Why Categorize Your Gear Organizing our hiking gear into types or categories by function has several advantages. It helps us to keep related gear together when packing. It can help us to better manage our pack weight. When you are working with your gear list whether preparing for a trip or just trying to find ways to lighten your load it can be difficult to remember all of the individual items on the list.
Most backpackers group their gear into categories to make it easier.
By using categories you can pick one and then concern yourself with a more manageable subset of your total gear list at any one time. Only having to remember all of the items in one related, functional group is certainly easier than trying to randomly remember all of your gear items at one time. Categorizing is a method of focussing our minds. If when you are assembling your gear for a trip you concentrate on one category of gear at a time, you will be less likely to forget items. A written checklist helps as well.