Tips For Packing For Trips

Do you worry about forgetting things when you're packing for a trip? Would you like to not have to pack your kids stuff AND your own? First, remember that you can pretty much buy anything you might forget when you reach your destination (unless you're going backpacking in the wilderness, in which case, my tips probably don't apply to you anyway). Obviously we don't want to buy things unnecessarily, but the world won't end if we have to buy a new cord or pair of pajamas. With that in mind, let's get to the tips!

When we were younger, my mom would write out a list of what clothes we needed to pack and then send us off to our rooms to arrange things. She would come in and check that we hadn't missed anything, but we gained experience in packing for ourselves and she got time to do other things. If we were going to be gone for a week, the list might have looked something like this:

• Four shirts
  
• Two/Three pairs of pants/shorts
  
• Underwear & socks for each day
  
• Pajamas
  
• (Depending on the season and trip location) sweatshirt or swimsuit
  

It is totally doable to have kids pack for themselves once they can read a list that you make. And lists are how I make sure I don't forget anything when I'm packing.

A day or two before I need to pack, I make a list of everything I will need to pack and then, as I pack it, I check things off. Sometimes, I find something I forgot as I go around gathering things. I'll be grabbing my journal and realize I didn't have my eyemask on the list, but I see it there and so I pick it up too.

What about things that you can't pack until the morning you leave? Gosh, I feel like that is most of the items in my house! One thing we do is we put all the toiletries that we need to use that morning out on the counter, and then they can be packed as we use them. For things like deodorant, I like to put mine with the clothes I'm wearing that day (that I picked out when packing and laid on my chair or my floor) so that it's front of mind to take it to the bathroom to be packed after I get dressed.

Another thing that helps us is that we keep our toiletry bag mostly packed in storage. It has toothpaste, floss, q-tips, toothbrushes, soap, bandaids... you get the idea. We have to check that there is enough of everything, but it greatly eliminates the need to remember all the items you use on a regular basis if it's just there.

At this point in our life, we know how to pack for certain trips that we take and we generally don't take very exotic trips, so not much changes from trip to trip. You will find your rhythm after a few times packing, but in the meantime, hopefully these tips will help you! And remember, buying something you forgot is not the end of the world :)