Road Trip Planning~Part 2

Going to share how we manage clothes for 5 of us and all those bathroom things!

First I want to put it out there that I am a worry wart, I over pack and I don't see that changing :)

Because we were going to be gone for an extended period of time and not just a few days I REALLY packed everything I thought we might need. Kids prone to pink eye and asthma and allergies galore.
I tried to make sure we didn't have to haul everything in to every hotel, and that we wouldn't have to move stuff around we didn't need.

So I made 2 piles of bathroom stuff. Stuff we would probably not need (hopefully) and then a pile of stuff we might/for sure need.  Things like shampoo, toothbrushes and sunscreen in the must take in everyday bag. Kids Nebulizer, pink eye drops, allergy meds and ever reducers in the I HOPE not bag.

I also had a mini version of requirements that had to be accessible without stopping (in my purse)
~Kids tylenol
~Adult tylenol
~Anti Nausea
~eye drops
~inhalers

We were able to stuff the bag we weren't likely to get into under a seat, no one had to mess with it the entire trip! YAY, and it wasn't in any one's way.

Clothes
I have never packed for that long of a trip for this many people. I wasn't sure I would be able to fit 5 suitcases in our roof rack. I had started putting outfits together a couple months ago. Stuff I knew wouldn't be warn to school or used before we left. As I was packing the kids clothes I remembered a episode, or maybe a chapter in one of their books, of how the Duggar's pack. I think they were packing 1 suitcase per DAY, I can not even imagine. But the process made sense. I used their method for the kids. Fit it into 2 suitcases for the 3 of them! This helped us avoid bringing in 1 extra suitcase everyday! I packed their clothes in outfits, already put together, top to bottom and underwear. We just grabbed the outfit on top. After day 10 the 1st was empty ( we then used it for dirty clothes ) and started on the 2nd one. Ryan and I just crammed all our stuff into 1 suitcase each.

I don't see us going on any long trips again for a while but if the next one has us in a different hotel every night, we will for sure be doing it this way again!

Shoes were very limited! I only brought 2 pair! We stuffed the kids shoes under the seat in front of them, they are old enough to manage their own shoes and did an alright job with it. I don't like to pack shoes in with clothes.

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Road Trip Planning ~ Food

Planning and packing for a road trip is exhausting! We started a few months in advance. Going to share how we ended up doing things.
They are for sure not the only way, and maybe not even the best way.

I am going to share how we plan and organize
~Clothes
~Bathroom Stuff
~The Car
~Food
~Keeping Kids Occupied 

Today I am sharing our snack/meal prep and set up.
First we fully expect to eat a whole lot of sandwiches for lunches and don't anticipate eating out a whole lot. Eating out for every meal is just not in the budget!

I tried to make sure we had a good variety of non cooled snacks. Salty, sweet, crunchy etc. Then I headed to the bulk section of the store, came home and separated them into portion size bags and containers. Saved a ton compared to either buying the box and doing it that way and the individual packs are probably 4x as much!

A lot of what we plan to take can be smashed and no one wants sesame cracker crumbs! I grabbed one of these

Used the bottom drawer for utensils, napkins, plates and the canned foods we are bringing. Then I filled the top two with snacks! Should be easy to get to and the vertical space takes up less car real estate! 

Here is a list of some of the snacks we brought 

~Trail Mix
~Dried Fruits
~Nuts
~Fruit Leathers
~Granola Bars
~Somersaults (SOO good!)
~Crackers
~Yogurt Covered Peanuts
~Chocolate Pretzels
~Chex Mix

We also packed an ice chest with lunch meat, cheeses, drinks, yogurt, fruits and cut up veggies. I put everything in the gallon size bags so that nothing got wet on the inside.

We packed a basket with bread, our toaster, bagel thins and some cold cereal.
We also took advantage of the hotel breakfasts and asked the front desks for local coupons, which they had often!

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52 Weeks of Organizing~ Week 22

Pictures went well yesterday! I am glad that part is out of the way.

I did end up going through every one's clothes again, through some craft stuff and just selling a whole bunch.

The hardest part is being realistic about what we NEED!

But I can tell by the amount of stuff leaving our house I am doing better with it. We are excited to see how things change for us coming up. This week I am really just focusing on making our Road Trip Lists!

I am taking full advantage of all the articles on Pinterest for ideas. Check out my Rod Trip board HERE

My Goals for this Road Trip are

~Safety  ( of course, right?!)

~Healthy  We can't live on beef sticks and cheetos, even though the kids would be down with that.

~Fun  not just in the destinations, but along the way

~Educational I am sure the kids could have fun with their video games the whole way, but the whole point is to spend time together so that is not gonna fly! They will be allowed to watch the DVD player in the car, saving for the less straight roads, we have kids that get car sick easy.

~Stress Free   I know that is not going to happen 100% but I want to do as much as I can to make it as stress free as I can. 

That is my plan for the week, to make a whole bunch of lists! I will share them next week!

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