Business Travel #1: Packing Additional Slides

Business Travel #1: Packing
Additional Slides: Mark Packs For a Week Long Trip
Achieving Results Managing People
Michael Auzenne and Mark Horstman
© 2008 Manager Tools LLC
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Overview
What follows is a slide show of pictures of the process Mark goes through when packing for a week-long
business trip. Business travel is inevitable, and we’ve seen far more managers do it poorly than do it well. A trip
benefits enormously from good (and efficient, quick) packing. And we want you to know what smart travelers do.
Mark has been traveling on business since 1987. He’s learned a lot in his 2-3 million air miles. Packing
which takes an hour every week is neither efficient or family-friendly. This process takes him about 20 minutes,
and he swears by it. In the following pages, you will see pictures of what he takes, and what he does with each
item to help it fit in a standard 22” rollaboard suitcase. He follows all of Manager Tools’ recommendations.
A point we didn’t make in the cast: Mark usually travels with a coat. He favors a navy cashmere blazer much
of the year, though most male travelers he knows recommend a blue hopsack blazer (less warm), widely available
and versatile, and inexpensive. In the winter, he wears a long overcoat. He didn’t use to do so (“an extra thing to
carry and keep track of”), but now uses them primarily to carry his phone, his billfold*, and perhaps an Ipod. “And
I’ll never go back. Even with jeans, you get treated better when traveling in a sport coat or the ladies’ equivalent.”
We recommend a coat, but that is more of an attire than a packing recommendation. The coat isn’t shown in the
packing, because it’s never packed. [* - Gentlemen, please stop putting your wallet in your back trouser pocket!].
We haven’t shared this process because its Mark’s; we’ve shared it because it works. He’d just as
soon as have done it some other way, but who would’ve agreed? And if you’d have ever told us there would be
pictures of one of our bedrooms on the site, we’d have laughed out loud. ;-)
- Mark and Mike
© 2008 Manager Tools LLC
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Prep Work – Here on my bed I’ve laid out everything I’m going to pack into my Lands’ End rollaboard. I use the same
white towel under my suitcase: the wheels get pretty dirty. The only thing different than my normal process here is that
I don’t lay everything out this way every time. I did it this way to show you everything. [My closet and wardrobe ARE
set up to be packing-friendly. I do store my boxers and undershirts rolled as shown. Someday, believe me, I WON’T.]
My shoes stay bagged at home. I do have a HUNDRED dry cleaning bags under my bed. I keep my travel toiletries in
a separate part of the bathroom. I do have to “make” the bags of cream/gel each time.
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Detail #1 – I’m packing for a week long trip, which I define as flying on Monday, returning on Friday. If you added a
day, you’ll see there will still be room in the suitcase for more. Shown are a pair of black loafers, with shoe trees and
bagged. Four pair of boxers and three undershirts. Four pair of socks, all different so you can tell them apart, but often
I take 4 identical pair. Alarm clock and battery. Toiletries: Ziplocs of hair gel and moisturizer, razor, blades and shave
gel (wonderful stuff, and small), hair brush (blue circle, collapsed), two travel size deodorants, toothpaste, three .3 oz
bottles of hair spray. All of it goes in the suitcase, undeclared. ( We encourage you to declare it if you are so inclined).
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Detail #2: - Four dress shirts. I technically only “need” three - I’ll fly home Friday and can wear less formal clothes. But
I can fit them, and you never know when you might ruin/stain a shirt without a laundry nearby. Gentlemen: yes, you
“could” travel with polo shirts, but they don’t travel well, and if they’re washed at home, they look it, and ALWAYS look
too casual next to a nice dress shirt. And, a blazer over a dress shirt, regardless of trousers, is a great addition to a
travel wardrobe.
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Detail #3 – On the left, four pair of silk dress trousers, still on the hangar from the closet. I have ONLY black trousers.
They DO limit some of my choices, but also makes business travel wear FOOLPROOF. Tan/Camel/Khaki slacks would
be more versatile, but also show wrinkles (even wool pair) much more at the end of the day. [And don’t travel with
cotton trousers!]
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Detail #4 – At top a few dry cleaning bags ready for use. Below them are running shoes with a pair of socks stuffed in
them. [No shoe trees here: only need one pair, in the loafers.] Below the shoes is my UnderArmor workout gear –
long pants, underwear, and long sleeves, winter version, I wear it year-round. You can’t travel with cotton workout gear.
You can shower these clean each night, dry them overnight. I hate packing smelly items on the return – but you have
to work out on the road. Mens sana in corpore sano. Bottom right: two black Gap tees and a pair of jeans. I added
these to show there’s still room for casual clothes – wear what you like, but nothing takes up more room than jeans.
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Step #1 – Three undershirts in the bag. They’re rolled up to fit beside/between the indentations made by the storage
for the collapsible handle of the bag. Those are the indentations that cause us to recommend that you NOT bag all your
undergarments together – it takes up more room that way. The multicolored belt was a gift from a friend as an identifier
for my bag. I’ve had fellow passengers take my bag all the way to the jetway before we realized the mix-up.
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Boxers, Socks and Toiletries In - The boxers and socks go into the indentations like the undershirts to make a flat
base for your primary garments to go on top of. I’ve shown the toiletries arrayed loosely. If you’re not going to declare
liquids and gels, you need to keep them separated – don’t clump them together, and of course don’t put them all in one
bag. Separating them also allows you to put them into irregular spaces, saving larger packing space.
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Ready for Folding And Bagging – I bag and pack trousers first, then shirts. Here they are, ready to be folded and
bagged and packed. I’ve laid out the bag, open side toward me, and am going to take each pair of trousers off the
hangars, and fold each in half twice, lengthwise. I’ll be able to get two pair of folded trousers into the bag, side by side,
and then a third folded pair in between the folds of the bag.
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Folded Trousers - A series of pictures showing how to pack 3 pair of trousers in a dry cleaning bag. Fold the trousers
in half twice (1), and then slide (2) them into the bag. Do the same with a second pair of trousers, and put them NEXT
to the first pair in the bag (3). Fold the remainder of the bag over onto the trousers (4). Put the third pair of trousers on
top of the first pair, outside of the bag (5). Finally, fold the second pair over on top of the first and third pair (6).
© 2008 Manager Tools LLC
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How To Fold a Shirt Or Blouse – Start with the shirt flat in front of you, buttons up. (1). Fold the shirt in half left to
right, lining up the seams (2). Fold the sleeves down onto the rest of the shirt (3). Fold twice in thirds (4 and 5). Picture
6 shows three shirts in a bag just like we put three trousers into a bag earlier.
© 2008 Manager Tools LLC
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Everything Fits – Put the first bag with three trousers in it in first (1). Then a second bag with one more pair of
trousers and two shirts (2). Note the Ziplocs on top of the second bag. Then the bag with three shirts (3). Slide the
shoes (blue/gray bags at top right and right of suitcase) in (4). Running shoes on the left, and two casual tees on top of
the bags (5). Finally, an extra pair of jeans on top of the tees on the right and workout gear on top on the left (6).
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Done! – Everything fits easily – the lid of the suitcase lays almost flat with no pressure (1). Zipped up, all packed (2).
Rollaboard and briefcase on top, ready to go (3). Note sleeve of the Hartmann brief that the suitcase’s collapsible
handle slides through to make for easy travel. If you have to go, a Manager Tools manager does so efficiently and
effectively – like this!
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