Going on vacation? How to pack for a family holiday in 5 easy steps #108

Ever felt overwhelmed packing for a family vacation? Wondering how to keep everyone happy and organized on the go?

Join me, Caroline Thor, and  I'll guide you through a simple, stress-free packing process that turns chaos into bliss.

The Problem- packing for a family holiday can be a nightmare. It's easy to feel buried under the clutter and stress of preparing for the trip.

The Solution - discover my top travel packing tips, honed from years of experience with my family. I'll share the secrets of a perfect holiday packing list that keeps you organized and ready for anything.

Benefits - imagine starting your vacation relaxed and organized. With my easy steps, you'll:
- Declutter your packing process.
- Get the whole family involved, making it a fun activity.
- Ensure you pack just what you need, nothing more, nothing less.

Highlights -
- Success stories from our Clutter Free Collective, like Åsa finishing her June project early and Christy funding a trip to Rome through decluttering.
- Practical advice on rolling clothes, using compression bags, and labeling luggage.
- Personal anecdotes from my family.

Grab my downloadable packing list to keep your holiday prep on track. 

Tune in and learn what to pack for a vacation with ease and confidence. Let's make your next family holiday the best one yet!

FREE PACKING CHECKLIST HERE
Find out more about Clutter Free Collective HERE

Thanks for listening! For more organizational motivation, support and free resources:
Join my online membership Clutter Free Collective
Join my podcast Facebook group Living Clutter Free Forever Podcast: KonMari® Inspired Organizing | Facebook
Visit my website www.caroline-thor.com
Come and say 'hi' on Instagram @caro.thor
Follow me on Facebook @carolineorganizer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi there, I'm Caroline Thor, professional organiser, konmari consultant, teacher and mum of three. I started off my life as a mum feeling overwhelmed, disorganised and desperately trying to carve out some time for me amongst the nappies, chaos and clutter. One day, one small book called the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying changed everything and I began to learn strategies for making everyday life easier. Today, I have the systems in place that means life can throw almost anything at me, and I want to share them with you. If you're an overwhelmed mum struggling to keep it together, then this is the podcast for you. Grab a coffee and settle in for a quick chat with someone who gets your reality. Hi there, this is the Living Clutter-Free Forever podcast. I'm Caroline and I am so happy to have you join me today. I am very excited today because I have been catching up on the ladies in my membership and what they have got going on.

Speaker 1: 1:05

If you don't know about my membership, it's called Clutter Free Collective. It's an online membership. It's international. There's people from all over Europe and the States in the membership and this month, june, we have been working really hard at looking at how we can create, decluttering and organizing projects and how to break them down into really simple goals so that we make sure that by the end of June our projects are complete. Now this is something new that I've added into the membership starting in June, and it has been going really well, so much so that one of my members, orsa, has already finished her project for June, so she can sit back and relax now for the rest of the month, which is just fantastic for her, and we've got all sorts of things going on. So everyone has chosen their own project.

Speaker 1: 2:06

We're not all doing the same thing, because not everyone's homes need the same thing doing so. Some people are working on decluttering and organising camping and outdoor equipment. Some people are working on clothes. Some people are working on shared spaces where the family perhaps have got a closet or cupboard where lots of different things are stored. There's a huge range of things going on. We've got one mom in the US who is wanting to declutter and organize her daughter's bedroom and do a bed swap within the apartment. It is so fun seeing what everyone's up to, and it's great because I am able to keep hopping into our Facebook group and asking them how it's going. We're getting photos, we're getting stuck in places and then we can get each other unstuck and motivate and it's just a really fun environment environment and I am so proud of how everyone's been doing.

Speaker 1: 3:09

And I have to give a special shout out to Christy, because Christy has just been for a long weekend in Rome, paid for wait for this, paid for by the money she has made from selling items she had decided she wanted to declutter. How cool is that? So not only is there a benefit to your mental clarity, but also to your bank balance, because when you decide to get rid of things and sell them, or you stop buying things that you usually do and you're saving the money, you can suddenly afford to do things that before hadn't been possible, or you can just treat yourself to something that you wouldn't have normally done. And she had this a bit of an aha moment as she was setting off on Friday and sent us a message in the Facebook group to say that she just realized that it was her decluttering that had paid for this trip. So well done done, christy. I am super proud of you. So if you're interested in having this sort of amazing supportive community behind you every step of the way, cheering you on and helping you plan what to do next. Then all you need to do is go to caroline-thorcom, forward, slash clutter and there you can find out more about the membership and how to join.

Speaker 1: 4:30

Okay, back to this week. I had in the past an absolute nightmare packing for holidays, so today we're going to be talking about how to pack for a family holiday in five easy steps, because, thank god, it is now so, so much easier for me. I have always shared on this podcast and if you're new to this podcast, you won't have heard this yet but I am actually naturally really disorganized. I struggle with organization and in the past I used to feel very, very overwhelmed and really not in control of things, and holidays was always something that used to majorly stress me out. There was a year, some time ago now, before I implemented the KonMari method in our home, where it took me a week to find the passports. I knew I'd put them somewhere safe, but I couldn't remember where that safe place was and it took me a week to find them. Luckily, I started looking a week before, otherwise I would have really been in trouble, so that doesn't happen anymore. I've now got one place where the passports always go back to as soon as we get home from a travel. We know where they are, the we know where they are. The whole family know where they are. It's not a problem anymore, and it's important to have efficient packing in order that you can enjoy a stress-free holiday and not leave the house feeling so frazzled. It takes you your whole two weeks holiday to recover. So here we are with my first step, which is pre-planning. Now you can get or create a packing list, and I've actually done this for you. So if you would like to download my packing list, I will put the link to that in the show notes. I have thought of everything, but there are also lots of apps and printable checklists online that you can find, but you might as well go and grab mine, seeing as I've done it for you.

Speaker 1: 6:33

And how did I come up with my packing list? Over the years, I have realised that it's really important for me to know beforehand exactly what I need to take, and I know exactly when this started. It was in Italy, it was eight years ago, and I was sat in the caravan that we were renting and I was there with my laptop and there were various things I had forgotten. So I decided to make a comprehensive list of everything we'd bought with us on that holiday and everything that I really should have thought about bringing but had forgotten, and that has become my go-to travel checklist. It's changed over the years as my kids have got older. I don't need to take colouring books with me anymore and things to cut paper out and toys. All that sort of stuff's gone. But my checklist is a general family checklist so that you can make sure you've thought about everything. So that would be my first top tip in this section of pre-planning Get yourself a checklist and then tailor the list to your destination activities.

Speaker 1: 7:41

There is no point taking beach towels and swimming stuff and snorkels if you're going on a hiking holiday in the Alps and vice versa. You don't need to take your walking boots if you're going to Mauritius. So tailor the list beforehand to the destination activities so that you know exactly what you're going to need, and involve the whole family in the planning process. Ask everyone what they think they need to take, go through the list with them and see if anyone can think of something that actually they want to add to the list or they don't think you need to take with you this year and then assign tasks to each family member, even your littlest, even if you've got a one or two year old. You can give them the job of making sure, with your support, that they remember to bring their favourite cuddly toy or their blankie or whatever it is that they need as an emotional support thing for the holiday, and you can make it fun for kids. You can have packing games and challenges or send them off around the house to see if they can find the items you need to put in the suitcase. So that is all part of section one, pre-planning, and then we move on to section two, essential items. So what are the essential items to pack?

Speaker 1: 8:57

Obviously, clothes, and you need to make sure that you don't take too many clothes with you. How many times have you gone on holiday only to discover when you got home that you hadn't worn half of what you took with you? So really think how many days are we going for? How many t-shirts do you need? How many shorts do you need? How much underwear Is there the possibility to wash stuff while you were there? I nearly always have a washing machine wherever we go, so I'm lucky. I just take enough for a week and part way through week one I'll do a wash and then we're good to go for the whole of the rest of the holiday.

Speaker 1: 9:35

So think about clothes, think about how you can layer things so you don't have to take really bulky stuff with you, and really think about whether you actually need to take everything. I have a lady in my membership and she recently went on a family trip to Disneyland and she said to me when she got back that she had taken lots of really nice dresses for her girls and her to wear in the evenings when they went for dinner. But they were so exhausted, having gone around the park all day, they couldn't be bothered to get changed and they ended up just going as they were, having their dinner and then going back to their rooms and and having the rest of their evening. So you don't necessarily need all the clothes that you think you do. Toiletries, if you can take travel-sized essentials with you, are must-haves, although if you're going away for two weeks you may need more than would fit in a travel size of, for example, shampoo. I now have, for example, with my girls because they're both teenagers, older teenagers. Now we take one shampoo and one conditioner between us that we're going to share. It's taken me a while to wean them off doing this, because they wanted to take their products with them, but they've managed to see the sense of packing with less and we share products now when we go away.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Medications and first aid Make a list as part of your pre-planning what medications you need to take with you. So I have medications for two of my kids that they have to take every day, so I need to make sure I've got those with me. I need medications for the dog every day. I have to take those with, so I need to make sure I've got those with me. I need medications for the dog every day. I have to take those with me, so I always have them in a list. I will never forget my poor mother-in-law turning up to stay with us for a week once, which is really unusual. They normally just come for a weekend or a couple of days at most, and she had left her medication at home and it was a two and a half hour drive away. So it was not practical to drive back to get the medication and luckily she got enough for one day with her. But she had to phone a neighbor and ask them to go into the house and take it to the post, and if you've flown abroad somewhere to stay in a hotel or an Airbnb, that's just not going to be practical. So really think about in advance what medications you need and what basic first aid. I always have with me a few different sizes of plasters and a disinfectant spray, and then I know we're good for you know, small emergencies if we need something.

Speaker 1: 12:08

Something else that is, in these days, absolutely essential items is electronics and entertainment. We need to take the charging cables. You might need an adapter plug depending on which country you're going to. So those are the electronics that are important to make sure you have. And if you have got members of your family who are also going to be taking their electronic devices with them, remember to remind them to pack their charging cables and make sure you've got enough adapter plugs for everybody. A multi charger is a really good idea. If everyone in the family has got a phone and you're going to need to all be charging, that's a really, really sensible option. And then the last thing to think about when it comes to essential items is things like books. If you need to take games with you, if you need to take activities for the kids, those are things that you could put on your checklist and make sure that they get packed, and then you're pretty much good to go.

Speaker 1: 13:10

I asked in my podcast Facebook group who had got a story about ever having forgotten something because it wasn't on the list, and Alex shared a story and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. This is what she said my husband once forgot his passport and only realized once he got to the check-in desk, though he did remember my engagement ring, so I guess he was preoccupied with remembering to bring that. Oh my goodness. Yeah, slightly preoccupied by the fact he was about to do a proposal and forgot the passport. But that is a disaster getting to the airport and finding you don't have your passport. So that is another essential item not to forget. And she also shared that she used to forget the charger cables and now it's one of the first things that she packs. And, from my membership, clutterfree Collective also had shared when your child is in pain at 10 o'clock in the evening and you're not in a big city, you certainly wish you hadn't forgotten painkillers for children. We did once. Never again, yeah, not a good thing. So that's a good idea having some painkillers with you in case anyone needs them and she also shared, or if your child only accepts toothpaste without taste, not easy to buy everywhere, that's also a great thing to ensure.

Speaker 1: 14:36

You don't forget to write. If you have got kids that are specifically picky about things, you need to be really careful. One of our family friends there some were sharing with me that they'd been camping recently and he is a really, really picky eater and so they had packed food for him to take with him because they knew that they probably wouldn't find anything while they were away for him to eat. So look at things that are specific to your family that you might need to think about taking with you. So that is section two essential items, and thank you to the people from my facebook group and also from my membership for sharing your stories with us.

Speaker 1: 15:21

Then section three packing tips and tricks. Okay, there are so many different packing tips and tricks out there. You could put that into search on instagram or pinterest and you could spend the whole day looking through. So here are some of the top ones. These are some of my space saving packing techniques. You can roll clothes or file fold them to take up less space. You can use packing cubes or compression bags. I actually saw a really cool thing recently where somebody had taken a Ziploc bag quite a large one put t-shirts into it, squeezed the air out of the corner and then quickly closed it and it worked as like a mini compression bag, so that these t-shirts took up even less space. So that's a really good one. Another tip that I can't recommend highly enough is using shower caps, so like disposable shower caps to put on the bottom of your shoes and then, when you put them into the suitcase, even if they're a little bit dusty or a little bit dirty, it's not going to make the inside of your suitcase dirty.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Then I've got a top tip for packing efficiently for kids, and this is something that I always do for kids, and this is something that I always do. I have my kids clothes put into small boxes in their closets and in their drawers. I actually use the scub boxes from Ikea, and a lot of my clients use those as well. If you have got a scub box with all the kids t-shirts in, you can just pick up the box and pop it into the suitcase. Same for their underwear, for their socks, for their shorts, whatever it is you're taking with you when you get to the other end, all you need to do is take out of the suitcase the scub boxes, put them away into the storage wherever you're staying, and your kids have got organised storage for their holiday that they're used to using. It is absolutely my top tip for packing efficiently for kids. You can involve them as well in choosing outfits so that you don't bother taking stuff with you that they are actually going to turn around and say that they're not wearing, and try to keep their items as organized as possible so that when you get to the other end, they can help with unpacking and find things. And then you've got your carry-on essentials that you need, such as important documents and snacks and entertainment for the journey. So there are some really great packing tips that I hope you will find useful.

Speaker 1: 17:49

And now on to section four organizing the luggage will find useful. And now on to section four organising the luggage. Obviously, you need to label your luggage and you can use luggage tags for that and identifiers. You may think that that sounds like really obvious, but you would not believe how many people forget to put a label on their luggage before they travel, especially if you're flying and you're going to run into huge problems if your case goes missing, because it's going to be much harder for it to find its way to you. Yes, it will have been tagged at the airport as they have put it through screening and everything, but if you have a proper label on there, it will also have a forwarding address, which means it's even easier for them to send it on to you. And then think about how to pack strategically so you can balance the weight in the suitcases. Make sure that the end where you are going to perhaps turn it on its end to use wheels, has got all the weight at the bottom of it so that it's easier to pull along. And if you've got some items that you know you're going to need regularly, keep them accessible. Have them in your hand luggage and make sure that you perhaps keep valuables in your carry-on bags as well. Okay, and then, finally, we're up to final checks and departure.

Speaker 1: 19:03

Already Now I always do this before I leave the house, and my husband used to think I was crazy and now he's really glad I do it. I get our printed out packing list where I've ticked everything off, and I just go down and make sure that everything is ticked off and that none of the kids have taken stuff back into the house that I thought we had got packed, or back into their rooms that I thought we had got packed. We had a nightmare holiday one year because halfway there, my son suddenly said you did pack the switch, didn't you? No, everyone else thought the switch had been packed, but no one had actually checked that it had been, and, believe me, a holiday without electronic devices is not fun. So always make sure that necessary items are packed, and that includes as well your kid's favourite cuddly toy. If you've got a younger kid, that they perhaps need to be able to sleep at night.

Speaker 1: 20:06

Okay, so we have gone through the benefits of organised packing. We have talked about pre-planning, and don't forget, if you go to the show notes, you can grab my printable checklist so that you can be the most organized packer. Then we talked about essential items that you need to take with you, how to pack more efficiently, and then how to organize the luggage, and then, finally, we talked about how important it is to really make sure you haven't forgot anything before you leave. I do not want anyone to have a holiday like we had without the switch. So I hope you found that really useful.

Speaker 1: 20:50

Next time I'm talking about decluttering your mind, so join me for that. And can I ask you a favor? If you haven't yet shared this podcast with a friend, could you do that for me? Grab the link wherever you're listening, and just send it over to a friend or two and say I think you might enjoy this, want to check it out? I would be so grateful. I am trying to get this podcast to as many people as possible, and your support with that would be absolutely amazing. Thanks in advance and until next time. If you've enjoyed this episode, please send the link to a friend you know would appreciate it, subscribe and leave a review. I look forward to bringing you more organising tips next time, but if you can't wait until then, you can go to my website or find me on Instagram, at carothor, or on Facebook at Caroline Organiser. Thanks for listening and I look forward to guiding you on your journey to find your clutter-free ever after.