Advice, Category- Magazine, Cheltenham

How to pack for your holiday, without the stress

24/07/2025

How to pack for your holiday, without the stress

By Liz Gaffer, i-personal styling

Almost two thirds of us have a ‘packing meltdown’ before holiday*. Concerns about forgetting important items, not being able to fit everything in the case and whether its weight will be over the limit, all contribute to anxiety that often leads us to leave packing until the last minute.  In the rush we then overpack** and end up not wearing a significant proportion of what we take.

Whilst there is plenty of information on what essential items should be in your case, a new guide to Holiday Packing gives a six step guide for women who are looking to have everything they need and the style they want on holiday.  The six steps include recommendations on:  

  1. Starting early.
  2. Trying clothes on.
  3. Creating a list of what you will be doing on holiday.
  4. Defining a style theme for your holiday.
  5. Combining items for outfits
  6. Matching items to your holiday itinerary.


Liz Gaffer, the Gloucestershire based Personal Stylist who created the guide said “our holidays are precious, what we look forward to and save for.  It’s therefore not a surprise that we want our wardrobe to be perfect while we are away and this often causes us some stress, often piling everything in.  What helps is knowing what your style is and having the confidence to mix and match items, it is then so much easier to edit items out before you leave”.

To define the style you want for your holiday, get all the clothes you are thinking of taking out onto the bed or on a clothes rail and look at what colour theme or style theme most clothes fall into.  Then look for what colours or styles don’t quite fit into this and start to edit these out.  The greater range of styles and colours, the more matching items you will need and this means a fuller heavier suitcase with likely more stress about whether you have enough.


The guide includes a ‘holiday chart’ which helps you think about what you will be doing while you are away and what items you’ll need for them. It is also a useful guide for  assessing your day to day wardrobe too.  The full guide can be downloaded through sign up here.

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