Traveling Light, or The Bug Out Bag

I have gained a new appreciate for disaster preparedness. I've heard other ex-pats talk about their 'bug out bags' but until this latest evacuation from Tunis, I never understood the importance of them.

We are in a small group of people who fled Tunis at the same time. We all had a similar instruction, "pack for three days at the hotel" and we've all realized that we forgot something.

Of course, we can just go shop for what we've forgotten. Unless, like one gal, you forgot your purse and bankcards.

The thing that bothered me the most? Buying more Q-tips. Do you know how many Q-tips I have at my house? It's got to be in the millions. I have bought them at Sam's and got multiple big packs at once. To have to buy more just seems like overkill. But you need what you need.

Before I left the states, I bought makeup. I figured that in Northern Africa, my skin tone might not be common. So I bought three of each of the colors I needed. When I got to Paris, my makeup held out for a week, then I ran out. I've got THREE of these things at home and I had to buy more. It's crazy making.

I managed to get out of Tunis with a relatively well packed bag. When we fled before a wildfire in SoCal year before last, we forgot the 'important papers' file. Had we experienced a loss, we would not have had our insurance companies and numbers. When we left the country this time, we grabbed those papers.

I'm thinking that if you 'stage' a bug out bag, then you have to have multiples of things that you use daily. It seems a waste. But when you throw stuff into a suitcase in a panic, you don't always remember everything. Of course, if you look online, the topic of 'bug out bags' takes on a more menacing connotation. The survivalists keep bags filled with gear you need if you have to live off the land and fend off looters during a post apocalyptic timeframe. I just had to live in a four star hotel for a couple of weeks.

I wonder if it would have been easier just to walk away with a purse and make a conscious decision to buy everything I needed. It would have been less stressful. And frustrating. Need a Q-tip? Buy some. Don't beat yourself up because you forgot to pack them...

I'm not sure how easy it is to 'travel light'. I think if I had been able to pack for a week or ten days, I might have made better travel decisions. Like close toed shoes. Three days at a local hotel is different from two weeks in Paris. The needs are different. But two weeks anywhere is probably the same, packing wise.

Since I'll end up with duplicates, I wonder if I could stage a couple suitcases and leave them packed and ready to go. I wonder if I really want to live anywhere where that seems like a reasonable idea??

--Sandee Wagner