Packing

Posted on July 1, 2023  •  6 minutes  • 1099 words

I consider myself a humble person when it comes to most things, but packing…I will brag about my skills all day long. 2 week trip to Europe for myself and 3 kids in 2 carry-ons? With cold weather clothes and marathon outfit? No problem. Backpacking trip for the 5 of us to all fit in Dan’s backpack? With snow gear? In my sleep. But packing for a year for the family and still being able to move about…I struggled with this.

Luggage

The first, and biggest, hurdle was what luggage. Let’s start with mine: I probably thought about this too much, but I am 99% sure I’m made the best decision. I won’t make you scroll down like looking for a recipe on a food blog to find out…I went with the Eddie Bauer Traverse 32. Lighter than other ones, compresses down as needed, telescoping handle and it was on sale! I really didn’t want a hard sided large suitcase, and yes, I realized it was going to be on the larger side. But because we are renting cars in places and I didn’t want to upgrade cars just because our luggage didn’t fit, soft sided seemed like the right choice. Most places we have the equivalent of a Fiat Panda; it says 5 people and 1 bag. We’ll be fine because they mean 1 really really gigantic bag, right? All will be well; I love a challenge to make things fit…I inherited this from my mom. So, because of the trunk size restriction, I really wanted a rolling soft sided duffle. The Traverse 32, wasn’t my first purchase (the first was WAY too big), but once I started practice packing it, I was happy with it.

Organization

Next hurdle: How to stay organized. I am a packing cubes fan, but for the kids, I knew there was no way they were going to have the patience each day to get socks out of the socks bag, shirt out of the shirt bag, etc…nor put their washed clothes back in the bags. This meant sharing a big duffle was out and they each got their own suitcase and with smaller clothes, they fit pretty well in a carry on. Also, having them each have their own, there should be less confusion looking for their own clothes in the morning. Dan went with a carryon duffle. Full disclose: a larger duffle with his teaching clothes and our winter jackets/hats/gloves is being brought to us in Bulgaria when we are just 2 weeks away from Ankara by our super amazing friends. With luggage choices locked in, I moved my thinking to what do we bring?! I started with the kids, because I knew they would be easy.

Kid packing list

• +/- 8 underwear (Max got a few extra just in case)
• 8 socks
• 4 shorts
• 4 pants
• Top & bottom thermals (just in case it’s cold before we get to Ankara)
• +/-5 short sleeve shirts
• +/- 4 long sleeve shirts (this includes plaid shirts they wear a lot to require less sunblock)
• 2 swimsuits and 2 rash guards (we are planning a lot of water days)
• 1 sweatshirt
• 1 rain jacket
• 1 pair of shoes (Adidas/Nike)
• 1 pair of sandals (Keens)
• 1 sun hat
• 1 thin towel (to be used as a blanket if needed) *Winter jacket, long pjs, wool hat, gloves and sweater are in the duffle being hand delivered to Bulgaria No pjs and only 1 pair of shoes in the suitcase at any time was what I needed to get it to fit with about 15% extra space and no expanding…yet. Apart from a few nights here and there, we are planning to spend at minimum 3-5 nights in each place and most of the Airbnbs have a washer. If my calculations are right (and they should be!) we will have (1)- 7-day span without a washer in our apartment. Other than that, shouldn’t be more than 5 days.

My packing list

Actually, it’s not that different from the kids, with the added:

• Running clothes
• Cute sun hat & running hat
• Slip on shoes (ankle boots too, but those are in the Bulgaria duffle)
• 2 dresses & 1 skirt

Toiletries

The usual, see picture…and apart from a bottle or so depending on size bought, plan is it should all fit in my toiletry bag. Full disclosure: I wash my hair every 4-5 days, kids don’t use shampoo/conditioner, I packed 1 necklace and the only makeup I brought was 1 lipstick. Fitting it all together felt like a small success that freed up other space. And I do believe that we can pick up anything we need when we are traveling, so less really felt like more.

Family Community Property

• First Aid Kit: A little of everything. Basically, hoping to not have to do late night searching for a pharmacy for something that we could have easily packed. The typical Band-Aids, Tylenol, tums, allergy medicine, etc. are all included. Added a few extra that don’t make a normal outing: hydrocortisone, anti-diarrhea, melatonin. I won’t list it all. See picture if you want a more complete idea. And it all fit so nicely into my ultra marathon drop bag.

All packed up

• Lunch Bag: I find it nice to have a designated bag for snacks or for when we pack a picnic lunch. Included is a set of bamboo reusable silverware that I have had come in handy so many more times that I would have expected. No more attempting to drink not liquid yogurt and granola when I forgot to grab a spoon. And yay for the environment. I also have 2 reusable grocery bags for shopping folded up it this and laundry detergent sheets (which are amazing for travel!) and I didn’t know where else to put them.

• Electronics: Nook for reading, tablet for educational games and desperate times, 3 kids headsets, 2 old point and shoot cameras, my old iPhone for mainly books on tape.

Work Stuff

Dan did some serious research on how to make working the most comfortable for us and avoid being hunched over a laptop. I was against it a bit at first..using the set up with the laptop stand, Bluetooth keyboard and additional screen…but it’s worth it’s weight 10x over and my back greatly appreciates it.

I could get more into it, but you get the gist. So in summary…we all have one suitcase each (Dan has a bag) for clothes and a backpack each for work/school stuff, art stuff, books, etc . And doing the easy math…5 backpacks & 5 suitcases.