How to pack for a holiday without forgetting the important stuff

There’s a very specific kind of confidence that you feel approximately 24 hours before a holiday. You’ve checked in. You’ve mentally ordered your first poolside drink. You’ve even remembered to put the out-of-office on.

And then you arrive at your destination and discover your phone charger is still plugged into the wall beside your bed.

Because no matter how many times we go away, packing never seems to be the slick, effortless operation we imagine it will. In fact, research suggests around nine in ten Brits overpack for their holidays, while two thirds still manage to forget at least one essential! I’ve definitely fallen into the latter category a fair few times.

So, how do you avoid being the person buying an overpriced plug adaptor at the airport while wondering why you brought six pairs of shoes for a four-day trip? A little organisation goes a surprisingly long way.

Get the boring-but-important bits sorted first

Nobody gets excited about the admin part of a holiday. Browsing restaurants overlooking the sea? Absolutely. Checking when your passport expires? Somehow a job for Future You.

Unfortunately, Future You would quite like to get on the plane.

A couple of weeks before travelling, check your passport, travel insurance and GHIC card, along with any visas or entry requirements for your destination. Save copies of useful documents somewhere you can access them from your phone and if you’re travelling with somebody else, consider sharing copies with them too.

It’s not glamorous, but neither is frantically searching your inbox at the check in desk with 4% battery.

Stop packing for your imaginary holiday self

There’s your real holiday wardrobe and then there’s the wardrobe you pack for the mysterious woman you apparently become abroad.

She wears three outfits a day. She needs multiple pairs of heels. She’s definitely going to read four novels by the pool.

In reality, most of us reach for the same comfortable favourites repeatedly. Research found that 69% of Brits pack too many clothes, while 36% take too many shoes and 31% bring more underwear than they actually need.

Before anything makes it into the suitcase, lay everything out on the bed or floor. Seeing your entire holiday wardrobe together makes it much easier to spot the fifth “just in case” dress that is almost certainly coming home unworn.

It also leaves a little room in the suitcase for anything you pick up while you’re away. A practical consideration, obviously. Nothing whatsoever to do with that lovely little boutique you’ve already saved on Instagram.

Give the bathroom a final sweep

The frustrating thing about forgotten holiday essentials is that they’re rarely obscure things. It’s the everyday things that catch us out.

Suncream is reportedly forgotten by 32% of travellers, while toothbrushes and toothpaste also regularly get left at home. Presumably because they’re usually needed on the morning you leave, so they can’t be packed the night before.

One easy solution is to pack a small health kit with the basics you’ll want while you’re away: any regular medication, pain relief, plasters and the usual travel-sized toiletries. Keep anything you still need on departure morning together in one obvious place and add it to your bag just before leaving.

And yes, actually look around the bathroom before you go. Future You does not want to spend the first evening of the holiday hunting for a toothbrush.

Do a tech check before you leave

We can survive forgetting an extra T-shirt. Forgetting the phone charger? Suddenly it’s a crisis.

Plug adaptors are another surprisingly common casualty of holiday packing, with around one in five travellers forgetting them, while 17% leave chargers behind. A quick tech check before you zip up the suitcase can save you from paying airport prices for something you already own three of at home.

Think phone, charger, adaptor, headphones and power bank. Then consider what you’ll actually want during the journey, especially if you have a long flight, delay or several hours to fill at the airport. Download a podcast, save a few episodes of something or have simple distractions like arcade games ready to go for those stretches when you’ve exhausted people-watching at the departure gate.

Keep the essentials somewhere sensible

Finally, think about where you’re packing things, rather than simply whether you’ve packed them.

Your passport isn’t particularly useful underneath three dresses in a suitcase that has already disappeared down the baggage belt. Neither is your phone charger if it’s in checked luggage and your flight has been delayed for five hours.

Keep the genuinely important things like travel documents, medication, money, phone and anything you couldn’t comfortably manage without for a day, in your hand luggage.

Then, just before you walk out of the door, do one last check: passport, phone, wallet, keys.

Because you might still arrive with twice as many outfits as you need and absolutely no intention of wearing those “sensible walking shoes” you packed, but at least you’ll have everything that actually matters.

And really, that’s about as close to perfect holiday packing as any of us are going to get!

*features sponsored content.