Like Kate Winslet in “Titanic”

How does one pack to travel the globe for an entire year? My answer is the headline of this post. 😊

I’m only half joking.

There are two schools of thought on this subject: the first, that you take precisely one of each type of clothing you will need, in colors from the same pallet so that they are completely interchangeable—as a Millennial in a clothing store once told me, “Things don’t have to match, they just have to ‘go’”—and three pairs of undergarments that you wash, in the sink if necessary, at least once a week. One advocate of this school of thought even suggested every piece of clothing should be black (!) and it didn’t matter if it appeared that I was wearing the same thing every day, because I wouldn’t be encountering the same people two days in a row. 😳 I will confess this position is logical and the height of practicality.

To supplement information provided by text

But who wants to be logical or practical when it comes to clothes? For me, this packing strategy doesn’t take into account two things: 1) I’m a 56-year-old gay man, not a 19-year-old straight guy; and 2) Instagram. Before you groan over the second one, I can say it is the lesser of my two motivations, in part because I don’t put myself in very many of the photos I take. The Eiffel Tower does not become more interesting or beautiful because I am standing next to it—and all those photos feel like “proof of life” shots to me, missing only the contemporaneous headline of the local newspaper.😜 No; my primary motivation is that as a gay man with a closet full of clothes, it makes me feel good to wear different outfits every day and to put some effort into looking, if not fashionable, at least put together. Plus, if I meet someone along the way with whom I spend more than one day (or night ), I’d like them to be able to see I change my clothes on a semi-regular basis.😮

Given that I am of the second school of thought—and plan to look good while I am traveling to foreign and exotic locales—packing has been quite the conundrum. I do not have a swarm of servants running along behind me—my ancestors would have been on the lowest deck of the Titanic—so a steamer trunk or two is off the table. Instead, I will have one LARGE roller bag, my new TUMI backpack, and a Kicks Kase (KXKS) exclusively for shoes.

Again, stifle that groan! For years, I have tried to explain (to anyone who will listen) that gay men have it far worse than women when it comes to fitting their shoes into luggage. Like most straight women I know, I want the right shoe for each potential outfit/circumstances—AND men’s shoes are (in general) bigger and bulkier than women’s shoes.

On this year-long voyage, I plan to: walk, hike, play tennis, dress up, dress down, lounge on the beach, and dance my ass off at least once. Each of those things requires a different type of footwear! And that puts me at seven pairs of shoes before even attempting to match the shoe color to the rest of the outfit—or to ensure they “go,” in Millennial speak. Hence, the KXKS for the eight pairs of shoes with which I am starting this trip. (Yes, I said “starting”—we all know I’m going to end up buying new shoes at some point.)

TRAVEL TIP #1: Putting all the bulky men’s shoes in one bag simultaneously prevents dead space and reduces the weight of a large suitcase.