The Guilt of the Half-Empty Suitcase, and Why Your Wardrobe Anxiety is Actually a Design Problem
I used to overpack out of a feeling I can only describe as grief, grief for the versions of myself I might need to be on the trip. The polished woman at the business dinner. The relaxed one at the poolside. The version of me that might be invited somewhere unexpected and would need something with intention behind it. So I packed for all of them, without exception, and arrived everywhere exhausted before I even began. What no one tells you - what took me years of working in personal styling to fully understand, is that overpacking is not a discipline problem. It is not about willpower or the ability to make decisions under pressure. Overpacking is, at its root, a wardrobe architecture problem. When your everyday closet lacks a coherent identity, when your pieces do not speak to each other, do not share a visual language, do not know what they are collectively trying to say, your suitcase becomes a panic room. You throw in options because you have no system. You pack the maybe pieces bec...
