Packing Tips and Tricks

In today's episode, we share some tips for not only packing your suitcase but also when packing your car for a long road trip.

*Helpful links*

Car Organizer -  https://a.co/d/aBfeH7q

Travel Bottles -  https://share.temu.com/ThskT6SuOAC

Transcript

We're the Essary family and works born in America. One destination at a time on this episode of TravelEssary we are going to share our expert or maybe not. So expert packing tips and tricks. Let's chat. 

Welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode. As we talk about packing tips now.  We have done a lot of packing. I have definitely done a lot of packing in my lifetime, especially  looking back at,  being in boy Scouts or all the trips that we took with my family or the military packing and especially the trips that we take now. 

 And I just want to share with you, our, we want to share with you some of these tips and tricks that we have learned over the years that. Some have worked out well for us. 

Some have not. And how we kind of come up with different. Techniques , you know,  depending on the circumstances or  where we want to go. I know that on a lot of our travel plans. ,  I'm the main person that, you know, decides where we're going and how long we're going to be there. 

And I do our planning stops, but when it comes to packing, I definitely defer to Jeremy in this, like he said, he has all of his military experience, especially that he learned how to. I put a lot of things into one little bag or one little suitcase or something. And so he has taught me a lot when it comes to packing. 

My packing game has definitely been improved by the things that he has taught me. So , I, a hundred percent deferred to him in this. I have a few little tips and tricks that I've picked up.  Once we had children that I learned, , from Pinterest or from other moms or something, but overall like Jeremy is the one who makes sure all of our things get to where we need to go.  And so everything that we're going to talk about may not work for every trip that you go on. 

There's going to be some stuff that is going to be specific for say, like camping. And then there's some other stuff that,   is a totally different category and kind of how you want to pack.  And then day trips, weekends, if you're going for. It's our week. 

I mean, all of those, the packing changes and then where you go. And what you plan on doing is  going to determine what you need or what you want to pack. So we're not going to get into a long list . We're going to get more into, how do you pack the things that you want to take on your vacations? And we've gotten really good at minimizing what we take. 

  I would say we've come a long ways with that a long ways, especially since, , both of our parents on both sides tend to be over Packers. Yes. And we used to be over Packers.  Especially when our first one was born when we had  Justin. , but now. We can go on a three-day trip . For five people with like, Minimal amount of stuff. , I'm quite proud of how far we've come with our, our packing experience. 

 So depending on where you're traveling or how you're traveling spaces, the number one factor. And sometimes, especially in vehicles. It may seem that you don't have enough space. Or you always feel like you're crowded because you know, usually you're overpacking or you're just, you have that many people that are going for a longer stay. And it can get overwhelming.  

Yeah. And pretty much all of our travels in a vehicle. We don't really travel any other way because that's our preferred method of traveling. Is road trips and car chips and yeah. Our vehicle can be. Quite packed again, not, not so much anymore that we've learned some things, but in the beginning, our first Disney world trip. 

Yeah. We might've had things in our lap all the way there and all the way back. Yeah. And some stuff that, I mean, the whole week that we were gone, we didn't even use, like, we didn't even get out. Yeah. And it was like, why did you know, we got that call? And we were like, oh, I totally forgot that we took this.  why did we take this, this.  We didn't need to take it. Okay. Through years of travel, we've just kind of learned that less is more.  Whenever you're, um, doing anything pretty much, but especially when you're packing and traveling. 

And so whenever you get into traveling and trying to take all the stuff that you want to take, you may not need to take it, but you want to take it. And there are some necessity items for sure that I believe that you need to take, but. It all depends on, like I said, the space that you have and that's going to be, you know, depending on where you're going, the activities   that is all going to determine what you are going to be packing. And my number one tip is planted out.  Don't go Willy nilly. 

Don't go. Oh, well, you know,  Maybe this will happen. Maybe that will happen. If you can plan it out of going, Hey,  we're going to dress a little bit nicer, or we're going to go with plain clothes all week.  But you're also going to have to take something to put those clothes into whenever you're done with it, unless you want to go do laundry. 

So it all depends on where you go on what you're doing. For what you. You want to pack? 

 And there's a whole lot of different ways. Tupac items and it all depends on what those items are now. The very first thing that I can say is I've used everything.  To pack. I'm talking Walmart paper sex.  Garbage bags, totes.  Nice luggage, bad luggage , duffel bags. I mean, I've used everything to carry my items for vacation in.  

Yeah. I think I just use my regular duffle bags or suitcases.  Yeah. I mean there's times where it was like,  Hey, you're going to grandma's for two days, go get some clothes and then we throw them into a Walmart bag and that's. That's how I transported my clothes back and forth. And it was only like 45 minutes.  Yeah. 

I mean, especially boys, it's like, ah, it doesn't matter what it goes into. As long as it gets there, that's all it really matters. But in doing so I found a few things that work out really well for certain items. So the first thing that I want to talk about before we get into like the really cool stuff, but is packing in some type of basket or tote. 

Now I'm not talking about putting your clothes in a basket or tote, but especially if you're car traveling, there's some things that instead of just being loose . In the car.  That you can put in basket to tell us we've done it before. Like in the middle, in between the two seats, whenever we had a van, , we put a basket and that's where all the snacks went. And so it was really accessible, but it wasn't like all the snacks were just kind of rolling around anywhere 

it was all just conveniently located in one spot.  Yeah, I hate having.  Like grocery bags everywhere. Like Walmart bags, like if you bring your snacks and Walmart bags and there's one in the front and then there's one in the back and. I don't know, it just feels very messy and unorganized to me. And especially us. 

We tend to do like long road trips and I want everyone in the car to feel comfortable. And when you're like, can't move your legs because you're hitting a Walmart bag and it's rattling. And. And it spills out under the seeds. That's just, it's so annoying and it's very hard to pack a car with just grocery bags everywhere. Well, especially whenever you're trying not to. Crush anything.  

And so what I would say use a tote for is if , you're going to be keeping some food because you're traveling, you don't want to stop at a restaurant. 

You know, you're looking to have a picnic somewhere. And you want to take like breads and chips. And things. You know, big, bulky items that aren't necessarily going to be more snack items. You put those in toast because whenever you're packing on top of those, it's a whole lot easier.  To pack around a tote than it is to pack around a. A bag that has chips in it or bread that you don't want smashed. And it's not just rolling around everywhere.  And this used to be like one of our main ways of travel is packing a bunch of snacks. Up until probably just this last year, actually. Instead of bringing snacks with us, we have recently changed to making snacks stops. A lot of our pit stops specifically revolve around. Grabbing snacks instead of us taking snacks with us. 

And so that's one way that we have kind of lessened how much we're packing is , by doing that. But if you want to bring snacks, then a great way to do it. It's like what Jeremy is saying, is it isn't a specific basket or location? But, um, we've just gotten around, not bringing in any with this pretty much at all.  And  whenever you look at the price, as far as, , either stopping for snacks, Or go into a bakery or something like that, compared to the amount of snacks that you bring that you're probably not going to eat even half of them. Yeah. 

I was about to say, we always over-pack our snacks and it was just a waste of money anyway. Yeah.  And it might cost you maybe three or four extra dollars, like in total. But it's even, but it's so cool making that stop and , getting out and doing something kind of stretching your legs. , to give you that nice little break while you're traveling. So you can also save space by not taking snacks and just put it into your, your traveling plan, which is what we do now.   Another thing is those people with trucks.  Sometimes you might have a truck bed cover that will protect it from rain

but if you don't have something that protects your luggage, And it's not weather proof. Then I also suggest putting that in a tote as well.  Because you can strike them down a whole lot easier and you don't have to worry about squishing or breaking something like a perfume bottle, or, you know, if you have glasses or any kind of electronics back there, you don't have to worry about breaking them. 

If they're already at a tote.  

One of the things that, , I've added recently to our vehicle. And I will put a link down in the show notes for everybody and. No, we're not affiliated. I don't get paid for it. But, , we've been putting things on the back of our seats for our children and they have all kinds of pockets for them to put drinks and electronics, headphones, chargers. , they're snacks, you know, when we stop and they have somewhere to keep their own personal snacks right there in front of them. And it keeps things off of the floor and out of the seats and organized so that they can grab them. 

They're super cheap. To get from Amazon, just a couple of bucks for like, Uh, a pair of them. And that's another way that makes road trips. Easier and more organized when it comes to keeping up with stuff in a vehicle.  

And since , we're talking about vehicles, we're going to talk about some other little storage,  things that a lot of people forget about  it's not on their mind because they don't ever really use the spaces. Now I know everyone definitely uses their glove boxes. And if you don't use your glove box, you definitely should. There's so many different things that you can put in there that could be really quick to grab such as napkins. Or, you know, catch up or something like that.  I wouldn't be so afraid to keep ketchup in my glove box. 

I could see me like squishing it all over our important documents that are in there. The important documents as far as like maps or, uh, they Central's that I keep an ours are of course, you know, insurance information, things like that, but there's always a package of wet wipes and a box of band-aids in hard glove box. Yeah, like a little small first aid stuff  and you automatically know where it is. 

So it's always something that's really convenient to get to. So definitely utilize your glove box. Now a lot of  cars have, a center console. And we use the center console mainly for electronics. That's why our  charging blocks are.  What the card, the car charger. And things. Yeah. Yeah. So all of our electronics are kept there now.  We are going to be talking about how to travel safe in another episode. 

So make sure that you listen to that. Whenever we talk about how to keep the documents and the electronics safe while you're traveling. But also the door. , usually on every door, there's some type of storage little pocket that's there. And we use those for kind of our personal stuff of, you know, we want our favorite drinks or we have certain snacks that we want to bring, or that's where a book that we might be reading while we're traveling is there. 

And so  you're able to use those for other things. And because we can't put the little pockets for us in front, like the kids can have on the back of our chairs, we don't have anything. They have a lot of stores back there, but it's really confined in the front. , that's where like, whenever we make those snack stops, like that's where our snacks goes. 

Like I get sunflower seeds a lot because they help me stay awake. Number one, because I'm always doing something. And so my package of sunflower seeds goes on my side inside that pocket. I almost always have tissues in my pocket because either myself or one of the kids always need tissues. Yeah. Or, you know, we stopped. We're carrying water with us. 

Then those are also places that we can put them. So they're not rolling everywhere. So definitely utilize those. Underneath seats. Now there are some models. , that. They don't have any underneath seat space, but if you have a vehicle that has underneath seat space, Definitely utilize that whenever you're traveling. Because, I mean, blankets can fit underneath there. Pillows can fit underneath there.  First aid kits. 

, things for the vehicle itself, like jumper cables or something can all fit there. So definitely use underneath the seats whenever you can. I know on our first trip, go into Disney world. Whenever we were in our van and we at how many people did we have with us? So seven of us. So we had all the seats were taken and , we were totally packed out. 

And of course we took seven people's luggage in a van. And we utilize the heck out of underneath the seats actually. I actually have a picture of us on the way back from Disney world, because of course we came back with even more stuff. , They were going to get to that later. A picture of me and Jessica and Ariel on the backseat. 

And we are surrounded by things like it's just all over us. There's stuff all on the back and all over our seats in our laps. And. That's an 18 hour drive. It is, and that was a crazy fun, horrible trip. All at the same time. 

  Other places that I found after that vacation was in most vehicles, especially if you have an SUV or A crossover. You're going to have little pockets on the side, in the very, very back that you can use  most of the time, there's nothing in those. 

Those are just there. They might have like a cargo mat or something inside there. I've learned to put like extra tools or that's where our emergency things goes.  Matter of fact, even in our car right now, it's full of just different stuff. Um, I have no clue what's in those that's all Jeremy. He whips out a tool and like, oh, where'd that come from? 

Oh, and that side-pocket, I didn't even know there were pockets over there. I leave all that up to Jeremy. And , especially in the new, , Vehicles there's USB ports back there. So, I mean, you can charge some stuff while you're traveling  this is a tip for anyone who plans for the worst case scenarios. 

Like, oh my goodness, the car is going to break down and we're going to have, you know, belts that go out and I want to keep all my tools. I don't want to keep as much as possible. In SUV's, especially in SUV's and even in cars. The tire is usually in the trunk. It's in the backside.  Or that's where they're keeping the Jack.  And all the stuff to change out a tire. 

If you open that up, there is so much space in there that you can fit all sorts of really nice items in there. 

 And whenever we start talking about packing, we're going to get into the suitcases. 

 So the first thing I want to talk about is roll your clothes. 

It may not seem like it's it's a lot, or sometimes people are like, I don't know how to roll my clothes. 

There are tons of tutorials on YouTube that will. Teach you how to do this. And I didn't know this until the military. Yeah. And Jeremy, um, you know, I've seen him roll his clothes and usually like, they'd roll those shirts a certain way and their pants a certain way, but I've even went beyond that. 

 For myself and the baby. I put our outfits together and then I roll the outfits together in one big roll. Kind of like how I roll my towels. But I do that with my outfits and with his outfits. And then all I have to do is grab out that roll for that day. And by rolling your clothes, instead of folding them, you actually have way less wrinkles increases in your clothes as well.   I would definitely say roll your clothes and stuff. You can do. There's so many different ways. Like you can roll them individually. You can do like Misty does and roll them all together. But even taking a step further, , especially if you have smaller kids, whenever every single time that we've gone to Disney world, we've done it this way. And even with Jasper. Sometimes we do it this way as well, is it depends on how long we're going to be gone. 

 We will put them into a Ziploc bag. Yeah. So that's one of the little tips I learned on a mom's forum somewhere on the internet many, many years ago. Is you get a gallon sized Ziploc bag, you put their entire outfit other than shoes in that bag for that day. And then you mark down what day it is that they're supposed to wear, especially, um, do this for our,  long two and three week trips. 

Like Jeremy said, For Disney world, because I w we were wearing. Matching themed colors and clothes each day for the whole family. And so it was easy for the kids. If I had it all planned out for them just to go and see. What day, what was written on their bag and to pull it out and everything they needed other than their shoes was in that bag. 

And then  you can push out the air and make them as flat as possible and save a ton of space that way you can. .  Although you're able to pack more things. You actually are going to lose space on the way back, because you're going to have dirty clothes. Yeah. 

Speaking of dirty clothes, I am the worst about remembering to bring a dirty clothes bag, but luckily Jeremy always remembers  so even if none of us remember it. We're just going to put them all in Jeremy's bag. Like, oh, here's your bag? So that's definitely a thing from the military. 

We have our own little dirty clothes bag that we always take, , and Jeremy's still has that same bag. I have both of them from his military days. That's what he takes with him. And it, it just wraps up real nicely. So we just, we just rely on him. We're like, oh, none of us brought anything. 

Okay, dad, where's your bag. , 

and we do that because whenever you wear clothes, you don't want to fold dirty clothes all over again. 

You don't want to roll them up. And so. I just don't want them next to my clean clothes. Yes. And so the dirty clothes are going to take up more space than your clean clothes are, unless you do laundry, which is always an option  but if you're not going to do laundry on vacation, you have to utilize every single space inside your bag. And that means putting things inside of normal items that you have never put before. Number one. And the biggest space consumer of. All of your things. Is going to be your shoes.  Yes. 

And I used to be really bad about that. Like having to bring a pair of shoes for every outfit. And I have challenged myself and I, and I feel like I've done so good. Our last several trips, you know, we're taking a trip every month. And I feel like I've done so good. I have limited myself to the pair that I'm wearing. And one extra pair of shoes that I take with me. 

And every outfit has to. Go with one of those two pair of shoes, because shoes take up so much space, so much space, but even if you're one of those people that you have to have shoes for every single occasion or per every single outfit.  If you have the space for it, then absolutely. Rock on. But you can use that space that the shoes take up in other ways. So, especially for guys, you know, we have tennis shoes and we have dress shoes. 

We might have boots depending on what the event is going to be, but tennis shoes and dresses are usually the way that we're going to go. And we can take our dress socks. We can take our ties, we can take our belts, we can take our undergarments and we can roll those up and stuff them into the shoe. And now we've actually have used  the. Shew as a space, saving device. Yeah. One of my shoes. 

Couldn't do that. No. Although for women, especially whenever you get into high heels, you, you lose a lot of that  and my flats and my sandals , that's what I wear. That's pretty much all I wear. And so what you can do with those, especially whenever you look at flats and sandals is you can put those inside of a Ziploc bag.  And then do your best to kind of put some other items such as your toiletry items. Into those bags as well. And you zip them off? 

. I prefer to have, I have one little like cosmetic bag that I use and it's fairly small. That all of my toiletries go in. If it doesn't fit in there, it's not going because I used to be really bad about wanting to take you, you know, you don't know what mood you're going to be on vacation as far as like clothes and shoes and even body sprays and perfumes. 

And. And so I've gotten to where I have limited myself to absolutely the basic and the bare necessities. Toothbrush toothpaste, deodorant, contact solutions, things like that. Um, majority of the places now, hotels, Airbnbs, they provide shampoos and conditioners. It may not be exactly what you want, but they have them. 

And if not, then I do take, you know, shampoos and conditioners. But I. I've limited myself to whatever . Fits into this teeny tiny cosmetic bag. And if something happens and I just absolutely need something else and I can just run to the dollar store or something and get it. But it's another way that I have. Lessened the amount of things that I take when we travel and I'm able to, I can go on a three-day trip and put. All of my things and all of baby's things in one.  Like smallish size duffel bag. 

And that's a major thing, especially toiletries. 

And I'm not picking on you, women at all, but guys are a little bit simpler. I mean, we're going to be taking our shaving things. We're going to be taking deodorant, maybe some cologne. And if we need  Uh, or contacts we'll be taking those M. We're pretty much. I mean, we might take a, like a little bodywash. I mean, but most of the time, wherever you're going, like a hotel or an Airbnb there, they're providing usually something for you. It was women. You know, hair stuff. 

And for those that wear makeup, you have all kinds of cosmetics. I don't wear makeup. So that's another fortunate way I'm able to save space. But then you have all the bath products and it just, it can get. Very extensive.  What you've always used would sometimes.  And there's nothing wrong with this. But sometimes it's something that you need. 

It's something that, you know, my hair starts going into tangles and all sorts of different stuff. If I don't use a certain type of shampoo or if I don't have a certain conditioner, which is totally good. Except don't take the whole bottle. You're not going to use the whole bottle there. So don't take the whole bottle, . If you're not going to be gone for very long, um, places like Amazon Teemu Walmart, , instead of buying travel size, like shampoo and travel size body wash, which I am totally against. Because I think they're ridiculously expensive. 

They are pretty expensive and absolutely. A lot of times , it's only good for like one washing.  Yeah, because the amount that they put in there with the space, you have to bring several, like it's good for one shower, one shampoo, maybe two, if you're lucky. So I would totally do what Misty's about to say. 

So they have these empty containers that you can get. Again, I'll put a link down in the show notes of what I purchased. I purchased one for my hospital bag. Um, whenever I was having Jasper in the hospital and it's been, it's a great thing. I've used it on two trips since then as well. But, , you can put your shampoos, conditioners, body washes. 

I mean,  all kinds of things into these if you, like Jeremy said, if you have to have very specific things or you're just really picky or something, and you don't want to take a whole shampoo bottle or a whole conditioner bottle, because.  To be honest, more often than not, when I take the big bottles, they get squished and they pop out everywhere. 

And even if you have them in a bag you've just wasted all of that. It's now in a Ziploc bag or it's all over your clothes. If you didn't think to put it inside of a Ziploc bag. But if you keep everything, , into one, you know, waterproof, cosmetic bag, which I do highly recommend, that's what I use. 

And then again, if you have to have the shampoos, put them into these reusable containers that you can take every time you're traveling. And I will link that.     I've just, decided I'm on vacation. I don't need. All the luxury things that I have at home body sprays or whatever, 

I'm clean. I have clean teeth, I have clean hair, I'm wearing deodorant and I smell good. And that's all that matters. I don't need all the primping and the prepping. Um, I just, whatever fits in my little bag. So if, if it's a liquid and it doesn't fit in my bag, I'm just not going to take it because I am very scared of it coming open because it has happened. Many times in the past. Another thing that you definitely don't need to forget besides toiletries, because I believe that's number one. 

Number two is, is closed. It's not really that important. You can always go buy some extra clothes and you'll be fine. Yeah. Or, or like we said, you know, rewash the same ones.  Um, but medication, we have been blessed and fortunate so far as of right now that we don't have anything medication that we must take. 

Now, , there is medication that we take because we go into certain regions or certain areas that we need that medication. And we just talked about all of that on. Um, our podcast episode, getting sick while on vacation, like what to do with all of that. So if you haven't listened to that highly recommend going and listening to that. 

Yes. Check that out for sure. It will definitely help you. But whenever you're thinking about taking medication with you.  , there's day pill, containers that you can take. There's tons of traveling. Hard case pill, containers that you can take to kind of help you out.  But if you can minimize that bottle in any way, shape or form. I highly suggest that you do that. , I have family members that have traveled for, you know, a week and a half, two weeks. And they just put their pills into those weekly containers. 

And they're usually pretty slim and small. They all come in different shapes and different forms. And so I would definitely suggest doing that, but do not forget your medication, which brings me to my next thing. If you have to make a list, make a list Misty, is it advocate no Lister. I hate making lists because I forget to put things on the list. When I'm making the list. 

And then I'm very specific about, I have to follow this list and because I forgot to put something on the list and to begin with. It just doesn't get done.  

I work better on the fly.  Even like for groceries,  I have it in my head. Of what I want to do for each day. But if I make a list, I know I'm, I'm not in the zone. Like I'm not there at the grocery store. And so I know I'm going to forget something on that list and it happens every single time. 

That's why I refuse to make lists. Yes. So Misty doesn't really do list that. Well, I do list pretty well. And so what we normally do whenever it, especially whenever Misty goes into the planning part is she plans out. She writes down the events that we're going to do, and I will go back to that list of going, okay, what are we doing on a Tuesday? 

And okay, well, we're, we're going to be walking on the beach. Okay. I need to make sure that I have these items for me to walk on the beach.  Or if we're going zip lining, or if we're doing. You know, we're going to Carlsbad. Then I need to make sure that I have certain items six specifically for that day. Which I will usually use for the rest of the trip , at another time in another location. But it helps me to remember the important things that we need. 

And so if you need to make a list about the things that you do not use every day, The definitely make that list. So you don't forget something that could be very important. And I'm kind of a.  

Uh, more, I don't even know the right expression to use.  Carefree, I guess when it comes to stuff like that, because to me, there are very few items that like, are absolutely essential that you pack, which Jeremy is probably going to get on to me. Cause I think I'm going out of order, but like electronic things like tar Jers, um, I use cell phones, you know? Camera's tripods to me, those are like, essentially, because you don't want to have to buy those things while you're out there. 

Very expensive, very expensive to replace. But things like toothpaste, toothbrushes. Deodorant.  Socks, even underwear. You can go to any dollar store anywhere at America and get them for very, very cheap. And then it still be able to use it when you get home as well. And so. To me pretty much anything. Is non-essential. Like absolutely important except for electronics. 

I guess that's another reason why I don't make a list. Cause I'm like, oh, it's fine. If we forget something, it's fine. Except for the electronics. And we do go down the list for electronics. It may not be written out, but before we leave the house, we definitely go through that list. So we definitely do, because. Like Missy said, , that's the most expensive things. 

Whenever you go. I mean, laptops, iPads, phones.  None of those are cheap, but you can go get an entire outfit for like 40 bucks. . Yeah. Or you can wash the one you have on for like $3. Yeah.  Are kids who take their iPads and their, um, Uh, Nintendo switches. 

Wait, is that the, yeah.  

And they take things like that. , because we take long road trips , and then of course, when we're in our hotel at night, though, That's what they'll be on or whatever, but, um, those are expensive items. Those are, and yes, you can go get a block and you can go get a cord at any. You know, any convenience store.  And sometimes they'll just find a new one for her new phone. 

And she spent 50 bucks for a charger and a blog. 50 bucks. Yes. So that's a whole mill while you're traveling for a family of five, we definitely go down the list before we leave. We're like, okay, who brought what electronics? Because I'm usually taking a phone and my iPad Misty's taken her phone depending on what's going to be taking place and where we're going. 

We might take the laptop. Yeah. If we're going to be gone for a while, we have work to do.  The podcast to patriarch and we have a lot of content, then I will have to take the laptop to work on. Ariel is going to take her phone and iPad. Um, Justin's going to take his phone and probably the switch. That's probably the most common electronic that he takes. 

And then of course we all have headphones, whether it's Bluetooth or  they're wired in noise canceling. I mean, if any of y'all have looked at some really good noise, canceling headphones.  They're expensive. They're expensive. And so.  Are they as expensive as going and getting another pair of shoes or something? 

Probably not. No, because you can go to the dollar store and get a pair of tennis shoes for like 10 bucks. Yes. And so it's flip-flops for $2. And I know that we've spent a lot of time on electronics, but electronics and the world that we live in is almost a necessity. And whenever you forget something, I mean, it was bad enough whenever Ariel forgot a stuffed animal.  It took us. Uh, way too much money to get that $5 stuffed animal shipped to us.  

I'd rather do that. That have to buy a new apple.  And so go through the checklist  make sure that. Your devices are safe and we will talk about that in another episode. 

And so that also kind of brings up the entertainment, kind of some of the extra stuff. If you don't take electronics, but you want to take a book or taking books or you want to take game boards or something. Yeah. I'm actually having a really hard time because. We are about to leave for a week long beach vacation. And I am trying to decide if I want to take physical books or if I'm just going to read them on my Kindle app. Because. I don't know, there's something about having a physical book in your hand while you're sitting on a beach, but then again, that takes up more space. 

So it does take. Time to decide. So there's, there's so many different ways of consolidating and doing as much as possible, but if you're a fast reader and  you're sitting on the beach and you know, you're about to fly through this book because , you have plenty of time to do it.  And you you're going to need a second book. 

Oh, I'm going to need like four or five books. If I take physical books. Then plan for that. If you're a slow reader like myself and it takes you almost a year to get through the Hobbit. Then, you know, you only need one book. No matter how long or how much time you have to read, it's only going to be one book. Oh man. 

I'm I am addicted to books. I can read like a book in a day. It's bad. So Justin's another one. That's a fast reader for sure. So he likes his physical books. He does not like reading them on an app or anything. He has to have a physical book and he's talking about bringing some books for our beach vacation too. 

So we may have. Um, a tote bag of just books for our beach vacation.  Or if you're taking some type of board game or cards, you know, we're probably take UNO at some point in time for aerial so we can play or, you know, me and Justin , like to play chess  and so you just have to keep that in mind with the space that you have. 

Can you take the extra entertainment stuff   But. Try not to over-pack do not. And this is, this is probably our biggest thing that we've kind of as.  My biggest tip for sure. Do not pack what ifs. Yeah. Overpacking is not only stressful, but it, it takes up so much space and 90% of the time, you're not going to use those. 

What ifs. Yeah. I mean, there was times where.  We would pack items, especially like going camping. It was like, oh, well, what if this happens? What if that happens? , you want to pack all the what ifs, but. Overpacking is the number one.  Space killer on vacation. And whenever we went to Disney world, we over-pack. Oh, yeah. Especially our first time. Because we didn't know what to expect, no idea what to expect. 

And so we expected the worst. And we packed for the worst. I think, especially when people have small children, they overpack and they bring everything, they bring everything, they bring toys, , they bring everything. And we have gotten away from that. We have learned. I'm having several children now and starting over again with a one-year-old. 

We have learned that they don't need all of that.  We've talked about being an Airbnb and not taking anything because those Airbnbs provided things like strollers and high chairs and things like that. We don't take a bunch of toys. He has a tiny little bag. , Our one-year-old when we travel now and it may or may not have.  Toys in it, because we've learned that when you take their toys on vacation, they don't want to play with them.  Yeah. Other stuff. Like we take them and we're like, this will keep him occupied in the hotel. 

No, no, it doesn't, you know, it keeps him occupied in the hotel. The cabinet doors, the cabinet drawers, the chairs climbing on and off the bed. Because it's a new space. Exploring.  It's whatever he can find that he's never got to play with before. That's what he's going to play with. Yeah. So we have learned to just not take toys on vacation also because our kids tend to have their own money or we set small budgets for them to buy things while we're on vacation. A lot of times, um, even when they were smaller, they bought toys while we were on vacation and that became their new favorite thing. 

And so all the things we brought were not played with. So that is something else we've learned. If you go to a toy store, which we still do, or a bookstore or something like that, we tend to buy something there, something small, and then that's all they want. Like we're about to go to the beach. And when we get there, I plan on buying our one-year-old  pills and shovels. It may or may not come home with us. We'll go to the dollar store, spend a few bucks and let him have it. 

And then it may end up in the trash or given away or something. And that's pretty much all he's going to have while we're there. Cause I know he's not going to want anything else. So overpacking.  It's just our packing for all the what ifs. It's it's really.  Unnecessary majority of the time and on those rare occasions where those, what has happened. Just go to the store and get what you need. 

Definitely don't Over pack because of some other stuff that Misty just said,  You're going to come back. With more things. Than what you left with. Always always, there's going to be some situations that's going to happen. Number one. You're going to have dirty clothes, which is going to take up. Space. 'cause, you're not gonna be able to pack them like you did. 

Whenever you took your clothes with you. 

You're probably going to purchase something while you're on vacation. You're going to see something that's going to be a great gift for a family member. You're going to see something thatis unique in that you want. So.  Whenever you're packing.  Leave a little bit of space. Because you're going to need that extra space on the way home.  So.  That concludes our tips and tricks. 

Always remember the space that you have.  

So join us next week  as we talk about unique American experiences.