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Overpackers love this simple ‘5-4-3-2-1’ packing rule that makes travel way easier
When it comes to travel, packing efficiently is a skill acquired through experience. Lifestyle and content creator Alison Lumbatis shares a helpful 5-4-3-2-1 method designed to take the stress out of packing for both seasoned travelers and first-timers. Trying to pack light while still remembering everything you need can feel a little daunting. A simple…
When it comes to travel, packing efficiently is a skill acquired through experience. Lifestyle and content creator Alison Lumbatis shares a helpful 5-4-3-2-1 method designed to take the stress out of packing for both seasoned travelers and first-timers.
Trying to pack light while still remembering everything you need can feel a little daunting. A simple trick is knowing exactly what’s necessary, making your bag lighter and more practical.
Putting The ‘5-4-3-2-1 Packing Method’ Into Action
In her trending TikTok post, Lumbatis shares a packing system she claims to be “as easy as it sounds.” Here are the basics of the 5-4-3-2-1 packing method:
- 5 TOPS
- 4 BOTTOMS
- 3 SHOES
- 2 LAYERS
- 1 MISCELLANEOUS
Lumbatis explains, “So all you got to do is pick out 5 tops, 4 coordinating bottoms, 3 pairs of shoes, 2 layering pieces, and 1 of anything else. Like a dress, pajamas, a hat, a belt, or any other accessories that you might need. And then of course pack as many undergarments and toiletries as you need.”
The strategy isn’t just about simplifying and maximizing the number of items you bring on a trip. It’s also about function. “The key is to pick versatile pieces that can mix and match so you can pair them up for whatever activities you have planned for your trip.”
Packing the necessary items
Photo credit CanvaTaking Pictures Can Help Plan Ahead
Another helpful step is taking photos of your outfits to remember how everything fits together. Lumbatis offers, “You can even take pictures of the outfits with you wearing them or flat lays of the pieces and keep them on your phone or in your Notes App — So you can refer back to it on your trip.”
Is the 5-4-3-2-1 packing method effective? These were some of the thoughts in the comments from readers hopeful to put the plan into action:
“Great tip for me. Hate packing and never wear all the clothes I bring.”
“Heading to Japan and I was just going to my closet to put it together. I overpack so this is sooo helpful.”
“I’m dreading how to not over pack for such a variety of occasions, heat, and limited washing facilities. Ugh.”
“I struggle with under packing so this is super helpful!”
Soaking up the adventure.
Photo credit CanvaThe Science Behind Good Preparation
Traveling is a great way to alleviate the stress and burdens of our daily lives. A 2025 study in Springer Nature Link showed travel helped people improve their long-term resilience by creating positive emotions while ecouraging self reflection. National Geographic found the benefits of travel begin even before the trip begins.
However, preparation can have a powerful effect on the simple stresses a person might acquire during traveling. A 2025 study revealed that planning reduced anxiety and helped people prepare for delays or unexpected changes. Research in 2025 reported by AP News found that even making a simple checklist reduced anxiety and helped make for smoother trips.
Lumbatis claims, “If you struggle with overpacking and want to create a great capsule wardrobe packing list, you’ve got to try this method.”
People hope that traveling will relieve stress more than generate it. The 5-4-3-2-1 packing method offers a clear and simple way to pack just what you need. Careful preparation helps prevent last-minute chaos and produces a more enjoyable trip. Hopefully, this method can help you spend less time worrying and more time soaking in the adventure.
Watch this YouTube video on incredible vacation destinations to inspire your next trip:
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People are cheering woman’s refusal to accept the latest trend in hotel bathrooms
“I HATE how hotels started thinking going to the bathroom is a shared experience.”
It can be frustrating seeing change for change’s sake in the world. To be more specific, changes that are said to be done in the name of innovation and design, but are in truth ways for companies to save a buck.
One example that is getting attention is the bathroom doors in hotels… or the lack thereof, actually. One TikToker has had enough and has taken it upon herself to save regular bathroom doors in hotels and to point out why open-space bathrooms and glass doors just don’t cut it.
On her @bring_back_doors TikTok account, Sadie has a collection of videos highlighting the flaws in hotel bathroom designs, with the most prominent being the lack of a regular door to the bathroom. In one viral TikTok, Sadie discussed a hotel that reached out to her, explaining that they have “foggy” glass doors to their bathroom to provide privacy. She was quick to point out that it still doesn’t provide adequate privacy. “Yes you can see through these,” Sadie said, adding that “glass doors do not close properly.”
The comments rallied behind Sadie’s bathroom-door crusade
The commenters joined in with Sadie, demanding the return of solid, closing, and lockable doors to bathrooms in hotels:
“I HATE how hotels started thinking going to the bathroom is a shared experience.”
“I hate how you can’t turn the bathroom light on without disturbing the other person in the room.”
“The foggy ones are almost worse, you just get a hazy fleshy silhouette hunched over on the crapper like some kind of sack of ham.”
“I just don’t get it, NOBODY wants this, even couples. I won’t be more likely to book two separate rooms for me and my friend/sibling/parent, I’ll just book another hotel.”
“Love this campaign, I do not want a romantic weekend listening to the other person poo.”
A great way to save a buck—er, I mean, ‘create a modern look’
As many commenters asked, why do hotels have glass doors — or, worse, no doors at all—in their bathrooms? Well, this has been a growing trend in modern hotels over the past decade as a means to create a sleek aesthetic and to allow glass partitions to bring more daylight into otherwise darker sections of the room.
At least that’s what’s being promoted to the customer. In reality, skimping on solid doors for glass ones or none at all gives the illusion that the room is bigger than it is while requiring fewer building materials. It does bring in more daylight, but mostly with the hope that you’ll cut down on electricity use for lights in an otherwise enclosed space. These reasons are also why some hotels don’t have solid walls around their bathroom areas at all.
TikTok · Bring Back Doors
TikTok u00b7 Bring Back Doors www.tiktok.com Tired of the lack of privacy? Check out the database
To combat this trend, Sadie has developed a database at bringbackdoors.com for her and her followers to report which hotels have true, solid, private bathrooms in their accommodations and which ones do not, so people can properly plan where to stay and have true privacy during their most vulnerable moments.
“I get it, you can save on material costs and make the room feel bigger, but what about my dignity?,” Sadie wrote on her website. “I can’t save that, when you don’t include a bathroom door.”
Over time, the hope is that sanity and dignity can be restored as hotels realize that their glass “features” don’t have any real benefit when they don’t allow basic privacy.
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MIT’s super-fast camera can capture light as it travels
It has a resolution rate of one frame per trillionth of a second.
A camera developed at MIT can photograph a trillion frames per second. Compare that with a traditional movie camera which takes a mere 24. This new advancement in photographic technology has given scientists the ability to photograph the movement of the fastest thing in the Universe, light. In the video below, you’ll see experimental footage of light photons traveling 600-million-miles-per-hour through water.
The actual event occurred in a nano second, but the camera has the ability to slow it down to twenty seconds. For some perspective, according to New York Times writer, John Markoff, “If a bullet were tracked in the same fashion moving through the same fluid, the resulting movie would last three years.”
It’s impossible to directly record light so the camera takes millions of scans to recreate each image. The process has been called femto-photography and according to Andrea Velten, a researcher involved with the project, “There’s nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera.”
This article originally appeared seven years ago.
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