Packing- Part I

With just over a month before the big day there isn't much left for me to do except pack. Sure, I've still got to copy down train times (at least 3 times, given their infuriating tendency to go missing at the last minute) and print hyper-important flight tickets, but that's relatively small fry when confronted with the mental mountain that is packing.
At the best of times I tend to make a meal of the whole affair- I have my mother's tendency to overpack combined with an obsessive need for minimalism, and so even an overnight bag requires a good half hour of making lists. As for holidays, well, even as a seasoned flier I still like to dedicate the best part of a day to the process. What faces me now, though, is something far beyond a simple holiday bag. Somehow I've got to cart my entire life to the other side of the Atlantic, and, due to baggage restrictions and general stinginess on my part, I've only got one fairly large bag and a backpack to put it in.
Most frustrating is the fact that I can't simply pack up my summer wardrobe and exchange it for my winter clothes when I return for the holidays- due to the layout of the academic year I'm going to have to take equal portions of summer dresses and thick scarves, which is going to considerably reduce the limited room available. As such, even more planning is going to have to go into the process than usual, particularly as I have to take more than clothes.
First step is to make a list of what I really need (clothes, toiletries, school books) and of what I really cannot bear to leave behind (pictures, jewelery, my teddy...), after which I'm going to have to face the monstrosity that is my wardrobe and work out how to cut down my clothes drastically while still retaining some semblance of a working wardrobe. That's the plan for today, but I somehow imagine that trying to reduce the sheer bulk of stuff I need will take up much of my time. Perhaps I'll work out an ingenious solution to the whole thing, but more likely there will follow several weeks of rants about how many pretty dresses a girl needs, and why it's vitally important I find room for my pig of a jewelery box.