ChiefNWA

I suppose I'm in the minority but I typically pack less than an hour before I leave for the airport. I travel a little over 200K miles a year so it's essentially a routine as to what I need to pack. I take the same bag on every trip, a standard size rollerboard, whether it's a weekend trip like this weekend or a 2.5 week trip such as my one in July.

The fastest I've ever packed was when I decided at work on a Saturday that I was going to go to Brussels. Raced home, threw some stuff in a bag in about 1 minute, gathered chargers, my laptop and my camera and was back out the door. Couldn't have been in the house for more than 3 minutes total.

Madone59

Same, and somehow I always over pack. My wife will have her bag packed and zipped up a week before one of long trips - I have no idea how she does it.

Big4Flyer

For routine business trips I'll pack 30 min or so before heading to the airport because I know exactly what I need and all my incidentals are already packed.

For vacations with the kids I'll usually pack the night before, that way I can sleep on it and remember if there's anything I'm forgetting. Of course, even with this, there's always a guarantee that something will be left at home and we'll lose something on the trip. Every. Single. Time.

I think we'll start bringing a sacrificial stuffed animal to leave at the hotel, in hopes that it will appease the lost "items gods" and they will refrain from taking our keys, books, stuffed animals, and camera gear.

CPRich

It depends on the type of trip. For my weekly Monday-Thursday trip, I'll spend 15 minutes either before I go to bed or when I get up at 5. There's only about 10 things that need to be pulled out and replaced from my bag each week.

For family vacation, my wife starts at least the weekend before, if not earlier.

Baghoarder

I have a master list and a formula for packing but I still tend to pack two days in advance. My packing list for the individual trip is always finalized the week before the trip, though, to give time for any necessary dry cleaning.

Lost

Sorry, just noticed a common theme in several comments

travellingwineO

Packing (one bag vs. two or more) is like writing: "I didn't have time to wrote a short letter, so I wrote a longer one instead."*

*this quote, or a version of this quote, has been variously attributed to Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, and Blaise Pascal.

darthbimmer

This. Keeping a travel-only bag of toiletries saves time and eliminates a category of frequently forgotten items. I also keep duplicates of certain personal items like (clean, dry) swim trunks next to my suitcase. And I keep a small assortment of common over-the-counter medications I know I'll need occasionally in my shoulder bag. When people marvel at how elegantly I pack so quickly, I tell them the trick is that my bag is half packed a year in advance.

manneca

I'm a diver and as soon as I get my gear rinsed, I pack it up again and it goes under my bed. I have a toiletries bag that I keep ready. Everything gets packed the day before. If it's a short trip with a carry on bag only I have a plastic bag with what I need for that.

I usually go for 5-7 weeks, but I figure packing for 4 weeks is like packing for 2 weeks Packing for 2 weeks is like packing for a week.

Once upon a time, I had a packing list, but I always forgot to consult it.

chgoeditor

I think the mistake in the OP's logic is that he assumes last-minute packing = overpacking. That's not necessarily the case. In fact, if I start packing several days in advance, I'm more likely to overpack because I don't necessarily remember every little thing that's already gone into the suitcase.

Annalisa12

I used to pack very early and do lists however now I am not that excited by going away sometimes and just pack the day before.

LtKernelPanic

I usually pack the day/night before a trip even for international travel. A couple years ago I made up a simple list of essentials that I keep in a text file on my computer. Usually a week or so before traveling I'll take a look at it and mark something that I normally would take as not needed or add something to it that I normally wouldn't take.

chrisl137

I have a laptop backpack that stays mostly packed all the time. It has a pack-it cube with a bunch of cords, adapters, chargers, earplugs, earphones, band-aids, usb sticks etc arrayed in a couple of grid-its, plus a pre-packed ziploc with my toiletries, and various other travel things in the pockets. If it's a trip of just a couple days, the clothes go in there inside another pack-it cube. If it's a week or more, then I have a softsided carry-on (old-school shoulder bag that's very squishable) and I can pack in a few minutes the night before. Generally clothes for as many days as I'll be gone plus one or two, depending on the uncertainty of how much extra I might have to stay. Trips longer than a couple days also get gym clothes. I generally pack the night before because I'm usually getting up early to fly and will forget something like socks in the haze. Work travel is often only a few days notice, so packing earlier than that would be difficult...

Leisure travel often includes multi-day cycling, and I have a separate checklist for that and will start early to make sure I have the misc consumables and that I can find cold-weather and rain clothes and the like.

tmorse6570

I wait until the last minute because my cat goes into a deep depression when he sees the luggage out.

B747-437B

This. Keep it packed always and just swap out laundry for clean clothes when I'm back home. It is set up for a 3-day trip, but I can add to it if the trip is longer.

I have a separate set of travel toiletries, flip flops, etc.. that live in that bag and never see use at home.