get it together

Every other week, give or take, I am on the road traveling for work. This requires me to pack a suitcase way more often than is advised. I'm a notorious over-packer. I like to be prepared and usually there's nothing wrong with that. When camping, I like to pack the car full with groceries, beer, assorted liquors, drums, firewood, blankets and the sort. While I certainly don't need all those crazy survivalistic accoutrements when traveling for business, there is a preparedness that must be present when packing.

I find though that I have yet to achieve the balance between being prepared and being shirtless. I usually end up with too many bottoms and not enough tops or vice versa. I almost always forget something essential like underwear or toothpaste. And, I have to worry every single time that my suitcase is going to exceed the 50 pound limit that airlines so strictly enforce (this has already happened to me 3 times and has resulted in my carrying-on between 5-10 pounds of beauty products or paper).

So, if any of you out there have travel packing tips I would love to hear them. Perhaps I need a weekly check-list? Maybe I should wear the same outfits each time I travel so I can just wash and repack after each trip. Or maybe I should just give-up and resign myself to living with way too many choices of eyeliner and never enough bobby pins.