My best travel prep hacks for the summer!
Summer is for traveling!! Unless, of course, you’re like us and staycationing around your own city this summer. 🤪 But just in case you’re on your way to somewhere fun, I thought I’d share a few of my best prepping and packing tips for all your summer trips!
Packing:
- Keep ALL your lists in one place. I use my planner for this, because then it’s all in there with my planning stuff, and schedule, and nothing ever gets lost. 🙌🏼
- Make a packing list for each person. Everyone has slightly different needs, and this allows you to be super detailed. Details are important when it comes to packing. (Our master packing lists are inside this planning pack!)
- Pack by person, then by day. For example, I lay out a shirt, shorts, underwear, and socks for the kids for each day we are gone. I roll all those things up inside the shirt, and then instead of piles of clothes, I have complete outfits for them. That way, when it’s time to get dressed each day, I simply pull out the next tiny stack, instead of hunting around for underwear in one spot, socks in another, and shirts + shorts in another! I do the same thing for Jon’s clothes and my clothes – and for myself, I even include a little snack size Ziploc bag for my jewelry for the day.
On the road:
- Let’s talk snacks. Costco and Trader Joes are our favorites for this. We get the giant sizes of snacks like trail mix, popcorn, goldfish, veggie sticks, etc. and I take them home and split them into individual Ziploc bags, and store them in a big canvas bag for the car. This way, when we’re hungry, all we have to do is pull out a pre-packed bag! I’ll also throw in applesauce, fruit, and sliced veggies (and some individual bags of Cheez-it’s too, because they were super cheap at Costco.).
- Before we leave, I load up my phone with audiobooks from Audible (find our favorites here), and create some fun new playlists on Spotify. We’re going to be on the road for a LONG time, and it’s fun to have new things to listen to together!
- Road trip binders for the win! My favorite hack for long road trips is filling a binder for each kid with maps, word searches, road trip bingo, blank paper, lined paper and tons of pages from activity books I pick up at Costco. Instead of a bunch of workbooks and loose papers floating around the car, we’re giving each kid their own binder, and that’s that!
Leaving the House:
- I try to clean out the fridge (and we are sure to take out the trash) before we leave, so we’re not coming home to spoiled food, bugs, or anything gross.
- We make sure to turn off the air conditioning and do a happy dance about not having to pay for it for a few weeks! Woohoo!
- While I do get rid of most food, I keep a loaf of bread in the freezer, eggs in the fridge, and a few non-perishables in the pantry, so that when we come home, there’s at least the basics to eat before we have to run to the store to restock.
Summertime posts + resources you won’t want to miss:
- Where to find appropriate swimwear for your girls
- What to read this summer (new books for your TBR list!)
- How to plan an intentional summer on a limited budget
Happy summer, friends! I pray your week is full of a fantastic blend of rest and productivity. But mostly rest. With a good book. 😉
P.S. Need a few gorgeous printables to help you organize all your traveling this summer? You’ll love our Travel + Vacation Planning Pack! You’ll even find our master packing lists inside – in multiple colors, one for every member of your family! Shop the pack on sale now! >>>
Kayse Pratt serves Christian women as a writer + designer, creating home + life management resources that help those women plan their days around what matters most. She’s created the most unique planner on the market, helped over 400 women create custom home management plans, and works with hundreds of women each month inside her membership, teaching them how to plan their days around what matters most. When she’s not designing printables or writing essays, you’ll find Kayse homeschooling her kids, reading a cheesy novel with a giant cup of tea in hand, or watching an old show from the 90’s with her husband, who is her very best friend.