What is the summary of Chapter Three of Three Men in a Boat?

Chapter Three opens with the three friends, who are meeting to make plans for what to take with them on their trip. Harris attempts to take charge, reminding the author of his Uncle Podger, who would announce he was going to undertake some simple project, like hanging a picture, but in the process would enlist the help of everyone else in the family to bring him things and assist. By the end of it, the simple project would be terribly involved and not even completed right.

The three compile a list of things to take, but discard it. The river would not float a boat "sufficiently large to take the things we had set down as indispensible," J. writes. Instead, they decide not to list what they think they want, but only list things they cannot do without. This sets J. off on a allegorical aside how life would be much easier if we all discarded the extra trappings we do not need and learned to live more simply. Just as his allegory reaches its peak, the author stalls and apologizes to the reader.

They decide on a small set of clothes they should each take, planning to wash them in the river. George assures them this can be done easily, but they are learn later, J. says, that George is an "impostor."