Don't Eat the Daisies: Nov 3, 2011

Thursday, November 3, 2011

The Packing List

I love making lists. I am also rather picky about what they look like - especially ones that I use over and over - of which I have several:

The road trip packing list
The camping packing list
Leaving the house for vacation checklist
The grocery store shopping aisle-by-aisle list
The Target shopping list
My control journal (Fly Lady)
The weekly menu plan

Fly Lady would call it per*******ism... Yeah... maybe... BUT - I know what works for me. Here are my particulars:

The entire list must be on one page. You should have seen me in college - I would rewrite lecture notes so that the entire lecture would fit on one page. Lesson plans had to be on one page. I mess with the font, the letter size, I box things in, I make tables, charts... whatever. But it must all fit on one page. Why the neurosis? I don't know... I guess I feel like if there is more than one page, I will miss something... forget to look at the other page or whatever. I know... silly... but that is me. I also don't like keeping track of multiple things. (yes, I know I have FOUR kids....why do you think I am a basketcase??) ONE is what works for me.

The usage of tables helps me categorize things. It also helps maximize the use of the page space w/o making things look messy. With a table, my husband and I can divide and conquer - he takes a section and I take a section.

It must look neat. I hate messy lists. I am a very visual person - if I am looking at something messy, my eyes have no idea where to focus first and I get distracted. Not the thing to do when you are packing and don't want to forget something.

It must be easy to edit. The list changes with the seasons, so it must be easy for me to go in and pull up an old list, save it as a new one, and strike out a whole section. We don't need to be packing snow boots and coats in August. That whole section can become water toys and sand toys - keep the seasonal stuff in the same box in the table - just switch it out.

Whatever you do, however you do it - just make the list work for you, not against you. I have not established an order-to-do-things-in with this list, but I could very easily... just number the boxes in the order they should be done. Print the list several days before the trip, and keep it with you. As your mind wanders as you are driving, or drifting off to sleep, or making dinner, you will think of things you need to add. Keep it handy and jot it down. Trust me - you won't remember later. Keep your spouse and kids involved. The kids may have different ideas of stuff they want to bring that what they brought last time, so keep the list fresh and up-to-date.

Not only is it the list itself - but it is the way you go about packing. Even before I 'met' Fly Lady, I did a number of things to make life on the road easier...

Pack the kid's stuff in duffel bags (they each have their own) - easy to squash down.
Pack every one's toiletries into one bag - easier to keep track of, and is one of the last things to go into the car. And if something spills (but you should use Ziploc bags..), it won't get on any clothing.
Pack an empty (large) duffel bag to serve as a hamper for every one's clothing. You can prepack some detergent and softener in there as well (I use one of Rylan's old Avent baby bottles to hold the liquid detergent - and then put it in a Ziploc, and a Ziploc w/several dryer sheets) so that you don't have to buy the expensive stuff at the laundromat. In the past we used a mesh laundry bag, but that was kind of embarrassing when we were lugging it through the hotel lobby. A duffel bag is much more discreet.
If you are packing dress clothes, put everything - shoes, clothing, belts, tights, ect. for every family member in that bag. That way, the wrong things don't get accidentally worn or get rumpled and riffled through while looking for regular clothes. I also try to clip everything for one person onto each hanger (I used clothespins).
Dedicate a smaller-sized duffel bag as a shoe bag, and put every family member's extra shoes in there. That way stinky shoes don't get crammed in with clean clothes.
If you are doing an overnight in a hotel, consider prepacking a separate hotel bag. Each family member packs pj's and the next day's clothing into that one bag. That way, when you go into the hotel, you only have to carry in that one clothing bag, the toiletry bag, and whatever personal belongings you don't want to leave in the car (like laptops, cameras, purse, ect...) Dean and I went round and round on this very subject. We argued during EVERY vacation about it. He HATED that we would have to get one of those luggage carts to haul our stuff to the room. And we filled it too! A bassinet, 4 kid duffel bags, two adult suitcases, a toiletry bag, a computer bag, Dean's work bag, the cooler, the snack box, toy bag(s), diaper bag, three baby/kid blankets, shoe bag, my book/magazine bag, and, on occasion, a baby in a carrier. Getting to the room was an outright ordeal! Even worse, it was typically in the middle of the night, groggy kids would be crying, and it would be freezing cold or worse, snowing (because we were typically traveling during the holiday season). Good times. Yet, I insisted that I have the kid duffel bags with me, because you never knew what the weather was going to be like the next day, there was no telling how many baby/toddler outfits we blazed through during the car ride due to spit ups or diaper blow-outs or toilet training accidents, so I wanted all available clothing to be at the ready, in case I needed to refill the diaper bag with anywhere from 1-3 outfits for the next day's driving. Moms? Help me out here - you see my point don't you? I totally get the wisdom behind what Dean is going for here... but kids are a crap shoot, and you never know what the day is going to throw at you. So, worst case, pack a particular kid's duffel bag in an easy-to-get-to spot, and the next morning, pull outfits from it to stow in the now-empty diaper bag for the next leg of the journey. You win, Dean! You win! ;)