To ask if you're relaxed and organised before going on holiday or VERY STRESSED

[TheOwlTheory]

Sadly, I'm the latter!

What is the source of your stress?

I think it's part of my holiday (abroad) routine.
Get hair done.
Take dogs to kennels (sob!)
Flap around
Have tantrum
Enjoy holiday

I'm relaxed but my husband does most of the packing (his and the kids) and he is in charge of all transport etc (I usually do the early stuff like scoping the location and booking accommodation and flights)

I always write lists and start packing two weeks before the holiday

Packing for me- fine
Packing for me and older dc- fine just get annoyed if they wear things I was packing!
Packing for dc including a baby or toddler- more stressed (mainly due to logistics of fitting it all in and remembering things like baby monitors)
Packing for dp - very stressed because he is an absolute cock if I forget anything. Once we went away and he went on and on how I hadn’t packed him a coat. I hadn’t packed anyone a coat, the rest of us had taken them off the hooks as we went out the door but because I was doing the packing it was apparently my fault he hadn’t done the same (I may hold this against him for a very long time )

It's not packing clothes that's the problem. I just chuck those in a bag at the last minute.

It's sorting pet care, car hire, travel insurance, repeat meds, checking whether we've all actually remembered to book the time off work...

For UK camping holidays it's also that we take everything to house us for a fortnight, some of which has probably been chewed by mice over the winter. Often someone's pegs or poles will have mysteriously vanished when we get there, to great recriminations.

For sailing holidays, for years, there was the ritual cramming everyone into last year's wetsuit and lifejacket, and wondering if it'll do, and whether the strange whiff will be bearable in the car on the way there.

I think it's part of my holiday (abroad) routine Same, except for us it's taking cat to the cattery (always heartchurning)

I'm like Jeezoh, I have a list of all the things we need to take with us. It gets revised every so often, as it originally started off with nappies getting an honourable mention on #1, now we're on #6... It's divided into categories and the most important one is Travel Documents & Technology which obviously has EHIC, passports, boarding pass printouts etc.

If I didn't have the list I think I would stress more, but we've only had one mishap - not bringing the spending money to Disneyland - which has never been repeated...

DS is now old enough to pack his own case and I'll give him the list to check he has everything on there as a minimum. DH does his own, so I'll only have the stress of deciding which clothes I want to take and do I have enough books which is No at the moment, need more books

Flap around
Have tantrum

Can you not just skip these two? If my DH did either of those before every holiday there would be serious problems.

I have to say I get stressed because I am fundamentally lazy really and just hate all the 'making lists and then collating/collecting' stuff together from various places in the house.

It is getting together all the 'stuff' that I dislike doing e.g:

first aid kits, antihistamines, painkillers, canesten, moisturiser, shampoo, conditioner, face stuff, perfume, hair brush,tweezers, nail scissors, glasses/contacts, toothbrushes, toothpaste, suntan lotion, sun hats, adaptors, chargers, kindle, jewellery, make up, laxative for DS who without fail gets constipated on holiday, earphons/earbuds, mobile phones, food for the journey and passports, tickets, directions if driving, details of accommodation, insurance documents,( Make copies of everything either paper or electronic) and on and on and on.......

I have very organised lists, grouped by type of holiday but Most of this stuff is all over the place at home so I spend ages collecting it, making lists of things to buy if we have run out and having to make sure I remember the things I can't pack early because I will be using them until the last minute (Did I mention that I am lazy)

Packing the clothes is easier (except for deciding on which shoes to bring for me) unless the weather is very hot where we are going and also at home - i.e like this year. I have a limited number of 'hot weather clothes' so it is hard to get them all washed and packed without running out of clothes to wear while here.

I also loathe all of the 'putting the "stuff" away' when we get home. I always seem to lose a phone charger or soemthing else in the process.

As for camping holidays. The collating, packing in the car and unpacking at the location, then packing up again and unpacking/putting away at home makes me want to cry and is a major reason we no longer go camping.

Troika, DH once made the mistake of saying cheerily, 'Just chuck me a couple of t-shirts in a bag. I don't know why you find it so stressful!'

I did. I wasn't making a point; I was just too distracted to pause and think "Ah yes, that's a figurative expression meaning 'Pack a small selection of suitable clothing'", and literally bunged in two t-shirts.

He reverted to being an adult and packed his own things after that.

Both. Super organised getting packed, arranging for catsitters, being ready to go but get stressed to the max about missing our flight, mostly because DH is almost aggressively lacksadaisical about the time it takes to leave the house, drive to the airport parking 25 mins away (45 during early morning rush hour) to drop the car and wait for the shuttle to the airport and check in/bag drop and then get through security in time for boarding. If the flight is at 8am say, he thinks leaving our house at 7.15 is ample time to do all of the above! It's fucking NOT!

I used to be more stressed. I use a packing app called Packpoint it helps me to remember the essentials. It's also very helpful to write a list (on your phone) , add to it when you aren't away what you forget/ things that would have been useful and then have it to refer to in the future. I have a few lists eg. Dog going to kennel's list would have Vaccination record, dog medication, favourite toy etc

I am working tonight 5-11pm. Leaving early tomorrow. Packing already done.

I’ve got worse as I’ve got older I think. It’s not just packing (far too much usually). I also have pets and garden to sort, need to empty and clean fridge, and a never ending list of bits and pieces.

I absolutely hate returning to a messy house so it all has to be ship shape. One year I even had to wash all the sofa cushion covers.

DH wakes up, spends ten minutes chucking stuff in a bag and huffs that I’m faffing.

I am relaxed but disorganised. Works for me.

Forgive me AmazingPostVoices, I'm an old timer on here and forgot you need to put in thread titles nowadays.

I'm fine so long as the dog doesn't see the suitcase because otherwise he is hyped up and a bloody nuisance. I stick it in the spare room and then put stuff in over the course of a week so the first time he sees it is when it goes to the car. That way I only have about an hour of him shrieking and running round like a loon because he knows he's coming with us. He is actually always more excited than any of the dc ever were and on the first night he's a pain and always gets up at the crack of dawn the next day raring for a walk on the beach.

If i do lists im fine. But im stressed in the week before incase kids get ill before or on the plane

I used to be relaxed, then I had two children and it got much harder to get anything done. In the run up to our last holiday the toddler had croup and there was a major flap on at work which meant I had to unexpectedly do an extra morning the day before we left. Plus the normal fun of the baby emptying the suitcase and needing half the house to be bought with us. I was very, very stressed

I’m fairly relaxed but DH gets stressed. He has to get a haircut and throw some shorts and t shirts in a case fgs!

I have to get hair done, waxing, eyebrows threaded. Decide on what toiletries and make up will work best, pack outfits then certain underwear depending on if I need a strapless bra, a plunge bra , a certain colour of bra....shoes to go with outfits....

Yes, left a dc house sitting so it wasn't very clean even though I had left it that way and no milk

I hate putting stuff away and we have gained extra toiletries from hotel

I’ve been around for over a decade Owl don’t be patronising now sweetie, I didn’t say I’d LTB.

I'm fine until I get to the airport and then I get really stressed. The massive queue for the one desk that's open, another one for security where I always manage to set off the alarm (nope, no one has ever figured out why) the inevitable delay and the fact that it's usually about 100 fuckin degrees in the airport.

Im not even going on fucking holiday! Im going home to see my parents!

Packing has to be my least favourite activity - I really loathe and dread it - despite having a list and packing cubes.... and my anxiety is getting worse with age, not better.
I'm not going away for three weeks (and will then be gone for 3 weeks) and I'm already starting to think about the ordeal of packing.
In my defence I must say that I am going to be doing three different activities and need all the stuff for them.... which I won't be able to buy when I get there........

I am always a bit worried about forgetting passports.

If its a domestic holiday then completely relaxed-we can always turn around/buy anything we forgot.