We used to pack in laundry baskets until we outgrew them. We've graduated to Rubbermaid 20 gallon totes, but the general principal is the same.
For each day, everyones' outfit goes into a tote. Toiletries, swim suits, and jammies are in a separate tote. When we arrive at a hotel, we just take in the next day's tote and the swim/jammie tote (classy visual, right?). We take out the clean clothes and then use the empty tote as a hamper. When we need to do laundry (on the road or back at home), we just pull the dirties from the tote and wash, wash, wash.
We also have a tote for our food and snacks. They stack so much better than individual suitcases and bags.
As I'm packing I keep what I call "The List of Ommisions." This contains the items that haven't been packed yet broken down by tote. As we hunt down the missing articles, we cross them off the list.
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I love it! Fantastic! I am a minimal packer, so I love your organization! I hope you all have a marvelous vacation!!!!
ReplyDeleteI am a minimal packer too. We take about 1/2 the pants/shorts of our days away and then our shirts is about 3/4 of our days away. (We always buy shirts as a tourism gift for each of us) Also we try to stay at a condo with laundry. Even with family of 5, lots of hotels refuse to let us stay without buying another room. Can you believe that?!?!? Just a family of 5.
ReplyDeleteI know some hotels are starting to come around and offer suits (but sometimes at $300 a nights vs. $70 a night).
I would love to hear about your disney trip and how you did it. We would love to go but balking at the price of stay ON campus vs. getting a condo off campus.
Holly
when I grow up and have a large family I know where to look for resources.... Just kidding... Wow.. I was curious as I was packing us 3 for our trip to IN for who knew how long. Impressive and great idea. Wow... :)
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I wonder if there is way to adapt this for traveling internationally? Maybe instead of a suitcase per person, a suitcase per day. I will use the over the door shoe organizer idea. We do it in two places at home in lieu of junk drawers, but I hadn't thought about traveling with it for toiletries.
ReplyDeleteThis is a clever, creative idea! Where have you been all of my life?? This would have been So Helpful a few years back when my family was younger!! One question -- don't the totes take up a lot of room to pack? There isn't much room left at the back of our van, and we use duffle bags that can be stuffed under the seats. That is the only drawback I see to your wonderful tote system!
ReplyDeleteTo make the tote system work, we remove the FRONT seat of our 15 passenger. Since the new "front" row contains the baby and toddler, they don't need leg room. Ted was in the "hot seat" for this trip: handling babies, running the TV, passing back food. He said he liked being able to stretch out his legs on top of the totes. They also make great tables for holding other things since the lip around them keeps most things (but not drinks!) from sliding off.
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