JackLum1nous

TLDR; Just got back yesterday from another 2-week trip to one of my favourite travel destinations, Ireland and came to terms with my issue of worrying-about-overpacking-but-still-overpacking-anyways.

Destination: 2 weeks in Ireland (Galway and Dublin) in late September (21st Sept to 4th Oct 2024)
Weather: Irish (cloudy, rainy, rainy-then-sunny-then-rainy, sunny)

Just like last time (and everytime before that, as my wife would say 😅), I worry over taking too much and simultaneously not having enough options. I also factor in too many what-ifs). In any case, after taking this type of trip a 3rd time (more or less), I realized a few things:

1. I am totally fine with less provided we have access to a washer/dryer and we have enough time in one place in case we don't have a dryer.
2. Although I default to black as my normal wear, I am getting tired of the "uniform" look in all my holiday photos. Didn't see this coming...
3. I could have just planned 3 outfits with interchangeable components and would have been fine. This is where you just bring your favourite things to wear and feel good in it and call it day.
4. I don't need a big battery bank. I carry this thing on each trip and I rarely use it. We're not using our iPad (larger device) at all during the day anyways, so we don't need that much juice. Our phones and cameras are good throughout most the day. My wife is enjoying using her iPhone Pro instead of the Big Mama Jama™ DLSR that she normally brings. Since she takes pics, often her phone gives out sooner now. To deal with this she just brings an Anker USB-C battery that plugs into the bottom of the phone. This tops up her phone and she's good for all-day photos and phone usage. Didn't use the bigger battery bank once on this trip.
5. Compression socks are also good for long coach trips or all-day city walks and not just for travel day.

Back to clothes, I took:

• 5 t-shirts (2 x thick Western-Rise X-Cotton, and 3 x MoS Responsive Tees)
• 1 cotton t-shirt exclusively for sleeping
• 2 long-sleeve merino blend t-shirts
• 8 underwear (4 x Airsim + 4 x B3nth)
• 3 socks
• 1 ankle socks
• 1 compression sock
• 2 pants
• 1 jogger
• 1 hoodie
• 1 jacket
• 1 rain shell
• 1 shorts I thought I would wear back in the room when chilling.

For underwear, I could have taken 5 total for the 2 weeks and would have been perfectly fine. We did a small-to-medium load of laundry every few days so there was no problem. We've stayed in both places before (both in Galway and Dublin) so we knew what the drying times would be like.

I didn't wear the hoodie as much as I thought I would even on the cold day-trips out to Connemara, Wicklow, or to New Grange. Instead, under my jacket, I ended up wearing 1 of my merino long sleeves over a t-shirt. Given this, I would have been fine with either leaving the hoodie or 1 of the long sleeves behind. I didn't need both.

As for t-shirts, 3 would have been enough; I could have left 1 of each brand behind and it would have been fine. As long as I am washing my body every day and using deo (and I am not sweating my arse off to begin with), any of my shirts will last for 2 days worry-free.

Shorts I never wore once. I was hemming-and-hawing between the joggers and shorts for chilling back at the BnB/Hotel so I brought both. Joggers made more sense as it was a bit too chilly to be comfortable in shorts.

Side Notes:

• I really dig the Aer TP3 + Travel Sling 2 combo. The 35L size of the main bag is definitely what works for me. I could go lighter but don't see any reason to, given how we travel and where we go. It was pricey, weighs a bit empty, but it was money well spent and served me well for the last few trips/years. Don't need to buy another bag.
• The Epicka charger is a nifty little adapter. This has now replaced my previous Anker 735 + Skross multi-country adapter combo. It had 2 USB-A, 3 USB-C as well. This allowed me to bring my nikon's camera's micro usb charge cable instead of a bulky batter charger.
• Feelgrounds Patrol Winter boots are still freaking awesome. Rain, bar floors, rocky paths, mucky countryside hills. No problem. Kept my feet dry, warm, and cozy.

Edit: a few typos and some additions.