Guys,
As a young 'Padawan' I was lucky in that when I started touring, I was given some great little tips to make life easier from Yoda himself. Some of his pearls of wisdom included:
1. Never count the days (either on or off tour).
2. Pack heavy and not light as you spend almost half your life on tour - you might as well have your stuff with you.
3. Always unpack your gear when on tour and and then hide your bag(s) away.
4. Have a routine otherwise you'll waste a lot of time achieving nothing.
And the list goes on...
My favourite though relates to 170's problem of unpacking and washing stuff. Try this. All your clothes, toiletries etc stay in your bag and then you just put the bag away under a bed or something. You can wash all your dirty clothes when you go back to work thus not wasting valuable home time doing stuff that doesn't really matter.
It'll mean you'll have to duplicate a few items but I reckon it saves about 30 mins per tour. Doesn't sound like much but over 30 years of touring...
Gold!
Papa68
170' - I like the fact that bottles of wine make it into your list of 'must travel with' items - restecpa!! For me, my iPod, a pair of running shoes and a good book rate very highly.