4 Tips for Packing Light on a Family Vacation
Packing for a vacation – especially one where your kids will be coming along! – can be a surprisingly stressful experience.
Although you go on vacation to make family memories, and to relax and unwind from the pressures of work and daily life, there is an awful lot of complicated admin involved! Even once the logistics of booking hotels and planning activities are complete, you still have to work out exactly what to bring and how to fit it into your suitcase.
It’s a pretty grueling process to be honest.
If you’re travelling by plane, most airlines have a baggage allowance set by weight. This restricts the amount of stuff you can bring with you to your destination. Although you can usually pay for an extra bag if needed, this service will often come at an extortionate price. Airlines will often charge you extra if your bag weighs even a few grams over your prescribed weight limit.
As well as reducing the risk of penalty charges, packing light also makes your holiday experience smoother and more efficient. You will have fewer and lighter bags to carry around with you, and it makes unpacking and repacking considerably easier.
It can be tempting to overpack to prevent the risk of forgetting important items, but, unless you’re traveling somewhere remote, the chances you’ll be able to pick up forgotten items it pretty high. The best solution is to pack as efficiently as possible, only bringing those items you really need.
To help you prepare for your family vacation, here are five great tips for packing light.
Bring a Single Suitcase
By restricting yourself to a single checked bag per person, you resist the urge to overpack. You’re confined by the capacity of your suitcase, which forces you to only pack the absolute essentials.
Picking the right suitcase is an important decision. You want it to be light enough that it doesn’t take up too much of your weight allowance by itself, yet good quality and robust so that it will survive the journey.
Bags with plenty of additional zippered side pockets are great for maximising storage space, and it should be just large enough to fit everything you need, without too much room leftover.
Use Packing Cubes
Clothes can be bulky, but packing cubes are a great way to compress them down and save a huge amount of space in your suitcase. I hadn’t used them until my trip last year to San Antonio, but they saved SO MUCH SPACE!
You just zip your clothes up in these little containers, and they will form a neat little pile of clothes that only takes up a fraction of the space. Use multiple packing cubes to divide your clothes into shirts, dresses, underwear, and pants/shorts. Don’t forget to label or color-code them so you can find them easily when you unpack.
Pack Only What You Need
As long as you have the bare essentials – passport, phone, wallet, chargers, clothing, etc. – it’s not the end of the world if you forget a single item. Yet so many of us pack excessive amounts just in case we need it. But what’s the point in packing ten pairs of underwear for a three-day trip? Do you really need six pairs of sneakers, or can you get by with just one? Really strip down your packing list to the things you absolutely can’t live without. Think about the number of days you’re going away for, and work out exactly what you will wear each day.
Look at the luggage allowance and the activities you’ll be doing, too. This will inform your packing list and ensure you don’t bring anything you won’t need. Will you need to store your luggage somewhere at any point? For example, if you’re going to Paris and checking out of your hotel on the last day, you won’t want to carry your bags around with you while you go to see the Mona Lisa. Using places like Louvre luggage storage​ with Radical Storage provides a safe place to store your suitcase but gives you freedom from lugging it around with you all day!
Remember, in an emergency, you can always buy a new item of clothing or find a local laundromat to freshen up your undies.Â
Adjust Your Skincare Regime
One of the worst offenders when it comes to overpacking is toiletries. Perhaps at home, you need a huge range of moisturizers, conditioners, and lotions to keep your skin looking smooth and radiant. But on vacation you can live without some of these for a couple of days.
Try to limit your toiletries to only those things you really need. Decant a small amount of each one into miniature travel bottles to save some space or buy the travel-size version instead.
Let’s Go!
By following these packing tips, you can travel lighter, save money, and make your family vacation run as smoothly as possible. Managing your kids’ exhaustion and excitement is a whole different matter…
Have a great trip!
