The importance and benefits of planning your chic and minimalist travel wardrobe.

Planning your chic and minimalist travel wardrobe before hand is probably the most important thing that you need to do. It has many advantages:

• You realise that you actually need to take very little with you. By forcing your self to plan and pack light, it makes you think about what you really need.

• It enables you to see where the gaps are in your travel wardrobe, which you can make purchases for before you leave, rather than arriving somewhere and realising you don't have something you need and having to tak up valuable holiday time looking for it.
  

• You save money- Planning beforehand stops you from going out and buying unnecessary items, or even worse buying them when you reach your destination.
  

•  You realise that you don't actually need a lot of clothes. This also has a knock on effect on the rest of your wardrobe. By packing and travelling light, you quickly realise that you can manage with a smaller amount of clothes, but that the most important part is that the clothes you do have meet your needs. When you get home, it makes you see the rest of your wardrobe in a new light and you may quickly realise that you don't need as many clothes as you have.

• You discover what is enough - and that is a nice place to be. 

• You acquire a quiet sense of confidence and self-sufficiency.

 

 

 

 

The advantages of travelling light

• Yesterday's post was my introduction to travelling lightly with a chic yet minimalist wardrobe, which you will see has many advantages:

•  It cuts down the cost of travelling.  I often travel within the UK or to European destinations with budget airlines such as EasyJet or RyanAir. These airlines allow each passenger to take a small item of luggage into the cabin with them. I usually take a small holdall or pull along suitcase. If you wish to take any more luggage with you they charge you extra. I don't like paying out more money than I have to and this is definately a good incentive to pack light.

• It saves you time and makes life easier when you at the airport.  If you take a large suit case, you usually have to check it in at the check in desk, often having to wait in long queques. I like to check-in on line, and by taking a small piece of hand luggage can avoid the check-in queques, quickly go through security, before finally entering the where I can relax and read or enjoy a glass of wine.

• It saves you time and makes life easier when get off the plane and depart the airport. If you take a large suit case, you usually have to wait for it at the carousel, often having to wait  at least half an hour. By taking a small piece of hand luggage you can quickly go through security, before finally leaving the airport. 

• By choosing to travel light, you force yourself to only take the necessities. With time you learn what works for you, what you need to take and what you don't. For example, I have travelled to several  hot and tropical countries and quickly came to realise that shorts or trousers work better for me than skirts, as your legs tend to get sticky, and trousers offer protection against biting insects, such as mosquitoes, in the evening. 

• It is good from an environmental point of view, as you need to buy and own less items.

I like these suitcases on wheels, they are stylish and the size permitted by the budget airlines to fit into their over-head cabin lockers. They are all available from Amazon.com. If you would like to find out more details or purchase one, simply click on it's photo and you will be taken to Amazon's website.

The reasons why people wish to create a Chic and Minimalist Wardrobe

I am always interested to find out the reasons why people would like to create a Minimalist Wardrobe.

As well as writing this blog, I am also a member of Hubpages.com, where I regularly write articles that are published on the internet.

I have written two articles on the subject of Minimalist Wardrobes, one of which included a survey to find out the reasons why people would like to create a minimalist wardrobe.

To date, over 45 women have taken part in the survey and the results so far have been interesting.

The main reasons that women would like to have a chic and minimalist wardrobe are as follows:

• 31% would like to delutter their whole life
• 13% would like to just declutter their wardrobe
• 31% wish to create a Parisian style chic and minimalist wardrobe

Only a very small percentage wished to minimise their wardrobe or life for for spiritual or environmental reasons.

I am using the results of this survey to form the basis of this blog, as i would like to help people create a chic and minimalist wardrobe and declutter their lives.

  If you would like to read my Hubpages articles, please click on the following links:

The articles on creating a minimalist wardrob are in two parts and can be found here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/minim
http://hubpages.com/hub/min-wardrobe-part-2

The first of these two articles contains my survey, which is ongoing, and you are welcome to take part if you wish. 

The article to how to create a French/Parisian style chic and minimalist wardrobe can be found here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-essence-of-French-Parisian-Chic

If you are interested in creating a chic and minimalist wardrobe for yourself, I am interested in your reasons.
If you wish, you can write them in the comments box below.

• Would you like to make money online?
• Do you  enjoy writing about your hobbies and interests?
• You may like to join Hubpages, where ordinary people like you and me write articles and earn a regular monthly income.
• To find out more about Hubpages and to join click the link below.

• http://hubpages.com/hub/Would-you-like-to-make-money-online

Minimalist Travel wardrobe

Over the next few days, I will be writing a mini series on The Chic and Minimalist Travel Wardrobe.

I will be covering:

• The advantages of travelling light.
• The importance of planning your Chic and Minimalist Wardrobe.
• Inspiration on the type of clothes you may wish to take. 
• A list of basic wardrobe essentials for going on holiday

Whilst some people like to take several suitcases away with them on holiday, I pride myself on being able to pack light, usually much to other people's disbelief or amusement.

My first memories of being a light packer are being aged 19 or so and going on a college trip to Paris for a week. Whilst my college friends took a huge suitcase each full of clothes and items such as hairdryers and make-up, I took a small black leather overnight bag, with a carefully thought out small selection of clothes and make-up. My college friends could not believe how little I was taking.

The funniest part was that when we  returned to the UK and we all went through customs, I was singled out by  two customs men who stopped me to search my bags. They wanted to know what I had in my bag as they could not believe that I had only taken a small bag  for a weeks trip to Paris.

I just smiled politely and explained that I simply liked to travel light and walked away leaving them scratching their heads in disbelief.

Since those early days, I still like to travel light and apart from getting stopped at customs there are many advantages.

My next blog postings will include the following:

• The advantages of travelling light.
• The importance of planning your Chic and Minimalist Wardrobe.
• Inspiration of the type of clothes you may wish to take. 
• A list of basic wardrobe essentials

 I have also found a couple of books on packing which you may be interested in. They are available from Amazon.com. For further details, please click on the images below.