We are back from our last minute road trip! We made the decision on a Friday night and we left on Monday morning. Robby is pretty much traveling Monday-Friday since his promotion which has been a big transition for our family. So when he told me he was headed to Jacksonville and then Charleston and would be gone Monday-Saturday we decided to make it a family affair!
We drove from Orlando to Jacksonville on Monday morning and stayed there until Tuesday night when we drove to Charleston, and came home on Friday.
I really tried to get this post out before we left, and to give updates on the way, but that didn’t happen, and to be completely honest, I’m glad it didn’t. I spent as much time “in the moment” as I could, and didn’t worry about too much work along the way. It’s not often I get to take a road trip with my boys and spend the days in exploring new places with the little. There will be posts to follow on our time, what we did, and what we would/wouldn’t recommend, but for now this is all on preparing.
I am not a huge planner. I like to do things last minute. However, with a kid, some times that makes things a little more challenging. So while I don’t feel the need to plan months in advance, I do like to be prepared. I follow Emily Ley (almost too much), and she has some amazing tips, tricks, and checklists, for simplifying EVERYTHING! So, of course, this is where I turned to make sure I was prepared for our trip! I downloaded her packing checklist which was a great way for me to make sure I had everything we needed without going (too much) overboard.
You can download this perfect printable, and so many more here: https://www.emilyley.com/pages/printables
One weird fact about me is that I cannot pack until ALL of my laundry is done! Anyone else with me on this? I’m not really sure why, but whatever. So luckily I’ve been trying to simplify my life and one task I do to make sure my weekends are “chore free” as much as possible, is to do a complete load of laundry Monday-Thursday. This has really helped the stress of laundry piling up on the weekends to a minimum, and would suggest this to anyone trying to simplify your week. But, since this is something I try to apply to my week I only had a few small loads to do before I was ready to pack.
On my to-do list this summer is to clean house! We moved a few months ago, and even with us in a bigger space I feel like it is so easy to fall back into clutter habits. So I took this last minute week long trip to clean out and use up beauty items that are just sitting in my cabinets, and to pack up all of these half eaten bags of snacks.
My pantry and bathroom look so much better after packing! I’ve cleaned out all of the unnecessary, expired, and items I’m never going to use, and brought with me and organized all of the items that I need to use up.
We had an amazing time out and about, and it was so nice to be able to pack up and leave, and come back to a clean and organized space. I promise these tasks don’t take long, and if you just break them up, or are forced to take everything out of your cabinet to get that 1 travel size lotion bottle, clean it out as you put everything back in. It is SO worth it. I may just “reward” myself with another overnight stay somewhere once I organize something else. It really is the best motivation 😎
What are some tips and tricks for packing?
Do you have any road trip or traveling dos and don’ts with the littles?