Family holiday packing - why such a huge task? Hacks?

[bubbathewhale]

Boring first world topic I know! I always find packing for holiday this mammoth task which seems to take me all day! (2 weeks DH and me with preschool age DC). Does everyone find it a huge task or am I making a meal out if it?

I have a list, and I roll up clothes, but aside from that no shortcuts I know of.

Are there any hacks or ways of packing that make life easier? Husband says I should just chuck everything in a bag and not worry about it. However last time he was in charge of packing and forgot all of DC's clothes so they ended up being kitted out from the local tourist shop

Exactly @yipeeyiyay you need to mix it up e.g. DD will be purple cubes but I’ll spread her stuff equally across 2 with a mix of everything in each, then put 1 cube in each case. I’m actually not that organised- always last minute and usually forget something 🤣 It comes from not trusting the airline because I’ve been stung a few times before.

Haha that's what I do. I thought I was being massively ocd but I'm convinced the day I don't do it will be the day a bag is lost

@yipeeyiyay we holiday in Florida so we have 4 large cases 23kg each. I know it sounds excessive, but my sons' feet are size 11s, (two teenagers) Dh is size 12s. As it rains a lot in Florida you tend to get very wet feet at times and so they need several pairs of trainers (Disney/Universal) so by the time you put trainers in and water shoes, needed so you don't burn your feet in the water parks, the cases are stupidly full already.

One cube has 4 t shirts, 3 or 4 shorts plus underwear in each cube. We always go for over 2 weeks as the flights work out cheaper when you do 16 or 17 days. So we all have clothes spread over the cases and the cubes make this really easy to do.

With the mixing it up cubes thing, for us it works like this:
Me - purple, ds - black, dd1 - red, dd2 - orange.

For a week, everyone packs 3 cubes, each containing underwear, a beach outfit, swimwear, something presentable for museums/evenings.

We'd probably have 2-3 checked bags for the 4 of us.

Either way, those 12 cubes get shared across the cases so that if one goes missing, everyone still has a day's worth of stuff.

If we're doing something a bit more adventurous or multi activity, the cubes can be packed accordingly: purple - city & museums, black - jungle trekking, red - home stay camping, orange - beach. Which does require a bit more forward planning & sometimes labelling the cubes with initials in sharpie.

But no, cubes are awesome. Yes, you could achieve the same effect by boldly labelling lots of Bags For Life, tbh, but it's definitely less hassle to just point teens to 'yours are the blue cubes, you packed them...'

The night before I spend precisely 1 hour packing. It's all hands on deck, and I distribute evenly across the suitcases.

If something isn't clean it goes to the hotel laundry.

In the morning I fling in toiletries, toothbrushes and my hair stuff.

Two days before I come home I send all the dirty stuff to a launderette and pack clean stuff straight back into the case.

The only dirty stuff on arrival home are cozies and whatever was worn on the last two nights.

Packing cubes (the ones I have don't have the compression zip but still seem to make the clothes smaller than when not in the cube - help when you get there as you can hand your dc their cubes to stick in whatever wardrobe arrangement they have, rather than handing them a pile of T-shirts and pants.
I have almost a week until my holiday and already feeling like I'll never be packed! It's not just clothes there but medicines, tech, documents we need there etc - I worry so much about arriving to hire a car without a license, etc.

We don't use packing cubes but everyone gets a vacuum bag (that we have a hand pump for) that, when compressed, fit neatly across our 2 cases (or 3 this year as DH accidentally paid for a third bag). Everyone packs their own toiletries (mostly using re-usable mini bottles so just decant our own products). DH is in charge of chargers etc which he carries in hand luggage. I am responsible for sun lotion and first aid. Everyone gets a screenshot of their boarding pass the day before on their own phone. In reality it is probably about an hour's work - I have my clothes list in my head and most of my holiday clothes are already in a big vacuum bag so I just pick out what I need along with underwear. I also have DSs list in my head because if left to it he would take 15 books and 2 pairs of boxers. But I don't do his - just tell him he needs 4 pairs of shorts, 6 t-shirts etc and then leave it to him. DD can fit an amazing amount of tiny clothes into her bag and starts piling it up about a week in advance.

Oh, and I do take a few items and spread between bags just in case of loss

I don't really get what is taking so long if you have a list?

I have 3 kids, the kids help me pack their stuff and family stuff (toys etc) and DH packs his own stuff, it takes an hour or two tops? We don't bother with packing cubes or anything like that. Everyone has their own bag; their clothes, toys, books, whatever go in it, DH and I split the toiletries between us, that's pretty much it?

Echo packing cubes and spreading over each case/bag, when you arrive each person gets given their cubes to put away into drawers/shelves. Limit what you take, just home today and despite being ruthless and really cutting back still bright back some unborn items, also toiletries, you need very little, hotels have shower gel/soap/shampoo etc, and I end up only wearing mascara/brows as too hot for proper make up!

I've never understood the angst about it. Chuck in as many pairs of tops and pants as everyone needs. 2 pairs of swimwear each. Almost as many pairs of shorts or skirts but hope to get 2 days out of some of them. Some suncream, a few books and a charger. One pair of sandals each and travel in trainers and jeans.

We ended up 3 extra days on our last overseas holiday due to Easyjet and their cancellations so we had to buy nappies and clothing hand-wash stuff. No big deal.

Hand luggage to include more books and one essential cuddly toy. Plus passports and local guide book.

Just get you DH to do his own packing if he is not interested.

I annouce the last day of washing and if stuff is worn after that, well bad luck.

A day before DD packs herself (in the past brought her stuff down), DH and I put ours out. She has her own room now so only one outfit and 1/2 of her swimwear goes into one of our bags. DH and I mix our clothes.

A couple of days before we started a crate with things like medication, games, books, charger, suncream, toileteries etc and that is distributed between the suitcases and handluggage.

I personally can't find a reason for packing cubes if I unpack fully when I arrive and I never had an issue with luggage so I don't bother with them.

One week before the hol I start swiping clean clothes as they come out of the laundry and they get laid out on the spare bed in the same order for each person
hats
tops /dresses
bottoms
undies/socks
pyjamas
swimsuits
shoes
Beach bag/towel
then they can each add to their pile on the bed from their drawers (to make sure no favourites are forgotten)
Husband sorts out all electronics/chargers and also snorkelling stuff
each of us pack our own books, games etc.
my youngest then tries to pack all his teddies.
toiletries we buy when we get there.

There's a hack doing the rounds on social media where you pack one of those over door storage things with pockets with everything for the kids, pack it in the case as is then just hang it up when you get there!

I'm starting to think having a spare room/bed to put all the stuff on might be the key to making this easier..

I usually (sadly) plan laundry before we go. So if we are going to campsite for 2 weeks I pack 6 days clothing per person and do a wash on days 5 and 10. Then there are usually a few extra nicer bits for the evenings. Campsites are very casual though so day and night wear are much the same and things get dirty as they have sandy roads so some days 2 changes are needed or more.

Literally in the middle of packing now and taking a break cos I'm getting stressed! going to a nicer resort though for a shorter time which is much easier.

For your DS you could put day bags together using those small plastic bin liner bags - a bag per day. 1 x underwear, socks, T shirt and shorts in each bag. I did this a few times when twins were young. They werent even unpacked just put into drawers and a new bag opened every morning. Saved a lot of stress.

I was talking to some people at school today about packing and saying how it was a hassle getting everything washed and dried in time to pack, remembering things that are used up til the last minute like chargers etc and one of them said “oh no, I like everything new for holidays so it’s easy, just buy stuff and pack it straight in the suitcase” and the others agreed that they did that too. I had no idea that was a thing! What do people then do with the stuff they’ve used once or twice on holiday? Wish I’d asked them more!

I find that ridiculous. By the time it's August I would have hoped that we can wear Summer clothes for at least 2 months.

I may buy the odd thing like extra swimwer or dress for the hotel but things like T-shirts, shorts and sandals are needed weeks before hand.

And the year after - all outgrown.

I can definitely see a logic in buying kids a complete summer wardrobe to take away, esp if you are only going for a week.

A weeks worth of new clothes esp t-shirts and shorts. Is stuff that will get worn.