Packing for Road Trips

It's no secret I love to travel.

(Check out my "Vacation" label)

However, flying with a family of 5 isn't cheap these days. And while we HAVE flown with all the girls, most of our trips in the last few years have been road trips. I kind really like road trips, being able to stop along the way to different places. Just hop in the van and off we go!

If we're not crashing my parents' RV trips, we stay in VRBOs. 

I've kind of gotten packing for road trips down to routine, after a few times of figuring it out. 

Here are some the ways that work for us...

For the house - 

1. Do all the laundry and dishes (and put it away)  and vacuum. - there's nothing worse than coming home to a dirty house.

2. Water the plants the morning you leave. Depending on how long you you're, you might have to have someone come water the plants.

3. Meal plan for when you get back and make your grocery list. I actually put it all in a Walmart Pick up order and schedule it for later that day, or the next morning. Last think I want to do is come home and then think about meals and go grocery shopping.

4.  Eat all the leftovers and produce - clean out that fridge! If you aren't taking it with you, then it needs to go (if it'll go bad while you're gone)

5. Turn down the AC. A lot of people have "Smart" thermostats now. So on our way back, we turn up the AC so it isn't hot when we get back. 

Ok - so now onto packing the car... 

First...Clean out the car...just so you can pack it full. lol

Since we've been taking Diesel with us on our longer road trips, we put a towel down on the "floor" so that his hair doesn't stick to the carpet floor.

I make a few things for breakfast for the road - these blueberry muffins are so good. and so full of blueberries!

I also made sausage breakfast balls

1 lb of sausage

1 cup of bisquick

2 eggs

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

bake in the oven at 375 for about 20-25 minutes

Then I also made these sausage and egg mini bagel sandwiches. Just wrap them in foil and heat up in the oven and you're good to go!  These are the breakfasts we have the morning we leave. I just heat them in the toaster oven and then we can eat them on the road when we're hungry.

I put everything in the fridge to grab the morning of for the cooler. This time, I have rotisserie chicken along with sandwich stuff for lunches on the road. I also made taco meat ahead of time so that when we get to the house, I can just heat up the meat and dinner is served. 

I have a few gallons of water for the road (for water bottle refills, drinks for Diesel and then we never know what the water is like at the house, so I like to have some for the day/night we arrive in case we need it. I also have some bags of snacks and the bread, readily available to make the lunches. 

When I pack clothes, I use these packing cubes. They are hands down a life saver when it comes to packing - keeps everything organized and you can fit SO much in these cubes. I've even gotten big thick jackets in these cubes without any problems!

For the girls...they have actually been packing their own suitcases since they were about 2 years old. I just write what they are supposed to have down on a board, and they bring them out for me to check off. Gives them ownership and responsibility but they also love packing their suitcases.

Also - get yourself one of these toppers. I was reluctant at first, but Ron got one off of FB market and said, well, at least we can sell it for what we bought it for if we don't like it. Boy, is it a game changer. This thing hold ALL of our suitcases (yep..5 suitcases) plus a few more things. So really, the ONLY thing in the car is the food and whatever the kids want to bring. 

ok - so we're off on our trip. I'll be back to show off some of the things we do!