What I don't like about travel

 It's so lame, but I HATE unpacking my suitcase. There is no reason for this but over the past .... 40 years (yikes!) it has been a thing. I arrive home, search for ants and spiders, never find them, adjust the temperature of wherever I am living, and plop down. Usually with an alcoholic beverage, tired from the journey, happy to be home, totally enthused about where I was. That's it.

Case in point: I went on a short jaunt to Flagstaff, Arizona. Left my place Tuesday morning, came home Friday early evening. It is now Sunday night and my little suitcase is still sitting where I dropped it upon my arrival. I have removed nothing. It hasn't even been unzipped. 

Don't ask why because I have no answer. I don't mind packing, I am quick about it and fairly frugal about what I take. The size of the suitcase depends on the length of the trip, so this was  my medium-sized carry-on which is pretty small. It can be stowed under the seat in front of me if necessary, so it's not like a steamer trunk that needs to be unpacked. There are no linens in it, no pillows, no overcoats, no hiking boots.  And yet it still sits there on the floor, fully packed.

The thing about unpacking a suitcase is this: it's unsettling. There are dirty clothes and semi-dirty/semi-clean clothes. There are completely clean clothes and shoes and some toiletries and maybe a tiny, folding umbrella or a raincoat in a 3-inch pouch. I hate that some things need to go into the laundry basket, some could get hung up and then worn again, some things are clean and can go back on the shelf but some of the stuff has that aura of not-clean-enough-but-for-no-reason. It all just bugs me.

What would be the best scenario is this: I exit the airplane and before I leave the airport I unzip the suitcase, take out the toiletry container (I have no problem with that) and hold the suitcase over a garbage container and dump everything into the trash. Even the almost-clean stuff, even the Levi's I just purchased, even the sleeping t-shirt I love. Everything. The unpacking dilemma would then be gone. I would be happy.