The person packing for someone else is imagining needs they will not be there to notice.

Packing for another person is an act of imagination performed in advance. You have to picture a morning you will not attend, a cold evening you will not feel, a moment when they will want the thing you either remembered or did not. That is why it feels heavier than packing for yourself. Every decision is a small guess about a person you love in a place you will not be.

If you are doing this for a child, a patient or a traveller, ask them one question about the trip rather than guessing everything. And if someone once packed for you, that quiet forethought was care.