Getting prepared(ish)

Many people have told me that I should be packing and unpacking my bags 100 times before I set off so that I know where everything will be in an emergengy and to make packing on the road easier and more efficient. I am not entirely sure about this, I will be packing and unpacking my bags for the next 2 years and the prospect of doing it over and over again within my own home does not exactly get me buzzing!

The way I like to go about it is to think up situations, when for example will I actually need my malaria tablets (not this November?) ok they can go right at the bottom. Things that are needed in the afternoon (cooking, sleeping spare clothes) once in a campsite go in the middle and stuff thats likely to needed while on the road (waterproofs, repair kit) goes at the top. Thats how the panniers got organised and thats how they have remained, so either the system works or I am to lazy to come up with a new one.

Deciding what I actually needed did take a little more planning, I like to lay everything out, this always makes it look like you have more that you actually do. Having looked at my equipment you start to take stuff away that you just do not need, a spare t-shirt here, extra innertube there (that one sounds important but if you have the right tires you will be suprised by how little you need innertubes) so after stripping away the fat, you pack the bags and find that you have still got way to much and have to go through the process again! But have no fear, I have never felt that I have been short at any point.

Equipment
Bike-Dawes Super Galaxy (Spartacus)
Panniers-Ortalieb Classic
Racks-Tubus
Tires-Schwalbe Marathon
Stove-MSR Wisperlite Universal
Pots-God Knows (something from the 1970s provided by my Grandparents, actually very good)
Tent-Vango Banshee 200
Everything else is a missmatch of random stuff I could reach from the middle of my room, when in a blind panic I thought I should probably be setting off soon

Moral Support-Carlos The Tiny Dinosaur (also second in comand)