Packing List

Repairs

safety pins, rubber bands, cord

Nylon parachute cord ("paracord") is the most versatile form of rope/cord/string. The very best paracord is MIL-C-5040H (Type III) certified, but 550 Commercial Type III is much less expensive, and close to it in quality (unless you actually plan to use it for parachute lines). The more widely available cheap stuff is so for a reason. Paracord can be easily "disassembled" should you need finer strands — even for sewing and fishing lines. Synthetic cordage frays easily, so take the time to heat cut ends (with a flame or stove) in order to fuse the loose strands together. If you'd like to carry extra paracord for truly emergency situations, it's available woven into bracelets (and other items); you can also choose to make one yourself.

In addition to their obvious uses, safety pins will hold the drapes properly closed in a hotel room, often a prerequisite to getting a good night's sleep. Mate one (or two) with a sarong (or other item of clothing), and you have an excellent emergency sling. Non-rusting stainless steel safety pins also work well as "clothespins", and although I strongly recommend a surgical rubber braid clothesline, the cord & pin solution may offer advantages if you're camping out, and trying to discourage casual pilferage.

Speaking of theft, a handy way to hide items in your room is to place them in a sock, safety-pinned into the folds of the draperies, near the top. But be sure not to forget them when you leave! Also, pinning your trousers pockets closed can help to deter pickpockets in crowded areas (Velcro® is even better for this, if you care to take the trouble).

sewing kit, including large needle to accommodate dental floss

You can find such kits in fabric stores (also in the bathrooms of expensive hotels!); most have threads in several colours, and some come with pre-threaded needles. Metal rusts very quickly in humid climates, so don't expect needles to stay sharp for long in such conditions. The serious traveller will think about assembling a small sewing kit, with stainless steel needles (available at ship chandlers), higher quality thread, spare buttons, etc.

My own kit lives in a watertight plastic "match safe" (intended to keep matches dry), which you can find at any decent sporting goods store. This is where my stainless safety pins go as well. A short length of large diameter plastic drinking straw acts as a spool to hold substantial lengths of my two colours of thread; short slits in the straw ends trap the ends of the threads, to keep them from unraveling; needles go inside the straw, and a thimble drapes over the top. Waxed dental floss, incidentally, makes an excellent heavy-duty repair "thread", for everything from emergency shoelaces to tying the hinge on a pair of spectacles that have lost their screw. And needleworkers have discovered that (in the absence of scissors) the cutter on a dental floss box makes an excellent thread cutter as well.

(Ziploc®) plastic bags, garbage bags

The traveller's friend; it's difficult to have too many small, sealable bags. And as mentioned under "rainwear", a couple of heavy duty plastic garbage bags take up almost no space, and can serve a variety of uses (rain/dust covers, picnic blanket, laundry bag, etc.).

duct/gaffer's tape (packing tape?)

I've always been partial to the minimalist school of repair (If it's supposed to move, and it doesn't, spray with WD-40; if it's not supposed to move, and it does, wrap with duct tape; if it's more complicated than this, use a Swiss Army knife). I don't carry WD-40 around with me, and my Leatherman tool (which replaced my Swiss Army knife) mostly stays at home these days, but a small roll of duct tape (or gaffer's tape, which is even better, though harder to find and notably more expensive) can be pretty useful. In addition to wrapping broken things, tape will remove lint, temporarily repair fallen hems, act (with the addition of some tissue) as an emergency bandage, and help seal packages for mailing (though if you're going to be away for a while, it's better to add a small roll of packing tape for mailing packages home).

Magellan's sells mini-rolls of duct tape that pack a lot smaller than the big rolls you'll find at the hardware store. You can easily make your own, however, by wrapping a quantity of tape around a cut-off piece of plastic straw, as shown at right. This works for packing tape as well, though is a more fussy project.

Duct tape also makes a perfectly acceptable substitute for moleskin, an application of which can stop chafing (often a consequence of lots of walking) from turning into a potentially serious problem.

Finally, duct/gaffer's tape can be useful to those travelling with very young children, as it enables the emergency child-proofing of rooms by taping up drawers, electrical outlets, etc.

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