Packing Tip for Kids

[Queen of Oakville]

I think I've posted this elsewhere on this site, and thought I woud add it here as well. I picked this tip up on a disney board .... it served us well for our Disney 2009 trip and also on our last cruise as well.

 

I have 2 kids, a 4 yo girl and a 2.5 yo boy. Both take great pleasure in picking out their clothes. My daughter is a fashionista in the making.

 

I pick out all of the kids clothes and lay them out on the bed one child at a time. We go over everything that is needed for each outfit: top, bottom, belts, socks, hairclips, jewellery etc. All of the generic stuff (ex. shoes) go into the suitcase as they will be used with more than one outfit. Other than that, an entire outfit (shorts, tshirt, headband, socks, and underwear) get rolled up together and placed in a zippy bag. The bag is labelled with a sharpie with the child's name, and if you want to be this detailed, the day the outfit is to be worn [i plan outfits for port days/sea days etc.]. The air gets taken out of the bag and the bag is sealed .... and all of the bags go into the suitcase.

 

Each morning, dressing is simple, and you don't have to search for clothes or matching outfits, or wonder where you put the headband that you wanted to match to that outfit ~ everything they need to get dressed is in one zippy bag. You also don't have to worry about hearing "but I don't like that shirt with those pants" because they've already okayed the outfit before it got packed. You can also hand over the zippy bag to your hubby [at least in my case] with total confidence that they kids will be dressed properly!

 

I even packed my own clothes for the last trip the same way. The bags also take less room in the suit case.

[youngestof9]

I got that tip as well for a WDW trip in 2007. It was the best thing I ever did! Our yearly beach vacations are in a condo with a washer & dryer, so the thought of packing was overwhelming me. Then I came across the tip and it worked out so well for us.

 

When we go on Epic in January, I will be sure to do this again. It wasn't even so much that the girls like their outfits, it's that it's all together in one place.

 

Great reminder for me! Thanks!

[Kidsx5]

What a fantastic tip! Especially with my 4 yr old daughter who already has to have a matching hair pretty for every outfit. I am going to do this!

[ehough]

Great tip! I used this for DD when we went to Florida last year and it was very helpful. And I especially liked that DH could get her dressed if necessary.

 

To take it a bit further, if we had a special outfit (like she had a personalized Mickey shirt for WDW), I'd write that on the bag. This way DH couldn't inadvertently put it on her on the wrong day, and I wouldn't have to search too hard to find a specific outfit. I also had bags for miscellaneous things- a bag of swimsuits + waterproof pants + sun hat; a bag of just-in-case clothes, etc. Completely eliminated searching around at the bottom of our suitcase (and it was extra helpful since I shared a suitcase with her- I always knew whose stuff was whose since hers was in bags!).

[karenem]

I love this idea! Somehow we always end up with a pile of mismatched clothes toward the end of the vacation; there's 1/2 a suitcase clean, but nothing to wear.

[kelbre]

Great idea! Thanks for sharing! I just might have to try that for our upcoming cruise in two weeks.

[Queen of Oakville]

ehough! that's what I do to. I'm pretty AR though!

 

With disney, I had outfits specially labelled for chef mickeys, crystal palace, tusker house etc ~ knowing in advance where our reservations where....it was easy.

 

what I did for our cruise was labelled everything Monday, Tuesday etc. knowing in advance which were port days and seas days,. For the evening clothes (and not knowing when formal nights would run, I just labelled the bags with Casual Dinner, so we pulled these as needed - for my son since he was more casual on non-formal nights. I kept my daughter's party dresses on a hanger (every night was formal night for her!) and used the the little glad snack bags for underwear, socks and hairclips, and then peirced a little hole and threaded over the hanger.

[reyesj226]

Thanks for the advice.

 

But just curious as I have never packed this way:

How do you get everything packed back in your luggage at the end since you don't have a vacuum to suck the air back out?

When we went camping recently - a mother did this with her sleeping bags, extra blankets, and pillows. This was nice because she had everything in one big bag. But when it was time to go home, they had to carry everything separately because it wouldn’t all fit in the same bag.

[Queen of Oakville]

LOL! no vaccuum needed!

 

THe goal of this method is really the organization and space-saving is just an added bonus.

 

What you do is roll-up the cloths (largest item on the outside with all the smaller items on the inside) and roll-up and place in bag. Partially zip/seal the bag and then roll up to force out all of the air and then fully zip/seal.

 

On they way back, I just put all of the clothes in the suitcase, or if I really need the space, I randomly put clothes in bags and force out the air, without any organization in mind.

[BGsMom]

I do this when my kids spend the week at my inlaws, otherwise my kids just throw non matching things on or wear play clothes as nice clothes when they go out. It makes it much easier for both my kids and my mil. I haven't thought to do it when we cruise, but that is a great idea, although I was planning on my ds's wearing nice bottoms more than once for dinner. Not sure how I would do that.

[reyesj226]

:D Sorry! I misunderstood! :D

This way makes a whole lot more sense now!

[Queen of Oakville]

I do this when my kids spend the week at my inlaws, otherwise my kids just throw non matching things on or wear play clothes as nice clothes when they go out. It makes it much easier for both my kids and my mil. I haven't thought to do it when we cruise, but that is a great idea, although I was planning on my ds's wearing nice bottoms more than once for dinner. Not sure how I would do that.

 

 

 

to re-use items ... on the bag you write "wear with blue pants" or "wear with blue pants from Tuesday night".