My husband should win an award for packing. Since he travels weekly for work, he has it down to a science. It takes him about fifteen minutes, he rarely forgets anything, and he doesn’t even use a list…gasp! He’s explained his system to me and it involved the order of how he unpacks his clothes at a hotel, but it could never work for me. My world consists of a list, Post-It notes, and a highlighter. Honestly…what would the world do without a highlighter! I’m a visual person so I need to see it right in front of me. Also, when we’re traveling for my blog we don’t travel like most people. In Iceland we stayed in seven hotels in 10 days and had different activities each day, making packing a challenge. My method works for me so I wanted to give you a peek at how I pack.
When planning our trip, I use a chart to have our trip laid out where I can see it in one place. (Here’s a sample for an Ireland trip.)
I use this chart to write out our days onto Post-It notes:
Day of the week
What we’re doing that day
If I’m feeling really organized I’ll even put the weather on it.
Next, I put the notes on the bed and choose clothes that would work for our itinerary that day. I put clothes to wear during the day in the front and evening clothes in the back.
Then I roll it all up (I’m on team roller…not team folder) and put it in our bag.
Finally, I take out my packing list (I keep it on the computer so I can quickly make changes to it before a trip) and pack all the extras like chargers, magazines, Advil, and memory cards.
This method may sound crazy, but it works for me. Don’t forget that I’m packing for three people, so it’s easy to forget things. The girls are taking on more responsibility for packing their things and they like my method so I think I’ve created some list monsters. I can’t wait until they take over their packing completely. We tried it over February break and one kiddo ended up with no snow boots or gloves so it’s a work in progress.
Hope this helps.
Happy travels!
