Surviving Christmas Travel: How to Pack

I used to love suitcases, with their implicit promise of exploring the unknown while bringing along a bit of home.  I have changed my mind about what suitcases represent:  now I see them merely as burdens to be lugged through customs, so I do my best to pack as lightly as possible.

Here are a few odds and ends suggestions of things you might not have thought of to help you in your battle of the bulging (but hopefully not overweight!) suitcase.

1.  If you are traveling by air, you'll face weight restrictions with your suitcases.  Make sure you know what the weight limits are and keep your bathroom scale handy for weighing your finished suitcases.

2.  Do all your laundry.  It's best if you can start about a week out and do a load a day -- wash, dry, fold, AND put away! -- if you're behind.  Check out Flylady if you need some help in this area.  If your laundry is done, then you know exactly what outfits you have available to pack; you won't have to keep clothes out to wash or wear (because something else is in the wash); and this way your laundry is all done when you get back home!

3.  A day or two before you travel, completely pack your children's suitcases; I even recommend buying extra toothbrushes, toothpaste, and combs so that you can put everything in the suitcase, close it, and not have to worry about it again until you load it in the car.

4.  But what to pack?  Ay, there's the rub.  It's always a balancing act between how many clothes your kids need vs. how much laundry you'll be doing, but just remember that you probably won't need as many clothes for your kids as you think you will.  (I never do.  I always get to the end of a trip and find clean, folded, never-worn outfits in the bottom of their suitcases!)

5.  How to pack?  Here's my favorite method:  lay out a complete outfit -- socks, underwear, top, bottoms -- and roll it all together into a neat little "sausage."  These little rolls pack beautifully, you always know you've got matching outfits, and this way it's easy to fish out clothing in the grey pre-dawn hours in your in-laws' house without waking either adults or the baby when your six-year-old decides he has to get up and go out in the snow NOW!

6.  Obviously:  pack for 2 (or more if you're really good, or they're really small!) kids in a suitcase.  For our trips -- which sometimes last an entire summer -- Mom and Dad always get their own suitcases.  If you're just going for a week-end, you might be able to pack for the whole family in just one or two suitcases.

7.  If you find your suitcases are overweight, take along a duffel bag for heavy items like shoes.  The duffel bag also makes a great place to store those extra things that always seem to come back with us on a trip.

8.  If possible, pack for yourself a day or two in advance as well.  For me, this is always tricky because there are those little things I need now but also need to pack.  My compromise is usually to pack everything I need later into my suitcase, zip it up, and put it by the door; and pack all the stuff I need now into my carry-on.  I then keep my carry-on in the bathroom so I can put those "need now" things in them as I use them the morning of the trip.

9.  And a word about carry-ons:  my rule is, everyone gets one, whether we're going in the car or on a plane.  I pack at least an extra shirt and underwear for everyone, toothbrush if the trip is really long, food, and any games, books, and toys I think will keep them quiet and happy and which will not require me to crawl under the seat in front of me to retrieve bits and pieces of.

10.  Food?  Yes, I pack food.  Having two kids with dietary restrictions, I have to.  When we're traveling by air, rather than packing a random amount of snacks or sandwiches, I calculate out how many meals we'll need and pack that many meals:  a sandwich, pretzels, a piece of fruit, etc.  I learned the hard way, after my middle son threw up on me in the plane after eating too many potato chips!, not to pack to much of any kind of junk food!

11.  Traveling by air?  Your best friend is a nylon strap with a loop sewn in one end to put in your carry-on.  I've got a small collection of these -- one from a jogging stroller I had once, and a couple from some old children's harnesses.  Of course, if you've got a kid's harness, you'll have one of these already.  If not, start looking around your house for one and I'll tell you next time why you'll love it!