When preparing for our road trip and identifying the situations that gave me the most stress, packing was definitely high on my list. Even just bringing the bare minimum, a lot of “stuff” is needed for these four littles!
In the past, I’ve always attempted to be organized when packing clothes and belongings, but after a few days the suitcase always becomes a jumbled mess and it’s difficult to keep any state of order from then on. And so I knew we needed to reconsider our packing method to maintain sanity.
We planned to be gone for over a month, but I chose to pack only enough outfits to last a week since we’d be staying with family most of the time and would have the ability to do laundry. (But even if it weren’t the case, a couple of trips to the laundromat would be well worth the saved space!)
I started the packing process by doing all the laundry. It meant we were all caught up (YAY), and that we had everything we needed for the trip. Then as I folded the clean clothes, I matched up outfits, and placed them in gallon Ziploc bags–each bag labeled for a day of the week.
I placed everything each child needed for the day (shirt, shorts/pants/skirt, underwear/diaper, socks) in each gallon-size bag. I also placed pajamas (along with nighttime diapers/pull-ups) in a separate zip-top bag to be pulled out each evening. (Because my four kids are small, two kids’ clothes fit comfortably in each zip-top bag.) I also packed an “extras” bag in case of accidents.
This process helped me make sure to pack enough of each clothing item for each child. But it also helped reduce stress on each nightly stop on our road trip. Because when considering what I disliked most about road trips, I identified another culprit: the time it takes to unload and reload the van after each day of travel. Organizing the clothes into gallon bags meant just grabbing one or two gallon-size bags, instead of having to unload the whole van each night we stopped to rest, and then put together the puzzle the next morning as we hit the road again.
This may only apply to extra long trips, but while living out of our suitcases, I only did the laundry once or twice a week. Then as I folded the clean clothes, I again matched up outfits and placed them back in the labeled Ziploc bags.
Do you have any great packing tips?
I do it a little differently in that I roll the clothes together and put a rubber band around the roll. We are fly instead of drive when we travel, so space is a huge issue for me. I find that rolling saves room. But DEFINITELY have the outfits for each day all together. Makes it so much easier when the kids are looking for clothes.
@Mandy, The rubber band idea is good! I’ll have to try that next time.
this is a great idea!!!! we take looong trips to MI and since were in FL that means packing and unpacking quit a bit. So do you not use suitcases? it looks like you have them in tubs? does that save more space?
@sara, Well, my husband and I both used suitcases, but we only have two large ones, so I used a tub for the kids’ bags of clothes. The bonus? It doubled as a laundry “basket.”
Hey, I’m with you! We did an eleven day trip last year that included three different multi-day stops, including a church conference, Disneyland and a wedding. I was so stressed with all of the planning, too! Yes, the packing, especially because we would need church clothes for the conference, play clothes for Disneyland and dress up clothes for the wedding. Some days would require multiple clothing changes. I wound up making a clothing grid for each child that broke down each day and each increment. I wrote each outfit into each box. If the item was going to be reused later, I wrote that down so that I would remember to hold it out and wash it. Every detail.
Then I packed suitcases for the conference, suitcases for Disneyland, suitcases for the wedding. That way we didn’t have to unload every single suitcase each time.
It was still stressful and didn’t go off perfectly, but it really did help my sanity level when I didn’t have to answer the “what do I wear” question.
@Jennifer, Wow, it sounds like you were super organized!! I’m inspired.