Spaceballs is a fantastic movie, a true classic. There’s a part where Lone Star tells Princess Vespa to pack lightly for their walk through the desert. They discover she has brought …
LONE STARR: What’s this? I said take only what you need to survive.
PRINCESS VESPA: It’s my industrial strength hair dryer. And I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT!
LONE STARR: Okay, princess. That’s it. The fairy-tale is over. Welcome to real-life. You want this hot-air machine? You carry it.
The definition of a vacation, according to dictionary.com, is a “period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday.”
Why is it, then, that I usually come home from a vacation feeling like I need a vacation from my vacation? Let’s face it: when you’re a parent, getting away with the kids is not going to magically suspend parental duties; and getting away without the kids leaves you with the stress of worrying about them while you’re away and a keen awareness of what’s piling up at home.
What makes it even worse is when the packing and unpacking become chores. I spent four straight weekends from late March through late April traveling. It seems the more into motherhood I get, the longer my suitcases, shopping bags and laundry piles remain sitting out somewhere they shouldn’t be once we’re home. Sometimes it makes me wonder if traveling is even worth it. Thus, here are some tips I’ve come up with to ease travel burdens (and I’m going to try to follow them ALL the next time I go somewhere):
1. Keep an electronic checklist of what you need to pack for each family member. I especially found this helpful when I had to travel with pacifiers, bottles, pump parts, and the like. I just keep adding and subtracting to this list every time we go somewhere.
2. If you travel often to the same place (as we do to Florida and Colorado to visit family), leave what you can there and keep an electronic, updated list of those items. Then refer to it every time you are packing so you can know for sure what you don’t have to bring.
3. Keep a dopp kit for each family member that never gets unpacked. It should have all the essential toiletries. Remember – the key word is essential.
4. Buy sample sizes of hygenic items or make your own with small plastic bottles and tubes so you don’t have to pack or unpack the big bottles. If you come back from a trip and the little shampoo bottle is running low, refill it right then. All of your liquids SHOULD fit in a quart-sized zip top plastic bag. Keep this bag packed and ready to go so all you have to do is grab it.
5. Leave the industrial strength hair dryer and other items you really can survive without at home. Now that I’m a mom, I rarely take jewelry or non-essential makeup on trips.
6. Be creative with what you take so you can mix and match four items to make six outfits – a skirt, a pair of shorts or pants, and two shirts should allow for six combinations of outfits.
7. If you can’t plan to do laundry and the weather is pretty predictable, pack one extra outfit in your carry-on and otherwise, pack exactly the number of outfits you need for each day you’re gone – and no more.
8. For short trips, choose items from your closet that will all go with the same purse and shoes.
9. Stuff socks (or bras or panties, if you dare) in your shoes to save space.
10. Inevitably, things don’t fit back into your suitcase to come home as well as they did when you left. I always pack folded clothes on the way out and then roll each item to re-pack the suitcase. Rolling your clothes makes them take up less space, making room for the items you (inevitably) bought.
11. Take extra plastic bags for dirty clothes or wet ones; when re-packing to return, I always make a “dirty clothes” suitcase filled with everyone’s dirty things (that are literally just thrown in) and a “clean” suitcase. The dirty one goes straight to the laundry room and the clean one goes straight to a bedroom (where it often sits for days on end).
If I follow all the above tips the next time I travel, I know I will be more at ease and have less stress upon return, when life goes back to “ludicrous speed.” You just gotta love that movie!
I can't even pee in peace 
Really great advice, in my opinion! I’m terrible at keeping lists electronically or on paper… but I’m not so bad at keeping them in my head, and I do keep most of our essentials packed and ready to go. I think I never lost that habit after a career that required a lot of travel and three years of living in Colorado while the rest of our families were in the Northeast!
On that note, I’m also super fast going through the security line, which tends to throw off the people who expect we are going to be slow and are ready to jump ahead of us at the first opportunity! ha! 😉 showed them to judge a book by it’s cover!
I miss you too! I wish I could at least beam myself back on Thursdays!