Although I am no expert on packing, hindsight is 20/20, and there are definitely some things I did well, and things I did not do well when it came to packing. My process was fairly easy, so if you want a less stressful way to pack, then feel free to follow my tips!
The first thing I did was to fold and lay out everything I had that I thought I could possibly want to take. Bear in mind, being from a climate that is not all that warm, this wasn’t as much compared with someone who has a real winter every year. From there I took out things I thought wouldn’t be that useful, or were redundant. After this, I talked to my best friend, who goes to the University of Chicago about what she thought I would want for the cold. Granted, it isn’t nearly as cold in Aberdeen as it is there, but she gave great advice. When buying things, I tried to get very neutral colors, and also tried to get things I would use again either at home, or in Texas. This sounds challenging, but Texas actually does get cold! If you are going to study abroad in a cold place like Scotland, here are a few things I recommend:
Another aspect of packing I think I did well, was the actual packing. I stuffed socks, underwear and gloves inside my boots to save space. Something I always do when packing is roll up things like t-shirts and pants, which makes them smaller than folding them. I also tried to put a couple of heavier things like boots in my carry on because my airline did not weigh it. Also in my carry on were things I would not want to misplace and enough clothes to get me by for a few days in case the worst happened and my bag was misplaced. This actually happened to my carry on, but that is a story for another blog post.
Some things I recommend bringing that aren’t clothes, but will be nice to have are:
Of course this is not an exhaustive list, but a couple of those things I had to scramble to find, so if someone else knows more in advance, then that’s great! Lastly, I would say that the most helpful thing I did was I started and essentially finished packing two days before I left. This wasn’t my original plan, but my mom and dad wanted to spend the day before I left together, so that’s how it worked out. But honestly that was a godsend. I felt a lot less stressed out the day before I left, and was able to look back over everything and get all of my papers and things in order. If packing for any large trip like this, I will use this method again. I got to relax and spend time with my family and watch some Netflix before I left, instead of manically stuffing things in my suitcase. Hopefully this was helpful!