Middle Class Problems: These days, packing takes days, if not weeks

It begins with hours of online shopping for all those essentials, but it's the digital stuff that's the real headache

You end up having to buy a larger suitcase to fit everything in (Corbis)

It used to be so simple: a camera, a guide book, some pseudo-intellectual paperbacks you were happy to half-read and leave for others to struggle with. Packing done in the half-hour between getting home from clubbing at 3.30am and leaving for the airport. But these days, packing takes days, if not weeks.

It begins with hours of online shopping for all those essentials that really aren't. Suntan lotion of every conceivable SPF? Check. Mozzie repellents with Deet content ranging from mildly irritating to Cyanide in a bottle? Check. Five bikinis. Daytime flip-flops, casual flip-flops, evening flip-flops, formal flip-flops. Larger suitcase to fit it all into.

But it's the digital stuff that's the real headache. Locating and sorting out the right adapters, leads, plugs and chargers to fit the right camera, phone, ebook reader, tablet, fitness monitor, music player, Bluetooth speaker, noise-reducing headphones and laptop takes hours.

Choosing, finding and downloading films, music, books, guides and apps, potentially days. All pointless, as nowhere will have WiFi fast or efficient enough to cope with our speed-sapping monsters of entertainment. And almost certainly, when we get to our destination, the hotel room will have only one plug socket, so our precious days will be filled with a relay of charging devices.

It's enough to make one of those digital detox hols quite appealing, but for the fact that they usually also offer mindfulness and Sirt-diet fixings as standard, and they're a whole other hold-luggage-sized bag of problems.