Weathering All Seasons
Alison Huth on Packing for all seasons, the mind, body and soul.
CHALLENGE GIVEN–AND ACCEPTED!
One of the challenges when you are heading out for a long trek is to have enough clothes and keeping your weight down. It’s tricky, no two ways about it. So when it came to packing my clothes (Peter always does his own packing) I decided to make it as easy as possible on my brain! Another factor for me is that Peter changed my hanging space to shelves and that does make it easy to keep my clothes sorted.
WINTER FIRST
We left home in March and headed north, as we live in Queensland it was [seemed] fairly obvious that we would be hot for quite some time. So, winter clothes were the first ones to go into the van because they all went into a container under the bed. The hardest thing here was how many tops, jumpers, jackets, coats etc. I love jackets and coats, plus scarves, shoes, gloves–oh, the ‘love’ list just grows and grows.
I took myself firmly in hand and put things back in my house wardrobe. It was tough but I ended up with a couple of pairs of jeans, and 8 tops that were all mix and match with each other. I was pretty happy with that.
Coats came down to weight, puffa jacket first, then two coats. I wanted one more but, once again, I was firm with myself, plus the winter store container was now full!
SUMMER
I’m used to summer, it was just a matter of choosing the clothes that I really liked, plus were easy to wash and didn’t need ironing. When it comes to ironing, my Mum always thought I was really bad at it, so
she did it for me for a very long time. The fact that she loved ironing made it easy for her. Our kids are right in the non-iron generation, so I followed their lead and have gone without ironing wherever possible. Where it’s not possible I have worked out a couple of tricks.
The first is to learn to love the rumpled look! I try to avoid the crumpled and slept-in look, but rumpled is quite acceptable. The other trick is that if I know I want to wear something specific the next day, I get it out and hang it on the back of my armchair overnight and the crumple does fall out. Yes, we do have armchairs in our van.
SPRING AND AUTUMN
A bit of summer and a bit of winter, and something in between. Basically, I didn’t need to pack anything special for these seasons, it’s just a matter of blending summer and winter clothes to keep cool or warm.
THINGS I HAD TO GET
There were a couple of things that I had to get because of the ‘might need them’ thoughts. One was a pair of gumboots–or Wellies. I don’t care what you call them, I don’t like them but I now have them. One day, I am going to be very glad I have them, but that day doesn’t have to rush.
THEN, ‘THE OTHER SEASONS’
And then there are the other seasons. These are the seasons that are completely personal to you. The seasons of your mind. What are you going to do while you’re travelling around? How do you keep yourself entertained when you stop for the night, have no energy left for sightseeing, or it’s just time for a day off?
As I have just stepped back from a big workload, my mind is used to being busy. If I have a day or two off, I sleep well on the first night, but the brain worms are busy on the second night complaining that they haven’t had anything to do all day. Miserable brain worms!
Knowing that the brain worms were coming with me, I packed to keep them busy too. I started off with a couple of books, basically the ones that I am happy to swap in a library at a park, or a street library. TV is important for me, I am a news junkie, so we have a folding satellite dish which stores under the bed for the times when the aerial doesn’t work.
Peter and I play a game called Mexican Train, we have a set that lives in the van so we can play it on the days that call out for it. Later on, friends would join us on the trip so Mahjong is another game we play on quiet days, or anytime really. Another thing that I love doing is jigsaws–I know you can do them on the tablet, and I do that–but a real 1000-piece jigsaw is bliss. I have one of those portable boards where you can work on the puzzle, leave the pieces on the side arms (and cover them to keep them in place) when it comes time to pack up. I took one jigsaw with me which will go to an op shop when I need a new one. The board fits under the bed too.
One more bit of essential packing was my craft work. I packed heaps of 4ply wool and am making baby/cot blankets to give to my Zonta Club for the women’s refuges we support.
On departure day, it was good to know that all seasons of clothes were in place, and the brain worms would be fed.