Anyone who knows me, knows I can not stand chaos and love to be organized. Anyone who has ever taken a road trip with kids (or even without) knows how it is close to impossible to be and stay organized on such an adventure! After years of tweaking my system, I'm pretty pleased with it at this point. Here are my three tips for staying organized (even with kids!) on long trips.
Tip #1: Ban food from the car.
I know, I sound crazy on this one, especially with little ones. But I swear, it's been a life saver for us! You sacrifice a few minutes at each gas station to let the kids get out and eat a snack, but that helps them stretch their legs anyway. There were a few days when we were all really hungry by the time we got to our destination, but the kids ate good, healthy, hearty dinners since they hadn't been snacking on junk all day, I felt a million times better than the trips where I snacked the whole way, and our car stayed crumb/candy/goopy piles of who knows what under the car seats... free. We kept the kids busy enough with games and movies, and made sure they got something to eat at stops that they didn't complain. I'd say it was a win all around.
We did allow water in the car. But I'm learning with a potty trained toddler how to effectively limit that as well. ;)
Tip #2: Organize your luggage.
I always pack according to category, putting all of the suitcases, and anything that doesn't need to be accessed in the back/trunk area, and keeping everything else in small, organized bags up front. Just like at home, I want there to be a place for everything, so we don't end up in a sea of random items all over the car by the end of the trip. In back we have kids bikes/helmets, clothes suitcases, backpacks/briefcases with Otto's school needs, strollers, etc. Up front, each child has his/her own backpack which contains their selected toys, (NOT one with lots of small pieces that can get lost) one stuffed animal and blanket each, and their water bottles. These sit next to them in the car, and I can easily gather up anything that's fallen to the floor and dump them back in the backpacks when we stop. I also had a small basket that had the following cases: A case for our DVDs, a case for our road trip CDs, and a case for all of the gift cards/coupons we thought we might use along the way, that I slid under the front console out of the way. I also had my purse, that I put Otto's wallet and chapstick in (with extras of course), along with hand sanitizer, Kleenex, wipes, a few extra diapers, my wallet, etc., a bag with all of my paper needs (my notebook with my to do lists etc, the kids quiet books for church, my budget binder (see a future post about how we are managing our money during this trip) etc.) And finally, I had another bag with all of our road trip items for the kids (cookie sheets to drive their cars on, laminated maps to mark off where we had been, a few cheap dollar store toys, flashlights for night time, sticker pages/books, notebooks for the stickers, binoculars with laminated bingo sheets to check off what they could see outside the window, etc.) Those three small bags and a basket could easily fit right by and behind the drivers seat giving me easy access without much clutter.
And my favorite part: Get a very small wastebasket that can sit right between your front seats or right behind them. I grabbed a few plastic grocery bags and stuffed them in the bottom, then used one as a liner. At the end of each day I would grab the bag and toss it, getting out a fresh liner to start over with. Our car never collected trash and it was a beautiful thing!
Tip #3: Separate short term luggage from long term luggage.
I have done this a few different ways over the years, and both have been SO effective and helpful.
If you are traveling with a family, especially with small children, and it takes several days of travel to arrive at your destination, this is a lifesaver. Instead of packing one suitcase for adult clothes, and one for kids clothes, and one for cosmetics, etc., consider dedicating one suitcase entirely for short term travel. This way, you have all of your "long term" baggage that you can leave in the car overnight, and avoid making ten trips in an out of the hotel/place you are staying each time.
Method #1: If you are going to be on the road for 4 days or less, pack one suitcase as though you were only going to be gone for those three days. (This is the method we used on this trip.) I packed the four outfits we would need, with one extra for each person (you never know when you are going to need a fresh set of clothes) including all shoes, cosmetics, pajamas, etc that we would need for those four days. (Basically, this became my cosmetic suitcase with four sets of clothes for each person, since let's be honest, you need all of your cosmetics most days. ;)) Make sure you account for any dress up clothing or other occasion clothing you'll need along the way. (Otto and I were attending a wedding, and we were planning on attending church on Sunday, which means I had to also pack Sunday dress and shoes for each person.) You also have to include enough diapers/wipes if you have small children and aren't carrying a diaper bag like me, because I hate having one more thing to carry everywhere.
When we unloaded each night, we only had to take one suitcase in, and any other valuables we didn't want left in the car. It was beautiful.
We also took a plastic garbage sack with us to put all dirty laundry in each day. You can easily tie it up so it doesn't make your car smell like dirty laundry, but you keep it nicely separated from your clean clothes, and don't have to haul the dirty laundry in with you each night as well. It also makes it super easy to do your laundry once you reach your destination, because it's all in one place.
Make sure when packing the car, you put this suitcase on the very top/front so that it is easy to pull in and out at each stop!
Method #2: If you are going to be on the road for more that 4 days before reaching your destination, this method (while taking a lot of pre-planning to pull off) works beautifully. I used this method when we took a week to travel from AZ to WA (where we would stay for several weeks) two summers ago, and I loved it.
You'll need a large suitcase for this. (And possibly some mad suitcase stomping skills- yes, I have been known to jump on my suitcases to get them to close- Organization is more important than taking care of my things, obviously.) We were going to be on the road for seven nights, which meant we would need seven days worth of new clothes. I took 7 plastic bags, and selected everything we would need for each person for each day. This included: one change of clothes (including underwear and pajamas) for each member of the family. Any hair accessories (Alayna wore bows at the time because she was bald) to match outfits, the shoes we would need with that outfit (I organized the outfits so that we could wear one pair of shoes with the first several outfits, then switch to a new pair of shoes for the next several, so we wouldn't have to worry about swapping shoes back and forth), socks if needed, diapers, etc. I did NOT include cosmetics- in this case, we had a smaller suitcase with all cosmetics in it.
Each night, we would open the trunk, where this suitcase and our cosmetic suitcase were at the front. The cosmetic suitcase went with us, and the other suitcase was opened, and the correct plastic bag was taken out. (I had them labeled according to day, since I had also planned each day's outfits according to predicted weather (shorts and flip flops in LA, sweatshirts and jeans and tennis shoes on the Oregon coast.) We took the plastic bags with our change of clothes and pajamas in with us for the night, and then in the morning, all of the dirty laundry went back into that plastic bag, and it was tied up and put back into the large suitcase. (Again, it kept us from mixing dirty laundry with clean, and made doing laundry once we reached our destination very easy!)
It definitely took some planning in advance, but it was so easy once we were on the road and it kept me sane after a week of traveling! I don't remember if I did this or not, but it would also be helpful to have a separate bag (if there was room) with extra clothes/underwear/socks/sweatshirts just in case you needed extras. (Because I was planning one outfit for each day, I didn't do the extras with this one.)
So there it is- my top tips for staying sane while living out of your car. ;) Happy traveling!
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