We spent four weeks travelling around the United States with just two suitcases for six people. Less luggage means moving more quickly through airports, greater ease when getting into Ubers or hire cars and just less ‘stuff management’ in general on your holiday.
Here are our tips:
Research the weather in advance and pack for it.
Prepare to do laundry and choose clothing accordingly.
Choose items that mix and match.
Dress for the activities you actually have planned (not for every possibility).
Pick versatile clothing items.
Make space efficient choices.
Keep it organised.
Think about how to maximise individual hand luggage.
Take steps to minimise your bag weight before plane flights.
Choose souvenirs wisely.
Here’s what we mean:
1. RESEARCH THE WEATHER IN ADVANCE AND PACK FOR IT
It’s tempting to pack multiple options for all weather types so you’re not ‘caught out’. After many holidays where we arrived home with clothes that hadn’t been worn the entire time, we changed our approach.
Check the minimum and maximum monthly temperatures for the places you are visiting at the times you’ll be there. This information is easily available via weather sites. Then, only pack for the weather you expect. For example, we were visiting a ski resort area about one week before the start of their ski season. We expected it be cold, but not snowing. We therefore left the big, puffy jackets and heavy winter woollies at home. We knew we could be caught out by an unseasonably cold day and we were prepared to buy what we needed if that happened. As it turned out (and slightly disappointingly), the predictions were correct and it didn’t snow. We were glad we weren’t lugging around lots of unnecessary clothing for a whole month on the ‘off chance’ we would need it.
2. PREPARE TO DO LAUNDRY & CHOOSE CLOTHING ACCORDINGLY
Prepare to wash every fourth or fifth day. Just make sure that laundry facilities are available in your hotel or nearby. To make this work, plan ahead and choose outfits that are easy to launder:
Things that can go in the clothes dryer. Very important! You don’t want your wardrobe shrinking over the course of the holiday!
Things that don’t need ironing. At home, I iron around 15 items per day to keep up with our family’s demand. I don’t want to be doing this on holidays!
Things that dry quickly. Mostly cotton blends rather than straight polyester – better for your skin.
Things that can be washed together. We separate colours and darks and that’s it. White socks, etc. go in with the colours. This means only two loads every wash.
We also do a bit of hand-washing when needed and take a small, portable clothesline for this purpose. It has suction caps and goes in the shower overnight. Many hotels have pull-out clotheslines over the bath or hangers in cupboards that can be used for drying clothes as well. A single person or couple could probably do their entire wash this way. For a family of six, it’s not practical, but it’s a great way to dry a jacket overnight when an emergency spot clean is needed! It’s also good for drying out swimwear so it’s not sitting in a wet pile until the next laundry day.
3. CHOOSE ITEMS THAT MIX AND MATCH
Choose tops and bottoms that can be mixed and matched to create ‘different’ outfits. Plain jeans, jeggings, leggings and shorts go well with simply patterned tops and dresses. Pick plain coloured jackets that go with lots of things. We even choose shoes carefully so they go with all our outfits. This might seem like a painful task when packing, but it will make things SO much easier once you’re on holidays. (We don’t care whether we are wearing the same clothes over and over in photos – for some people, this may be important.) Another benefit to this approach when travelling with children is that they have the freedom to choose their own outfits from the items available and all the outfits look fine!
4. DRESS FOR ACTIVITIES YOU ACTUALLY HAVE PLANNED
It’s tempting to pack for every possible activity on a trip. Instead, try to plan out a list of activities you’re LIKELY to do and then pack accordingly.
We had the full gamut of experiences in our month-long trip, from bushwalking in Yosemite to a show on Broadway. We managed with one ‘good’ outfit each (including dress shoes) and the rest of the time we wore joggers/trainers or street shoes with casual/smart casual outfits. We had sandals or flip flops/thongs for water activities and to wear around the hotel at night. By planning most of our activities ahead of time, we were able to cut down on the number of outfits we needed. Admittedly, we weren’t always the most stylish people at each event, but we were comfortable - and that was really all that mattered!
What we packed won’t work for every type of holiday. The point is, you need to plan what YOU’LL be doing and only pack for those activities.
On that note, hotel rooms have climate control, which makes sleepwear choices easy. We take one set each. We don’t take dressing gowns to wear over our pyjamas or slippers to wear around when we travel as a family. We do take these when we stay with friends and share breakfast before everyone gets dressed for the day, so it really depends on what you need for your holiday. Just make sure you really do need everything you pack.
5. PICK VERSATILE CLOTHING ITEMS
We bought clothing specifically for our trip. I know that is not possible for everyone, but here are some of the ways we kept our wardrobes versatile:
Choose items which can be dressed up or dressed down, such as dresses with leggings underneath (eg. Leggings/tights with street shoes to be casual, then just the dress but adding dress shoes to make a dinner outfit).
Layer – a casual, light, polar fleece jacket dresses outfits down so they look fine with street shoes.
Get shoes that match everything. Shoes are heavy, so it cuts down luggage weight to carry just three pairs each (active, dress and water activity shoes).
A pretty hair style with a nice accessory also makes outfits look more dressed up. This is a simple way of making certain outfits look more dressy.
6. MAKE SPACE EFFICIENT CHOICES
Roll everything (see the suggestion above about clothing choices that don’t need ironing). Take gym towels rather than packing large beach towels (if needed). Wherever possible, use small, travel versions of toiletries and share common toiletries (except toothbrushes, of course!). There are lots of travel products on the market and they really do help keep luggage volumes down.
7. KEEP IT ORGANISED
Pack into packing cubes. They make it easier keep track of everyone’s individual clothing and separate clean clothing from worn. Our family puts tags on the cubes and we use a type that has mesh sides so we can see at a glance the type of items in each cube.
We keep a specific cube containing the whole family’s swimming gear and another for rain ponchos and a couple of umbrellas. We don’t touch those cubes unless we need them. Click here to find some great packing cubes.
I create a checklist that we use to pack at home and I include a couple of copies in the suitcase so we can check our organisation at various stages during the holiday (whenever things start to feel a little disorganised).
8. THINK ABOUT HOW TO MAXIMISE INDIVIDUAL HAND LUGGAGE
Each member of the family is responsible for a small bag to take in the car or on the plane. In these bags they carry hand sanitiser, a hat, a water bottle, an activity to keep them busy and their toothbrush. The adults carry a bag with all the devices, a portable charger, medication and paperwork. We take one family backpack which is the only bag we take out on day trips. That bag holds the family’s antibacterial wipes, tissues and snacks. Most airlines allow every passenger to take one carry-on and one personal bag (handbag, etc.). We start a holiday with one carry-on bag each. This leaves us some hand luggage allowance for souvenirs during the holiday.
By the end of our month-long holiday we had two extra carry-on bags containing souvenirs, but even with eight bags, we were still under our maximum allowance of 12!
9. TAKE STEPS TO MINIMISE YOUR BAG WEIGHT BEFORE PLANE FLIGHTS
Bag weight is only an issue if you’re travelling on a form of transport where bags are weighed. If you’re doing a road trip only, you can probably skip this tip!
Between flights, it’s sensible and cost-effective to carry items you can buy more cheaply in large quantities - washing detergent, coffee, breakfast foods, fruit, snacks, etc. When it’s time to board a plane, these items have to come out. If you’re buying these items to save money, it’s important to only buy the amounts you’ll actually use between plane flights, otherwise you’ll be throwing out half-used products, which isn’t saving money at all! Either that or you’ll be paying to carry extra luggage and that’s not cost-effective. If you know you’re well under the luggage allowance, of course, it’s fine to carry these items in the suitcase as long as they meet safety guidelines.
When boarding a plane, we take books and sealed snacks out of our suitcases and transfer them to our hand luggage, which we keep as light as possible the rest of the time. Personally, when I finish a book, I just leave it in my hotel room. No need to carry that weight any longer!
The other thing to consider for flying is wearing heavy clothes to reduce the weight of your suitcase. For us, this just meant wearing trainers and our jackets on the plane (which we would have done anyway).
10. CHOOSE SOUVENIRS WISELY
Souvenirs keep the memory of a holiday alive long after you get home. We don’t like to skimp on souvenirs but we also don’t want to be paying for extra luggage allowances to get our purchases home! Having the limit of our luggage capacity means every souvenir purchase is made carefully. We look for practical souvenirs such as clothing and hats (with clothing going into our washing rotation mentioned above). I’ve heard of people packing old clothes from home and then replacing one item at a time with souvenir clothing. This could work with a large budget, but it wouldn’t work for us. Our children get one or two clothing items each and a hat or drink bottle that can be useful during the trip. Other than that, they look for things that can hang on their school bags, pictures, books or postcards. Occasionally they’ll complete an activity which results in a badge or prize. These souvenirs hold special memories and always come home. Large stuffed toys are, unfortunately, out. We do get the odd small stuffed toy if it’s really representative of somewhere we stay or if it’s a fundraiser for a good cause. Since our souvenirs are small, they usually get carried in hand luggage.
We also buy souvenirs for family and friends but again, they have to be small. The idea of souvenirs for family and friends is not about sparking a memory of the trip for them, since they weren’t there. It’s more about letting them know they were on our minds. We find it nice for our kids to think of others when souvenir shopping and we always get something for their classmates. Family and friends don’t want bulky items taking up space in their homes any more than you want them taking up space in yours. Small souvenirs are fine!
Final thoughts...
It might seem like a lot of work to plan the packing for a holiday to the level of detail mentioned above. I can understand that. The thing is, we enjoy the planning and anticipation of a holiday and we make it a family activity, so it stretches out the fun for weeks in advance. And it’s much more fun to plan activities and outfits in the weeks leading up to a holiday than it is to try to sort them out during the holiday, on a busy morning when you have to be somewhere on a deadline! A bit of prior planning can make the holiday itself that bit more enjoyable.
Happy packing!
Ps: My favourite travel shoes are versatile, comfortable, lightweight and look good. Check them out here!
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