Is it “A” or is it “B,” That Is The Question. (Sorry, Shakespeare.)

If you are travelling to England for any length of time, you will need to pack some clean clothes to complete your trip. And then, when you buy trinkets and “goodies” in England, you have to find space (and maybe weight) for them to be packed to return home with you. And that raises the question.

With apologies to The Bard Shakespeare, the real question is “Is it A or B?” To be or not to be is part of the question, but not all of it.

OK, confused? Read on and we’ll explain.

Let’s admit it, we all have “that” underwear that our Moms told us not to wear because we might have to go to a hospital and she didn’t want to be embarrassed. In our home we call that the “B” underwear. It’s serviceable, but not great.  And that is what gets to go on the trip with us! Maybe as a reward for loyal service, it travels while the “A” stuff gets left behind.

Why? Why take old things on a trip? Because you don’t plan to bring it home. Yes, traveler, you will be throwing it away to make room and weight for those trinkets and goodies!

So, as you plan and pack for the trip, sort out the “A” and “B” underwear and plan to pack the “B” stuff first. Then add the “A” stuff you may need to complete the trip but remember every “A” would need to be packed to bring home and the objective is to avoid that.

This selection of “A” and “B” applies to underwear but also to other items of clothing that you may be nearly ready to recycle. If it’s serviceable and you aren’t terribly embarrassed to wear it but are close to getting rid of it, take it, wear it, throw it away. The space and weight in the luggage can then hold more stuff to bring back.

Wait, you say, everything you have is “B?” No problem. Before you depart, head out to the store and buy that new underwear you have been planning to get for a while now. Then put that new underwear in your drawer for when you return. It’s something for you to look forward to when you get home.

One caution with this “B” plan—make sure you actually throw it away and it stays thrown away. Once on a trip to Ireland, we threw away some old clothes by leaving them in a plastic bag in the trashcan in our hotel room. We felt sure that by putting it in the trashcan we had signaled that it was, indeed, trash. However, a few weeks later we received a package from the hotel that contained all those old things, carefully washed and folded, with a note saying that they had found these things in the room that we had left and wanted to return them to us. We didn’t have the heart to tell them it was trash but sent them a thank you note for their thoughtfulness.

By the way, this “B” approach works for toiletries, too. Take a nearly finished tube of toothpaste or any other toiletry that you may want or need instead of a new or fresh one. The goal is to have it run out on the last day and you throw it away instead of bringing it back. We have found every ounce counts sometimes!

And if you want to get even more adventurous, you can apply the A-B approach to just about all the clothes you take. Got a serviceable shirt that is OK, but not great? Maybe it is a “B” candidate. Trousers? Shoes? Start to think in terms of A and B.

The little suitcase will fit nicely in the bigger one!

And if you want to go really BIG on the A-B approach, consider this: put a small suitcase inside a big suitcase and then your clothes are in the smaller one. You will probably have to check the big bag instead of carrying it on, but when traveling internationally, there is time that is going to be spent at border control  before you get to baggage pickup, so waiting for your bag to arrive is simply not a factor in how fast you get out of the airport. Check with your airline about charges for carrying bags, particularly for the trip back. It may turn out that if your “inside” bag is the “B” bag, that it gets ditched and you just bring the big outside bag back! There really is almost no limit to the A-B thinking!

Oh, and if for some reason you have to go to the hospital in that “B” underwear, it will most likely be written off as “crazy American.” And there is no need for Mom to even hear about it.