…the packing cubes allow you to organize each category of clothing and accessories by cube, so if they are looking for their bathing suit they can find it in that individual cube. I know, it sounds completely Type A and insane to think of living like that, but when we will be moving anywhere from every 3 days to every week, it just makes sense.

So, if you find yourself inspired today or any other day you are following our StrohWorld blog and get the wild hair that we did to pick up and leave daily life behind, here is your list of what to bring for 6 months, around the world, 2 kids, 2 adults and a range of roughly 40 degrees (I’ll get to the Antarctica portion later…):

Necessities:

– 30″ Sturdy Rolling Duffel – not a good place to save money…get a good one, good fabric, sturdy wheels and good handles and straps…we chose the 30″ North Face Rolling Thunder (see cover photo).  Brad is bringing the 36″ version to carry the lacrosse sticks, football, basketball and a few other miscellaneous items.

– Sturdy Backpack – We opted for the North Face Surge line of packs (lots of compartments, lots of space, soft computer compartment and extremely padded shoulder straps. One version has the Joey battery-powered mobile charger…AWESOME!

– Packing cubes (see details above)

– Toiletry kits

Men and Boys:

BACKPACK:

Earplugs

Eye shield

2 headphones

Glasses (vision and 2 sunglasses)

Headphone splitter

Ipad, iPhone, laptop

Chargers

LUGGAGE:

Shoes: 

1 pair flip-flops

1 pair running shoes

1 loafers/dressier shoe

1 closed toe sandal (Keen)

1 slip on walking shoe (Vans)

Tops:

4 long sleeve wicking fabric t-shirts

3 plain t-shirts

5 golf shirts

2 short sleeve button downs

2 cashmere sweaters

2 long sleeve button downs

Bottoms:

2 Swim trunks

4 walking shorts

4 pants (no jeans)

Belts – 1 leather, 1 canvas

Under layer:

3 dress socks

5 ankle socks

3 white socks

7 pairs of underwear (yes, they will get washed often)

2 pajamas

Jackets:

Rain jacket

Zip black fleece

Hats:

Visor/Baseball cap

Wide Rim Sunhat

Workout:

2 Stretchy under layer

2 Workout shorts

2 short sleeve workout shirts

Toiletries:

2 Chapsticks

Toothpaste

Toothbrush

Deodorant

Hair brush

Face lotion

Contacts

Soap

Floss

Misc:

Duffel bag (dirty clothes and short trips)

GoPro/Camera

Timex watch

Protein bars

Lacrosse Sticks/Lacrosse balls/Screwdriver (might be a Stroh thing, but seems required…)

Women and Girls:

BACKPACK:

Earplugs

Eye shield

Headphones

Glasses (vision and 2 sunglasses)

Ipad, iPhone, laptop

Chargers

LUGGAGE:

Shoes:

1 flip-flops

1 running shoe

1 flats

1 closed toe sandal (Keen)

1 slip on walking shoe

Tops:

5 short sleeved shirts

3 long sleeved shirts

3 cashmere sweaters

Bottoms:

1 skirt

1 dress

1 zip off pants

5 leggings

5 shorts

Under Layer:

7 travel underwear

2 bras

7 ankle socks

2 pajamas

 3 swimsuits

Jackets:

Rain jacket

Fleece

Puffy jacket

Workout:

2 running/yoga pants

2 running shorts

2 running bras

Hats:

Wide Rim Sunhat

Baseball hat

Toiletries:

2 Chapsticks

Toothpaste

Toothbrush

Deodorant

Hair brush

Face lotion

Face Wash/Moisturizer

1 shampoo

1 conditioner

Floss

Hair ties

Misc:

Duffel bag

GoPro/Camera

Timex watch

Protein bars

1 cotton scarf

1 large scarf

Wait…what about Antarctica?:

Packing for the Antarctica portion of the trip may vary depending on how you get there and what expedition you decide to travel with. We chose The Lindbald National Geographic Expedition group. Given that we will experience high’s of -10°F and lows of -30°F, we need some warmer clothing than our 50-90°F range throughout the rest of the trip. Here is where this incredible Lindblad NatGeo organization comes in.  They offer the option of renting, borrowing and purchasing the clothing and gear we need for our 2 weeks in the South Pole…even cooler than that (no pun intended), they offer the options to ship you the clothing and gear or simply deliver it to the boat to meet us on our departure date…Option 2 Yes, Please!

We’ll check in once we are on our way to let you know if all this preparation served it’s purpose!

Bon Voyage…5 days from now…wheels up!