Things you packed and regretted / wish you'd brought

OP here. Regret: a box of books I've never reopened and paid a fortune to ship. Wish I'd brought: my proper kitchen knives, which are weirdly hard to replace well here and which I use every single day.

I over-packed clothes for weather I never got and under-packed for the actual climate. Check what season you're really arriving into and buy the rest locally — dragging a winter wardrobe to a warm country was pure dead weight.

Wish I'd brought more of the specific spices and ingredients from home — the ones that turned out to be expensive or impossible to find here. A suitcase corner of 'tastes like home' is worth its weight in gold on the hard days.

Regret: bulky electricals that don't match the voltage/plugs here and now sit in a drawer with adapters. Buy appliances locally; ship only what's genuinely irreplaceable or sentimental.

The thing I'm gladdest I brought was small and sentimental — photos, a few objects that make a rented flat feel like mine. The practical stuff you can re-buy; the 'home feeling' you can't.

Regret: full bottles of everyday toiletries that weighed a ton and are sold on every corner here. Wish I'd brought: comfortable shoes I'd already broken in, because I walked far more than expected in the first month.

Medication and any specialist over-the-counter stuff you rely on. Some things I took for granted simply aren't sold here, or need a prescription. That's the one category I'd never 'just buy there' again.

Great list forming here. The rule I've landed on for next time: ship only the irreplaceable and the sentimental, buy the rest on arrival. Everything I regretted was something I could've bought in the first week.