Better safe than sorry.

One summer, my mom and I decided we were going to be those people—you know, the effortlessly minimalist, travel-light kind. We packed for our summer family vacation with the bare minimum: a few mix-and-match pieces, one tunic that could be a dress or a shirt (versatility, right?), and a single pair of pants each. It felt efficient. It felt freeing. It felt like we were winning the packing game. My sister, on the other hand, did not play the game. Unlike us, she packed her entire closet! 

Fast-forward a few days into the trip, and our brilliant plan started to unravel. We ran out of clean clothes faster than we thought—turns out you can’t make five pieces of clothing stretch forever, especially in summer. Meanwhile, my sister was living her best life with outfit options for every possible scenario. Naturally, we started dipping into her suitcase. First it was just a shirt here or there, but by the end of the week, we were basically wearing her entire wardrobe.

So, yeah, we learned our lesson the slightly smelly, outfit-repeating way. And suddenly, my mom’s saying—better safe than sorry—really came to life that week. My sister may have rolled her eyes at our packing plan, but in the end, she was the “safe” one. Her overpacking turned out to be exactly what we needed, and we were the ones left a little sorry for thinking we knew best.