When Mariah Carey arrived at Heathrow last June she found herself seriously upstaged – by her luggage. The paparazzi seemed more interested in her 20 suitcases than in the singer herself. In contrast, husband Nick Cannon’s tiny holdall didn’t warrant a single picture. Can the marriage last?

But it isn’t just celebrity couples who are accoutrementally mismatched. Men and women generally have totally different approaches to packing. Furthermore, what they pack (or forget to) and how could have implications far beyond her bursting suitcase.

Yes, that’s right, her suitcase. Shipping company P&O confirms that women really do pack too much. Last year, it conducted a survey which revealed that most female passengers lugged aboard twice the amount of clothes they needed.

Financier Donna Cable, 27, is a case in point. "I need my clothes like I need air. If I leave behind just one dress then, inevitably, that’s the one I’ll want to wear. Everything else I try on will look like rubbish. It’s so aggravating to be 1,000 miles away and realise, ‘Damn, I so need that one thing.’ So it’s safer to pack too much than too little."

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According to psychology professor Cary Cooper, Cable is typical. "Women are planners and look at every eventuality. Traditionally they’re the ‘chief executives’ of the home,” he says. ”While in many cases men prefer not to take responsibility, women suffer from ‘perfectionism’ and so are more likely to think ‘better safe than sorry’."

Men, in contrast, incline towards being sorry. Emboldened by travel literature, they believe that the essentials for a three-month Amazon trek will fit easily into an overnight bag, provided you make space by stuffing your socks into your shoes.

Maybe. But in their haste (90 per cent pack at the last minute, whereas women begin around a week before departure), 70 per cent forget something vital, such as replacement underwear. Even an expensive pair of Calvin Kleins can soon become a lethal biohazard, particularly in tropical environments.

Read the rest of the article

September 5, 2009

The Best of Michael Hewitt

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