LAUREN & LEE ROBERTS

Why You Should Do a Mock Pack Before Moving Abroad (Trust Us)

We’re about two months away from our one-way flight to Spain, and this week, we tackled something surprisingly emotional and unexpectedly useful: the mock pack.

If you’re prepping for a move across the world, we cannot recommend this step enough. It’s more than just a dry run—it’s a reality check. You may think you’ve decluttered and downsized enough, but until you actually try to fit your life into a suitcase or two (or four or six), you don’t really know.

You will have to let go of more than you planned.

We started our mock pack with optimism. “We’ve been cutting back for months,” we told ourselves. “This will be easy.” Thirty minutes later, we were sitting on the floor, surrounded by clothes that didn’t fit into our bags and wondering how we’d ever chosen seven different ‘just-in-case’ jackets.

Spoiler: not all of those jackets made the cut.

You quickly realize the space you’re working with is finite—and every item you choose to bring is taking the place of something else. Suddenly, that fourth pair of sandals doesn’t feel so essential.

Sometimes it’s more than just stuff—it’s memory.

The hardest part isn’t the excess—it’s the emotional weight. You’ll stumble across a sweater your mom gave you, a book inscribed by a friend, a bundle of printed family recipes in your grandmother’s handwriting. Those things are tough to part with.

The truth is, moving across the world often means making sacrifices you didn’t see coming. You’re not just packing a bag; you’re distilling your life. And there’s grief in that.

But technology can help carry what you can’t.

Here’s the good news: letting go doesn’t have to mean losing everything.

We digitized handwritten recipes and uploaded family photos to shared cloud folders. We made a private digital album for art projects that we wanted to remember, and we saved those “could be important later” documents on a hard drive. It doesn’t replace the real thing—but it lets us keep those moments close without lugging them through customs all over the world.

Lessons learned from our first mock pack:

• You probably need to get rid of more.
• You definitely need to practice.
• And it’s okay to feel weirdly emotional about it all.

Our advice? Do at least two mock packs. One to confront the overwhelm, and another after you’ve processed it. You’ll be amazed at how much clarity (and weight) you shed the second time around.

So if you’re preparing for your big move, block off a weekend. Unzip your luggage. Fill it like it’s go-time. Then look at what didn’t make it in—and decide if you’re okay with that.

Because in the end, it’s not about the perfect pack. It’s about choosing what comes with you into this next chapter—and honoring what gets left behind.

---

Want more slow travel tips as we prep for our move abroad? Follow along—we’re sharing the messy, meaningful parts of this transition, one suitcase at a time.

– Lauren & Lee

We may earn a small commission through any affiliate links—at no extra cost to you.