Pack Like A Pro for Family Vacation
Do you ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation? I knew it! Me too! And I think I figured out why.
I have my best 5 tips to share with you and a couple of bonus tips!
You see I am a self proclaimed family traveling expert. Why? Because I have traveled nearly every holiday since I was an infant. Which is a lot of traveling and I’ve learn a few things over the years, especially when I added my own children to the mix.
Tip #1: Determine the priority or goal of your trip. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. We have an upcoming vacation, we’ve rented a house for the week and it’s going to be a lot of fun. But this vacation looks very different than the past two trips we’ve packed for. Let me explain:
In July we took our annual summer vacation, which we were taking in our camper and meeting up with friends. The priority of this trip was fellowship. We don’t see our friends all that often, our kids love playing with their kids, we had a few things planned away from the campground, but for the most part our goal was good food, play time for the kids, campfires, and catching up. That meant that the things we brought with us needed to match up with that. I left the books I wanted tor read, my bullet journal that I’d love to get a few weeks ahead on, some cross stitch for the car (which I never actually do because I’m constantly finding a new movie or slinging snacks at my kids.)
Earlier this month we traveled to Michigan for my dad’s memorial service. 19 hours in the car twice…three actual days there, two of them almost entirely in dress clothes and visiting with people. Again, all of the things that I would have loved to do on a road trip didn’t really matter. And I packed way more clothing than we actually needed. But more on that later.
When it comes to our upcoming trip, the priority of this trip is relaxation! The house has a pool, we are going to go to the beach, spend time together as a family, connecting with one another, and another key element is that there aren’t any other kids there. I didn’t bring a bunch of pool toys and games and such in July because our kids are just happy to make their own fun with their friends. This time around it’s just the three of them and they will enjoy having a few things to play with that isn’t each other. And because they’ll be playing in the pool, I’ll have a little time to read, but even then. Just bring the one book, you know you can’t read all of those 5 favorite titles. I know this tip seems a little obvious, but I am guilty of knowing the priority or goal and then packing for my own agenda or over packing for the wrong aspects of the trip. Which leads me to my next tip.
Tip #2: Pack the bare minimum of what you need. In July we were in our camper in a campground, we were making the most of our time with friends, and there was no way I was doing laundry anytime but at the end of our trip when things were slowing down. Tt was the perfect time to throw a load of laundry in at the campground. We were there a week and I packed 5 outfits for our kids and ourselves. We had the space to store it and it was fine.
Our trip to Michigan on the other hand, I packed casual clothes for the two partially casual days and one full casual day. We used one set. Our son spilled food all over his pajamas in the car, our other son spilled food all over his dress shirt and we again as access to a washer and dryer with the friends we were staying with and when we needed a little downtime in the evening I threw a load of laundry in and we ended up wearing the favorites of our outfits again the next day. I also went home with pretty much all clean laundry too which was nice after that 19 hour stint in the car.
This go round…..the house again has a washer and dryer, we will be there five days, I’m taking the outfit we wear down and two extras and I’m not worried one bit about it. I guess this tip should have actually been called “can you do laundry on your trip, but seriously…can you? Cause it’s helpful sometimes just to give everyone some downtime. Seriously…..my husband and I will go full hunger games to decide who gets to spend that hour and a half at the laundry mat.
Tip #3: You control your trip. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this video I have traveled for the holidays nearly every year since I was born. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned the constant “We’d love to see you while you’re here, or when can you come over?” Can be exhausting. When you live further away from our family and friends and you come back into to town there can sometimes be a lot of bids for your attention. It’s totally okay for you to say no to some of those things. It’s totally okay for you to say “this is where we will be on this day/evening, whatever anyone that wants to see us is welcome to come.” And then put the burden on them to make it work. After all, they live there. You’ve gone a long way to enjoy this time with whomever you’re there to so, everyone else can work around you. And if you’re a family member or friend of ours…..sorry, not sorry. Traveling can be equal parts of fun and exciting and completely exhausting! Give your traveling friends some grace.
Tip #4: Bring snacks! For the love, bring snacks. We are not big snack people at home, I don’t really keep cookies or candy in the house, but by golly when we are on a road trip there are a few staples that have to be there.
1. Gummy worms, bears, etc.
2. Pretzels
3. Squeeze applesauce
4. Mandarin oranges (this is a great one, it’s fresh and makes the car smell amazing.)
5. Granola bars
6. Juice boxes (but not too many…not all restrooms are created equally)
7. Any other fun treats your kids love.
It’s time to bring out the big guns. When things get a little tense in the car…sling a snack. And those little 4 or 8 gallon cheap trash bags are perfect for road trips. Gather up all the trash in one place and then when you get out for gas or potty all the trash is out of the car. If you have a potty situation (we’ve all been there with littles, there’s always some diaper blow out in the middle of Atlanta traffic) they work great for containing messes too.
Tip #5: Get great at Tetris! You want to use every available real estate in your car without over packing and if you’ve got some of these other tips down you’ll be taking less anyway. But don’t be afraid to really utilize your space. When we take long trips we usually use our hitch rack with this bin on the back, it’s perfect for storing all kinds of things. And when we came back from Michigan earlier this month, we had an extra passenger that we didn’t have going up, so we used our soft sided car top carrier. Do you feel a little like the Griswold’s? Of course, but it kept the inside of the car feeling not so cramped and that made things feel a lot less tense in our car. And of course the gummy bears help too.
Bonus tip: Technology…do not feel guilty about letting your kids have devices during your long trip. I know this is probably going to make some of your mad, but tough love here….get over it. Would you rather spend your trip listening to everyone fight, whine, complain, and demand entertain from you, or enjoy a few moments of conversation with your spouse, peace and quiet, and little bit happier kids. When I think about our trips as a family growing up, we never had portable tv. Ever. It wasn’t a thing. But I did take small toys, my discman, or walkman, a book, crayons. It wasn’t at all like I’d like to look back and remember when I say things like “when I was a kid we didn’t have TV, we looked out the window and were happy to see the scenary.” Which is garbage, I have MANY wonderful memories of traveling as a child, and I even remember some of the scenery. But we never did it without something to entertain us. So when you get that urge a few weeks before your trip to say “this trip we're going full Montessori! No devices whatsoever!” just remember, a few hours in the car of peace and quiet isn’t going to ruin your whole trip or their brains. All things in moderation.
These days, we have a 3 hour minimum rule in our car. We have to be 3 hours into our trip before we bust out the kindle fires, which means if we are taking a two and a half hour trip…there’s no arguing about whether or not we’ll be using them. But I’ve come to realize that unless the scenery is significant….the road trip is a lot more relaxing for all of us when we balance time with technology and time without and balance doesn’t have to mean equal. I mean it may with like actual math, but road trip math is different. There are a lot of factors that go into our road trips and sometimes the unplugging happens when you reach your destination.
And double bonus tip: Pack early, go to bed early, receive God’s grace for yourself, apologize when your wrong, and for crying out loud enjoy yourself!
Have a wonderful trip….now go get packing! And if you need a little more motivation, click the video below. Same stuff, but you can listen instead of read. Which will be handy when you are folding that laundry and getting ready to go.
