Today is the last official day of our road trip, not counting the travel day tomorrow. Who knows when I’ll be able to get this posted, as the stars must align for me to find free wi–fi, have the computer with me, feel justified in taking up family-time for mama to get a post copy-pasted into blogger, etc. etc. etc.
For the moment, everyone is sleeping, so I thought I’d write the post that has been jostling around in my mind since we started our trip . . . almost two weeks ago.
My biggest organizational success for the trip was in packing for the kids. I have a hard enough time packing for myself, and keeping my own suitcase from becoming an abyss on a short trip. For the kids, especially the boys, there’s really no hope of them remembering what should be worn together or keeping dirty clothes separate from clean ones. For example, last Christmas, when we were staying with family, the boys ended up switching clothes on the second day . . . meaning, they wore each other’s dirty clothes from the day before. Even though the 8yo’s sleeves and jeans were too short, and the 6yo’s were too long. And after we pointed out what they had done? The next day . . . they switched back.
So almost two weeks of them having a bag of random clothing to dig through wasn’t even an option. I decided to bring one mega-suitcase for the three kids, and one large bag for hubby and I.
Are you ready for my great idea? I packed one two-and-a-half gallon Hefty zipper bag for each day of the trip. Each bag contained one day’s complete outfits for all three kids, including socks and undies. My mom used to do this for me when I went to Girl-Scout Camp, and I remember loving being able to pull out a bag with everything I needed. But with the 2 1/2 gallon bags, I could fit the clothes for all three kids in one bag! Grab a bag, and you’re done! No need to search for multiple bags. No need to worry that you’re going to mix up the boys’ bags. It worked perfectly!
(I know what a difference it made because since we’ve been gone so long, we did have to do laundry, and the disaster that exists now that we’re not using the bag trick anymore . . . proves how great it worked for the first 9 days of the trip.)
Come back tomorrow (hopefully, if I can get the post up) and I’ll share other tricks for taking road trips with kids.
I’m linking this up at Works for Me Wednesday over at wearethatfamily.com.
I've done the same thing and love it! Saves so many headaches.
I also pack those collapsible mesh laundry baskets/hampers in the suitcases so we have a hamper for dirty clothes. Keeps things so much more organized. (We generally "vacation" at my MIL's or my parent's so we always have access to laundry facilities).
Happy trails!
What a great idea. (My mom used to do that for me also to GS camp) It is amazing the things we forget after we are grown. I just let my kids go to my sisters for the weekend to find out when they came home that they pretty much wore the same clothes over and over. So I will try this the next time we go visit or vacation. Last year at Disney by the end of the week the suitcase had been dumped and they were putting on random clothes. Glad you are back to posting on your blog.
Dana, I'm glad to be back too! A little overwhelmed, but glad!
Shell, I love the collapsible hamper idea, and I'm going to definitely try that one next time.
anything that makes the trip easier…
I use extra pillowcases as travel laundry bags. My son (5) knows to put his dirty clothes into the laundry bag and not take things out of it to wear. The mesh hampers are great if you're staying in one place the whole time, but a pillowcase can be packed into the suitcase and keep the laundry inside it.
Oh, Nony, wait a few years until your daughter is 14 and traveling to a youth gathering in New Orleans with your church's group and see what she packs then! I looked at my daughter's suitcase last night and asked her when she was planning to tell me that she was running away from home because that was the ONLY reasonable explanation (in my mind) for the number of clothes she had in there for a 5 day trip! She apparently has my "but I might NEED it" gene…
We did go through the clothes to figure out what could/would be worn together and took out a few items but she could still be gone for a much longer time without needing to do laundry. We didn't put the outfits in bags because there are a lot mix and match combinations and she can decide that on a daily basis. However, we put the clothes for tomorrow that went in her carry on case in a two gallong bag in case her carry-on was selected for opening and examination. It makes it easier to repack and a TSA employee doesn't have to touch your stuff. They were the ones who suggested this to me several years ago when we went through that experience.
We do that, too. When my son was little (maybe four years old?) he called them "service packs." 🙂
Fabulous idea. We are headed to the beach in a few weeks. This WILL be how I pack. Oh yeah. 🙂
I learned this lesson when the six of us did vacations in a pop-up camper. It was Crazy with everyones’ bags out each morning, so the next trip I packed one bag of clothes per _day_ instead of per _person_. Pajamas (sets of sweat shirts and pants that were only used on camping trips — wearable during the day if disaster strikes) went into the bag after that day’s clothes came out, and dirty clothes went in at night. I used simple drawstring cloth bags I had made for “wrapping” Christmas presents, each in a different yard of fabric. The system worked really well. There was only room for so many bags, so there were times we did laundry after a week on the road. Inexplicably, I could never get outfits matched up as well the second week. I never thought of this for suitcase trips, although one suitcase does get quickly dedicated to shoes and dirty clothes.
same idea. slight variation. when a friend of my mom’s packed for camping trips/vacations, she would pack a round/roll type duffel bag for each child. inside would be small, newspaper size bags with a complete outfit for each day including socks and undies. dirty clothes went back in the bag each night and the clean clothes were protected by their plastic bag…..loose dirty clothes, bagged clean clothes. and get this….the kids used the clothes filled duffels as their pillows! not sure how comfy that would actually be, but hey, they were roughing it anyway! LOL!
Packing is luckily one area where the slob part of my brain actually stays away 🙂 Each of our kids has their own suitcase (carry-on size) and I pack all their clothes in outfits (shirt, shorts, underpants, & socks) in order of the day that they are going to wear them with their pajamas interspersed (we wear PJs for 2 nights). Any extras like bathing suits and “just in case” clothes are put in an entirely separate pile in the suitcase. We have a big laundry bag from my college days that we bring along for everyone’s dirty clothes. My husband always laughs about how I can be so neurotic about packing clothes when there is a good chance that there are about 5 loads worth of laundry scattered about the floor all over the house…and my selective vision doesn’t seem to notice!
This packing plan works great for everywhere but my MIL’s house. She is fabulous enough to take all 3 boys for a week every summer, but I have no idea how then end of wearing mismatched outfits and rarely come home with everything I sent but have other clothes that are not even ours 🙂 I think I might need to try your bag trick for her house this year!
I carry a large, kitchen size trash bag for dirty clothes…has always worked well and can hang on knobs while there…thanks for the tip!
Recycle and use old Walmart bags! That’s what I’ve used!