I shared in my previous post that my husband and I recently traveled 8 hours to northern Indiana on a quick up-and-back trip to visit family. We have experienced our fair share of traveling woes since becoming parents, but were proud to report a successful traveling venture with our two toddler boys (ages 3 and 1) on this quick visit.
To ensure that we would enjoy ourselves throughout our travels, I worked ahead of time, preparing an itinerary that would provide for age-appropriate and enjoyable family recreation, meal-times, and naps along the way (see Traveling With Tots — Part One for details). While I credit a well-planned and executed itinerary as the biggest contributor to our happy travels on this excursion, I must also credit the enjoyable travel experience to being efficiently packed.
Why is it so important pack efficiently? It’s important not to over pack because it just creates more stuff to load, unload, and keep organized. It’s important not to under pack (especially with toddlers) because the chance is good that extra clothes and snacks will be used. Here’s a summary of our luggage for this trip:
ONE large suitcase — we took this suitcase in at each hotel. It contained all of our toiletries, two pillows (Matt and I are pillow snobs — no hotel pillow can compare to our own), and the necessary clothes for each stop.
Thirty-One Large Utility Tote — I used this bag for the clothes we DIDN’T need to take in at each stop. This stayed in the van for the duration of the trip.
Black Diaper Bag — I used this bag as a purse/diaper bag. I carried it everywhere. It contained my cell phone, wallet, diapers, wipes, baby snacks, sippy cup, and of course a tightly rolled change of clothes for each boy.
Blue Diaper Bag — I packed this bag full of diapers and extra wipes, as well as a clean sippy cup for Jonah for each day of the trip. I kept this bag in the “stow-and-go” compartment under the floor of the van. At each stop, I just restocked my black diaper bag from this one. I wanted to carry enough diapers with me, but didn’t want to overcrowd the diaper bag I would carry with me everywhere. This bag was easily accessible, yet out of the way.
Cooler — This was my first experience at packing a cooler for a trip (truth). I filled it with bottled water, individual snack bags of grapes and strawberries that I had prepared for the boys, string cheese, and a few pre-made sandwiches. I know this helped us save quite a bit of money, time, and calories that we would have spent going through drive-thrus just to get a snack or a drink. We kept the cooler at the very back of the van where we could easily access it at all of our stops. *Note: we refilled it with ice from a gas station once on the trip.
Backpack — I limited toys to whatever would fit in Jay’s L.L. Bean backpack. I strategically chose toys that were small, yet would provide maximum entertainment. I even varied types of toys — from superheros to sticker books. Interestingly, our itinerary was so well planned that we never opened this toy bag on the entire trip. The boys were sleeping when we drove and enjoying an activity at each stop.
I’ll elaborate a bit on the organization of our clothing for this trip. Because I knew the activities we had planned on our itinerary, I first grouped our clothes in labeled piles according to activity/needs. My piles included:
Sunday Church/Travel clothes
Monday Zoo/Travel clothes
Monday evening restaurant clothes
Tuesday morning park/travel clothes
Wednesday petting zoo/travel clothes
Extra outfits for boys (2 each)
Extra outfits for Mom and Dad (2 each)
Swimming Attire
In each pile, I put a complete outfit for each family member, including all parts (underwear, socks, undershirt, etc.).
Second, I placed each pile in a separate labeled plastic grocery bag. (That’s right — one plastic grocery bag contained a complete outfit for all four of us — so I chose strategically and rolled them tightly.)
Third, I filled our suitcase with the bags labeled Monday Zoo/travel clothes, Extra outfits for boys, Extra outfits for Mom and Dad, and Swimming Attire. (The first of these four bags would change at each stop; the other three remained in the suitcase for the duration of our trip.)
Fourth, I placed all of the other plastic grocery bags of clothes in my Thirty-One Large Utility Tote (it was perfect size). I wouldn’t need anything from this tote until we had reached our hotel in Indiana.
When we unloaded in Indiana, I was able to grab the grocery bag labeled Monday evening restaurant clothes from the back of our van and carry it in with our ONE suitcase. I did this at each stop — only taking in the necessary clothing — and leaving the rest in the van. Also, at each stop, we were able to fill the emptied grocery bags with our dirty clothes. Therefore, when we finally arrived home from our trip, all of our dirty clothes had cycled into the Thirty-One Large Utility Tote. This meant that I “toted” them directly to my laundry room and was able to have all of our clothes from the trip washed on the very evening we arrived home in two quick loads.
Advantages to this “grocery bag” packing:
1. We only carried in the necessary clothes at each hotel stop. (meaning less baggage to handle — very important when handling two toddlers at each stop)
2. I didn’t have to waste time “picking out” which outfit each of us would wear while we were on the trip. I did all the “picking” when I packed.
3. I was confident that I had packed “enough” but not “too much.”
4. After we settled in for the night in each hotel, I grabbed the bag for the next day to lay out the clothes for each person for the next morning. It made for smooth mornings.
5. Since I didn’t know when/where we may swim on this trip, our “swimming attire” bag stayed in the suitcase for the duration of the trip so that we had it when we needed it. Having our damp swimming clothes contained in a bag that I had packed rather than scurrying to find a bag at the hotel was nice.
6. I kept the two bags of our “extra outfits” in the suitcase for the entire trip. I did have to dig into each of them. We had just enough extra to be prepared, but I limited it to what would fit in a grocery bag.
7. Because I was trying to fit four outfits into one plastic grocery bag, I strategically chose clothing that could be tightly rolled and packed compactly with minimal wrinkles.
I thought this packing technique was pretty genius — and Matt even complimented me on being well-planned and organized. He was grateful that he only had to carry one suitcase back and forth from the van to our hotel room each night, and he was especially thankful that I had picked out all of HIS clothes for the trip, too. 😉
The next time we travel, I think the plastic grocery bags will make another appearance in my suitcase.
one moon mom 
Great planning. I recently used plastic grocery bags as “boots” over my garden shoes to pick beans in the mud. Used pony tail bands to keep them around my ankles. Glad you had such a good trip!