Hello, all! A lot of us are busy packing for our warm-weather trips right now, so I wanted to share my travel capsule (and capsules within the capsule) and no-check packing plans.

My trip to Ohio will be 10 days, and the temps will range from about 80-90F in the day to 50-60F at night. There will be thunderstorms scattered throughout, and we will split our time between three relatives. We will have access to laundry facilities, so you can see I don't have a wholly different outfit for every day.

I decided to plan based on the temperatures, since the high heats really dictate my levels of (dis)comfort with certain items. Next stage of planning took into account night and other events.

For packing, I started with the heaviest items on the bottom and worked my way up to the very lightweight and more damage-prone items.

On to the photos!

  1. Lower 80s capsule - short shorts, linen tops, and my H&M tiger sweatshirt to throw over in the morning or inside with A/C. Can also be topped with the citron sweater in #3 instead of the sweatshirt.
  2. Upper 80s capsule - breezy dresses with a scarf for A/C. Can also be topped with the Ella Moss moto in #3 instead of the scarf.
  3. Nighttime capsule - jeans to replace shorts in case of night outings to casual dinner etc. though we'll probably stay home for the most part.
  4. Emergency dress-up capsule - I don't know of anything planned, but I figure I can wear these all together or mix and match to fit the event. The fancy coat could go over my dark jeans, for example, or the Ella Moss moto could go over the black dress.
  5. A variety of sandals, a must-have to switch up the wear and tear on my feet.
  6. Layer 1 in my 20" carryon: Shoes and shorts. Shorts were stacked, then rolled together.
  7. Layer 2: Jeans and coat. Folded individually.
  8. Layer 3: Dresses. Stacked at full length with the heaviest dress on bottom. Folded in half.
  9. Layer 4: H&M sweatshirt. I didn't want to fold any areas with the faux leather design on it, so I just folded the sleeves and bottom back.
  10. Layer 5: Linen tees. Folded individually. I would have liked to fold these with something heavier to help with wrinkles, but I think they'll steam out easily.
  11. Layer 6: Ella moss moto. This is only on top because I have to wear it to work tomorrow.
  12. Layer 7: Swim capsule, pills. Not pictured is my swimsuit, since it hasn't arrived yet, but you can see there's plenty of room left in this layer.
  13. Layer 8: really just my zippered pouch of liquids (BB creams with SPF, hair wax, moisturizer, toothbrush, toothpaste, makeup setting spray).
  14. Inner flap compartment: unmentionables. And my umbrella. Cuz that's totally the logical pairing.
  15. All zipped up! You'll notice I've not yet used the front zipper compartments. This is where I'll store my pajamas, which I still need to wash before I can pack them.
  16. All the sundries to pack in my Personal Item. The brush, wallet, phone case, and lotion will go into my Zella frame bag, as per usual. The makeup goes into my kitty makeup bag. The scarf and dressy bag will be separate.
  17. All packed up!
  18. Worn on my person for the flights to and from: trench (also useful in the event of storms), dark wash jeans, linen tank, cashmere sweater, and Report booties.

A note on my luggage: I just bought this new citron baby off of Ebay to replace my old suitcase, which did not have spinner wheels and drove me crazy every time I bonked it into my ankles turning a corner. DH's American Tourister has really held up well, so I chose the same brand for myself. The 20" size is a fair deal smaller than the limits for most American airlines, but I wanted one that would also fit most International requirements. It is still too big for some Euro airlines like Alitalia, but I felt this was a good compromise given my infrequency of my International excursions.

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