sayruhgee's Profile

I moved to Sydney for a while last year and I think my packing strategy worked nicely. Australia has nearly everything I you can buy in the States, and our monetary conversion rate is damn close to 1:1 dollar, but the cost of living in Sydney is so high compared to in the US, especially the very middle of the city where I lived (literally skyscrapers and Darling Harbour out my window, maybe a 20 minute walk or about two train stops to get to the Opera House). My rent was $350 a week in the city for a bedroom and a bathroom in a suite shared with 5 other girls, while my boyfriend at home paid $400 a MONTH for an entire floor of a townhouse shared with two guys.

So before I left, I knew a few things:
1) I could only bring 100 lbs of luggage.
2) I would be pretty poor for a while.
3) I really really wanted to do quite a bit of shopping for souvenirs and clothing during my trip.

So I got two large suitcases and packed them up so that one of them was almost entirely things I would immediately need and would want to bring back home with me... some clothes, bed sheets (I could have bought new ones, but it'd be more expensive to buy a bed set there than at Walmart), things like that. The 2nd suitcase was nearly entirely filled with things that could be used up and tossed. Mostly toiletries. I did one trip to Sam's Club and bought a family size shampoo and conditioner with the pump that lasted the entire 5-month trip, my favorite skin and makeup products, some Hershey's chocolates, notebooks for school, all things that could easily be purchased abroad, but would cost just enough more, and were nice reminders of home.

As predicted, I bought a LOT of stuff on my trip... but when I was packing to go home, all my disposables were used up, I actually ended up leaving my (washed) bed sheets in a shopping bag beside a blanketless sleeping homeless man (of which there were plenty), and I had an entire suitcase available for all my new, Australian things to come home with me in! Definitely helped me pack what I really needed more thoughtfully (as the disposables used up space on the way there), save money abroad where bulk-size items are less common, and allow for lots and lots of new goodies without having to spend hundreds to ship things home!