Organizer or Spontaneous Backpacker?

[freestone]

Organized? Not really. Tidy? Sometimes to a fault. Spontaneous? I can be ready in 10 minutes.

Controlled chaos at home, not much better in the pack. I hardly ever toss or sell gear, never know when someone will need to barrow. Sometimes I will read an article or a post on some piece of gear I own, so I dig it up to revisit the gem. Most recently I dug out an old Snowpeak Titanium cup that I had not used in years, now it sits on my dresser like a vase waiting for a flower. I open my closet, and behold, a tea kettle with blackened bottom, sitting poised, ready to admire and revive a memory. I never forget the lifesaving basics when I get on the road, but I have been known to forget a hat or maybe the toilet paper, necessitating a store run before the trailhead.
On the trail I do not use stuff sacks and my pack is basically a big bag with a roll top. Down in first, then the heavier stuff to compress the down, topping it all off with the Bearicade. Fishing gear on top, rod lashed to the side.

[schmalz]

My life tends to trend towards disarray if I'm not careful, so I've determined it's important that I try to stay organized with my backpacking stuff.

I should also note that I've arrived at my campsite for weekend trips and realized I was missing a key piece of gear. In one case, I was missing a part to my stove, so I had to eat trail bars and cut the trip a day short, and in the other case I somehow had forgotten a tent

So now I try to have a good packing list. I've used some of my excel skills for this to make an adaptable packing list that does a few things:

- allows me to choose what gear I am going to bring
- clearly highlights key stuff I might have forgotten
- allows me to spread to gear out among the group (for now just Callie and soon my wife again)
- allows me to see the weight spread update in real time

Here is a copy of the current list, which is still being fleshed out.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... sp=sharing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I should also note that there area some items on there that would never go with me on a longer trip, but I like to have the option to pack luxuries for short trips with family, so the list is adaptable to all of that.

[Wandering Daisy]

My life not only tends towards chaos, I have had to store my backpack gear in several locations all over the house and garage. But, it really is not a problem since I have a spreadsheet and do most of my planning on paper and then just gather up everything. I do bring everything inside the night I return (got over $1000 of gear stolen from my car parked in my garage a few years back), but it all gets dumped in the guest bedroom and there it sits, up to a week or more before I finally get it all put back where it belongs. It is not the big stuff, but all the little stuff that is a real pain. Like discovering you are out of chapstick while packing. Or out of those little tubes of toothpaste. And my favorite- cannot find a full canister of fuel, even though I have two milk crates of partially used ones.

[AlmostThere]

Right now the living room is four piles and side scatter of gear due to the transition from winter to summer. SAR gear in one pile with climbing paraphernalia, winter gear in a big heap, multiple backpacks in another pile, bear cans standing at the ready, and a sack of single serve instant coffee, granola bars, freeze dried crapola sitting there waiting for a SAR, and random meals for more leisurely pursuits. And a row of canisters for the stoves waiting at the ready, in various states of full. The shoes and boots are lined up in a corner and the day packs are leaning against the vacuum cleaner. Bag and quilts are all draped over the chairs airing out. Rain gear folded and lined up - Event pants, Marmot Precips, North Face jacket, emergency poncho, umbrella.

Upstairs - the bins full of more bandaids, chapsticks, platypus bladders, and other gear bought in multiples and lying in wait for something to break.

Last weekend, went to the middle fork of the Kaweah... this weekend, it's the Diving Board in Yosemite. Thinking it might be a hammock weekend.