ROAD TRIP: PACKING CLOTHES + THE VEHICLE

Welcome to our Road Trip Series! If you are just joining, start here or scroll down for links to all the Road Trip Series posts.

This situation might have scared me the most. I am a notorious over-packer. I mean, what if the weather changes? What if we need to go to and posh restaurant AND to a party? I definitely need two dresses. Maybe three, just in case I’m not feeling one of them. Seriously. I’m working on it. I knew I’d need to be really organized in this area otherwise the clothes situation was going to be a nightmare. If you are just joining in, our road trip consisted of four weeks with camping in below freezing weather, beach-going with heat indices of over 100 and, what felt like, everything in between. There was bound to be a lot of clothes.

The first thing I did was order some giant duffels. 80-liter giant to be exact and we ordered two. We already own a 60-liter from REI so we figured that would cover us for our trip. My ten-year-old actually climbed inside of one of the 80-liter bags, zipped it up and then rolled around the room in it. And because #monkeysee, so did the 8 and 4 year olds. They were huge. I ordered in two different colors so we could easily discern which bag we needed for what. We already own Ebags packing cubes (and love them!) and these were KEY in keeping organized.

PACKING CLOTHES

I think it’s easiest to show in photos how we organized these bags.

Here’s how we organized the bags:

Green Gonex: Yellowstone

Orange REI: Custer State Park

Blue Gonex: Midwest (3 weeks of staying with family and friends and adventuring more locally)

Weekender bag: Hotel stays and laundry supplies. We knew we’d grab this and the toiletry bags for hotel stays. It also housed all our laundry supplies. I grabbed laundry soap pods (because it seemed easier) and a small container of dryer sheets to take with us.

Beach Bag (not pictured): All swimwear, goggles, floaties, etc.

In each of the bags were packing cubes for each person. This way we weren’t all digging in the same bag for clothes. The boys kept their packing cubes at the end of their sleeping bags or hotel bed so they could find them right away in the morning.

This is the process that works best for me when packing for long trips. If at all possible, I prefer to pack all the clothes in the same “session” otherwise I second-guess if I packed something. The process below helps me be able to visually scan all the clothes to make sure everyone has what they need before it gets packed.

Wait until the last minute to do all the laundry. Not because I’m a procrastinator (though I can be), but because then I just fold everything and organize it for each person as I go. This seems more efficient than grabbing everything out of different rooms, but do what works best for you.
Figure out what kind of outfits (warm weather, shorts, etc.) and how many of each you need. Look ahead at what the weather will be for each stop and make sure you know what you need each day and night.
After everyone’s clothes are folded, start making outfits. For the boys I just do a top, bottom, undies, and socks. We always have hoodies and rain jackets with us, either in the car or in backpacks so I don’t worry about those.
Check to see who is missing what (Does Corbin need another pair of socks? Is Wesley missing a jammie top?). Grab a laundry basket and go grab just those items from their rooms.
Load the packing cubes with the outfits for each trip. For us this meant we had cubes for each of us at Yellowstone and Custer and then we had three nights worth of hotel clothes in our hotel bag.
Put the packing cubes in the corresponding duffel.

Because it was freezing in Yellowstone, we knew we’d only use those clothes during that stop (except undies and socks). This duffel stayed in the trunk and the other two duffels went into the Thule for the first leg of our trip. We tried to pack what we would need in Yellowstone in the trunk and the outside edges of the Thule. We continued to rotate through our clothes and supplies like this throughout the first few legs of the trip. Once we got to the Midwest, where we were staying for several weeks, the camping stuff stayed in the Thule (or our friends’ garage).

LAUNDRY

I bought TidePods and a box of dryer sheets since I wasn’t going to bring my dryer balls across the country. Our campground at Yellowstone had laundry that we used midway through our stay. We booked hotels that had laundry available for guest use so we could use our evenings, after the kiddos were in bed, to do laundry. After Yellowstone, we kept out all the undies and socks and some pajamas, but everything else went back into the Yellowstone duffel to be put in the Thule until we got back home. This worked amazingly because when we did get home, I just had to pack all those clean clothes away instead of washing them all. The undies, socks, and jammies went into bag for the Midwest. We did the same thing after Custer. Our first stay in the Midwest with family was at a cabin with laundry and we did all our laundry here. We washed sleeping bags, quilts, pillows, and anything else that could be washed. Then this all got packed away as well, since our time camping was over for this trip. It was a lot of loads of laundry that I’m thankful I didn’t have to do once we got back home.

PACKING THE CAR

Brandon and I stayed up late in the rain trying to get everything to fit in our vehicle and the Thule the night before we left. Let me tell you, squeezing the Thule shut in the rain was not awesome and our fingers were sore the next day. We kept rearranging to figure out the best set-up. The sleeping bags, quilts, pillows, and life jackets were the biggest space suck. Use any space you have! Here’s a breakdown of where we put things in our vehicle:

Glove Compartment: first aid kit, Children’s Dramamine, Every Kid in a Park pass

Center Console: wipes, cables for tablets (power cords and extension cord), car registration and proof of insurance

In front of the 2^nd row: bags of non-perishables under Wesley’s seat, my camera bag with gear, Brandon’s backpack with technology and gear, my purse

In between captain’s seats: Hudson and Wesley’s road trip buckets

In the trunk, including 2/3 of the 3^rd row laying flat: duffel for next destination, hotel bag, toiletry bags, tent, grill, cooler, water jugs, Corbin’s road trip bucket (right next to him)

In the compartment under the trunk: kitchen supply box, Lodge skillets, rain coats, hiking backpack with gear, a more substantial first aid kit, camp lantern, and a camping fun bag that had our homemade tattoos, glow sticks, foam balls, magnifying glasses, and other fun stuff for the campsite

Thule Cargo Box: All the other duffels, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, air mattress, pillows, quilts, life jackets, unicorn float, bug shelter for over the picnic table, swim bag

We didn’t pack a “car sick bag” but if we did, that would have been stored up front with us until needed. I also saw a great hack regarding garbage: Just tape a plastic shopping bag or Ziplock bag on the window or next to each child’s seat. They can toss all their garbage as they need to do so. We just had Corbin be in charge of garbage and he had a plastic bag by his seat. We’d pass it around when we were done eating lunch or snack and then back to him. We always knew where the garbage was and it was easy to grab the one bag and throw it away when we filled up with gas or stopped for potty breaks.

What are your best packing tips? I’d love to hear them!

Follow along with us to see how we planned, prepped, and what adventures we had along the way.