A Broad Side - What not to sneak in

I'm going to be away in another country for months if not a year. I have to bring it, I need to bring it. I'll die without it. Well it turns out that isn't true, and over preparing can become dangerous if done wrong. So here comes my list of things not to bring to another country. Please note that in extreme situations some of these may not apply, but these are just general so they should hit larger groups of people.

Let's just get this one out of the way now. Your cell phone! Okay maybe just that sim card. Few of you that can afford those roaming charges anyways. There are some services out there that let you travel and have "cheaper" phone calls but most of them are still pricey. I recommend picking up a sim card in the country you go to if you need to have one. They will be cheaper, but it is likely that calls home will still be costly so when you call home use a free service like google voice and call from your computer.

Next is going to be books. Just about any kind of book unless there is a special one that has everything you need in one, but then I still recommend you take it as carry-on. They take up a lot of space and weight, and odds are there are books like that there, or you can buy them there. Still wanting that guidebook? There is definitely one there and a million more people that will give you word of mouth information on the best places to go. Really wanting to hold onto that awesome Japanese book that you learned from to learn the Japanese you know now? (oh this one was hard for me… I brought it anyways… never used it.) Don't!

Our third member on this list is in that category where certain situations may deem it okay. Beauty products can for the most part be left behind. The time I would say are exceptions would be when you do something specific that you "cannot" find in the country you go to. For example if you use very elusive natural products on your hair that are already hard to find back home. Everyone else though, just buy it in country. I don’t want you to think "oh I can't leave home without my V05 because trust me they have something just as good if not the same product.

Since the women feel picked on now let's get the men. Grooming products are not needed either. Leave the shaver and pick one up there. Same with the cream, they already have it. If you want to sneak in your favorite deodorant because it may be a few days before you can order one though feel free, because OMG I cannot stand your funk. Still do not bring tons. And if you really care you should know that yes contraceptive can be bought in other countries. Do not ask me why I know.

The kitchen sink. Okay I know that is vague but you know what I mean. DVD players, hot plates, hair dryers, game consoles and coffee makers. If you are worried, I have already made a list on how to deal with not having some of these things like DVD players and game consoles. Check it out here http://stirfriedtango.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-broad-side-what-to-sneak-in.html As far as the other things, they can be bought online. Just know that I did bring my own game console and although packed really well, the TSA broke two of my controllers and the front of my console. Now I thought I would be using it a lot, but as it turns out TVs are expensive and the only way I had to play it was to hook it up to my computer. In the end I found that I played way more games on my computer. I would advise against bringing all of the extra gadgets.

Paper, and lots of documents are something else to try not to bring. Yes there will be a few things that you need to have but for the most part you shouldn’t bring these. Digitally copy them and bring the scanned copies. They will be lighter and less bulky. I would also try not to bring things like notebooks and just anything papery in general. Sure if you do better by taking notes on paper then do so, but you will only need something small to survive the flight until you get the chance to buy something to write in there.

Last on this list is jewelry. This sounds like a no brainer, but even I caught myself doing this. "oh I may want this awesome necklace. And my funny face glasses" okay you don’t have funny face glasses, but someone does so it could happen. I brought a bunch of things with me that I thought I would need but in the end I rarely used, if at all. And then of course I wanted to bring all of it back with me. I went to Japan with 2 suitcases and came back with 3.5 so just know that there will be other things you will want on the way.

Heh, I said that was last, but I still have another comment to make. If you love it you probably shouldn't bring it. If it is your favorite it might get left behind when you are trying to decide what needs to come back with you. So just plan to lose all of your clothes, and not care about most of the things you brought with you when you have to pick between

So guys I know this wasn’t a long list but I figured I could leave off the stuff I felt was obvious not to bring. Was there anything you thought I should tell people not to bring? Are there things you want to bring but are unsure if you should, or not? If so leave a comment down below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. And good luck on your journey abroad.