I written before about why I don’t travel light to a developing country and Burma is a great example.  You can read my original post about this here.

The people are not wealthy and although I’ve not been there before, I’m pretty sure if its like other poorer countries I’ve visited, gently used clothing will be gratefully received – and a new owner found very quickly.

With this in mind, with it being “fair season” here in New Zealand, over the last few weeks I have picked up a few bags of clothing from fairs that will be great to wear-once-and-leave.  Total investment $0 as a number of the garments I have already put into regular wardrobe (I am wearing a new-to-me sweater and pants right now 😉 ).

Now this obviously isn’t a method that will work for everyone.  But even if you do not have access to cheaply priced clothing, I’m sure for most people there are many garments in their wardrobe that are no longer needed and could be recycled on a holiday.  I’m also lucky that I’m an average size so I am spoilt for choice with items that fit me when looking for budget clothing.

With this in mind, while obtaining clothing for $2 a bag at a couple of fairs, I grabbed all the t-shirts I could find that looked like they would fit.  I also got nightwear, a dress that will work as a nightshirt, a khaki hat, yellow lightweight scarf and a teal skirt.   There were some garments when I got them home that I found simply didn’t fit, a pair of pants that looked awful, a couple of t-shirts that were a little too see-through and so on.  These will go straight back into the charity bin for another go-round.  But for the most part I now hope to return home with a nearly empty bag and have whole lot of wear-once-and-leave garments for my trip.

Below in the photos are examples of my mix-n-match wear-once-and-leave wardrobe.  I’ll most likely take a few more t-shirts that I’ve already pulled out of my work wardrobe (my office attire is tidy-casual) to make the number of day wear tops up to fourteen.  Now I just know my Mum is going to complain about how creased these items are in the photos, I can hear her now… but lets face it, I’m going to wear them creases and all, so you will all just have to deal with it 😉

I’m not sure if I will wear the teal skirt too often, it has no pockets so will most likely wear on travel days when I have a backpack with me, but the tops I’ve matched with it in the photo will easily match with the other pants or the pink skirt shown.

Although this looks like a lot of clothes, it will all fit into a small suitcase along with basic toiletries, a change of shoes, underwear (including some throw away) & nightwear, which will also be left during the trip, and a rain jacket.