Originally Posted by
JohnJ80
OP - you forgot a bunch of Fed Ex forms for all the stuff you're going to ship home.
Yep.
That is one way most of us learn how to pack. We take too much and adjust. Hopefully we trim the list to something reasonable before the first trip, but the trimming often continues long term. I started packing pretty heavy and over the years wound up being a pretty minimal ultralight packer. Part of that process was going over lists again and again, but part of it was also mailing things home.
FWIW, I generally found the USPS to be cheaper and more convenient than FedEx or UPS. Depending on what was being mailed home we usually found a flat rate box was cheaper, but generally asked for help in deciding and small town postal clerks were alway helpful in figuring that out and getting our stuff sent home.
It is also helpful to mail things home as seasons or geography changes on long trips.