Pennsic Packing Genius

I am sick to death of the insanity of packing up for an event. Every single year I go to at least three events, and every single time it takes three times as long to pack up as I think it should; it's way too much work, especially for a weekend when you're packing it all up one evening, and packing it all back up to come home and unpack it again 48 hours later; and it's exhausting.

Some of us had in the past discussed some way to have all our event stuff pre-packed in totes, and ready to just load in the truck for events ... but I had not yet figured out a good way to do it - or rather, gotten the ambition to try another way. All I'd managed so far were lots of little totes, which were hard to store and took up a lot of room; still involved way too many trips up and down the stairs and out to the truck to load up all those totes; too many things wouldn't fit in small totes, and had to just be haphazardly stuffed into the truck when packing up (often necessitating several re-packings till it all fit); and then I had different things I took to weekend events as opposed to Pennsic, which involved unpacking and repacking totes all the time anyway. Meh.

This year I decided, I'm Doing It. I'm figuring out a way to pre-pack as much of my event stuff as possible, in as few totes as possible, and then leaving it packed all year to wildly simplify this process.

I found these totes at Big Lots for $12 each. They've turned out to be a perfect size ... not too big to fit in my truck or deal with, but not too small that I need too many of them. Initially I wasn't sure that two would be enough, but it looks like I made a good call - it does look like two are going to be enough, at least for this size. I will still need one or two smaller totes for other things, but it's certainly not going to take any more than that.

The second thing I did was experiment with those vacuum packing bags. The actual brand sold for that purpose ("As Seen On TV!") suck. I bought a couple at Giant Eagle (not on TV), and had two problems. First, sucking the air out wasn't as easy as they make it look, and second, as soon as I put it in the tote it ripped. The plastic is cheap and brittle.

Meanwhile, the Dread Reverend had bought some of those Ziplock Big Bags to also try this with. That was the ticket. I put my stuff in the bag, zipped the bag closed, then re-opened a small corner of the zipper, stuck the hose from the shop vac in and turned it on. It quickly shrunk the bag and contents down to about half the starting size. It was pretty simple to pull the vac hose out and still have time to zip the bag closed before it started filling back up with air. And they feel much tougher, made of heavier, more flexible plastic. And they're cheaper than the 'as seen on TV' variety.

That trick was what made the two tote scheme work - by compressing all the garb, two large cloaks, and my sleeping bag, pillow and a blanket in their own respective Ziplock bags, it saved a lot of space in the totes for the other stuff that needs to go in there. (And yes, I can re-vacuum them when leaving an event as well, by taking the tiny shop vac (or my Dirt Devil hand vac), and plugging it into a power inverter in the truck).

I made two comprehensive packing lists - one of all the things that can stay packed year round, and one for the few things that have to be packed individually for each event. (That's where the one or two other smaller totes will come in to play). I found that with some willingness and creativity, there's a lot that can stay packed year-round. All the garb, all the 'accessories' (pouches, belts, scarves, etc.), cloaks, sleeping bag, pillow, blanket, air bed and pump, feast gear, extra things I like to have for convenience or decor (stuff like a lantern, a wooden tray I use in my tent, etc., yadda yadda). And with the use of the vacuum-shrunk Ziplock bags to shrink the garb, cloaks and sleeping gear, all of that stuff fits in just those two totes.

So the final scheme is, when going to an event, all I have to do is toss these two large totes in the truck; put in the things that won't go in a tote (the tent itself, my lantern shepherd's hook, tiki torches); pack up the things I can't leave packed year-round, plus a cooler and food, and ... aaahhh, that should be it!

The only down side to all this is that to achieve my goal of not having to repack stuff for smaller events, I'll have to take the entire dog and pony show to every event - even the weekend ones. But that only means I will end up with some extra stuff at those events that I didn't really need - extra garb, some decor and convenience items I usually only use at Pennsic. But on the up side, I simply toss the totes in the truck regardless of the event, and I'm done! I don't have to hassle with stupid figuring out just what I need for the weekend, and unpacking and repacking multiple totes for other events - and the time and hassle that will save alone is worth having the extra stuff with me that I don't really need.

The other upside is storage. It's going to be much easier to store a couple of these large totes, than a plethora of smaller totes, crates, and stuff just laying about randomly.

So all in all, I think it's a good scheme, and I think it's going to work well. Of course, I won't know for sure until I actually try it out at a couple of events, but I'm sure I can tweak anything that needs tweaking as I actually use this system.

I'm psyched!! No more event-packing trauma! Huzzah!