how does one pack light...

clayswife

...for a week away, over Christmas, with a toddler and a newborn?

I'm generally a minimalist, but I suck at packing light!!

DH is leaving 4 days earlier than we are, so I'm going to send as much as I can home with him, but I still feel like I have way too many bags and we may not get everything in the vehicle with our kids and the dog taking up the back of the vehicle... I would like to only check one bag on our flight- yeah right- it's looking like I'll have at least 2 and I haven't even thought about Boxing Day shopping (AW- I'm down 25lbs from pre-preg and desparately need some new clothes).

Ugh.  I think I'm going to have to re-re-pack again or rent a trailer lol

danjou21

Let me know if you figure it out!  I'm getting ready to start packing for our week away...

SWBs Wifey

We are getting EVERYTHING for our 7 days into a medium suitcase and a rolling carry on.  And that's for all three of us. I have ONE outfit for DS each day and a pair of PJs for  him for every 2 days.  For me, I'm only taking 2 pairs of pants (one which will be worn) and 2 pairs of shoes (one that will be worn).  DH is only taking two pairs of pants too... he has a pair of shorts in the stack, but I'm taking them out. It will be in the 30s and 40s... he doesn't need shorts no matter how badly he thinks he will!

We're driving the whole way so we'll have some smaller bags with gifts, food, toys, etc, but all of our clothes fit into our suitcases... I would have packed thicker sweaters if we had our bigger suitcase, but it was almost totally destroyed when we went to Hawaii last year, so we sold it at the yard sale for $5... I was surprised... We expected to GoodWill it.

clayswife

I have clothes for 4 people in a carry-on and med suitcase. It's all the extras that are adding up: PNP, monitor, diapers, breastpump, bottles, gifts, dogfood, etc etc

proudarmywife08

clayswife:

I have clothes for 4 people in a carry-on and med suitcase. It's all the extras that are adding up: PNP, monitor, diapers, breastpump, bottles, gifts, dogfood, etc etc

Can you buy the dogfood and diapers (and anything else like it) when you get there instead of toting it along? And do you need a monitor? I've often wanted to bring mine but only really needed it once. 

Mystery2B

clayswife:

I have clothes for 4 people in a carry-on and med suitcase. It's all the extras that are adding up: PNP, monitor, diapers, breastpump, bottles, gifts, dogfood, etc etc

I've done it similar to SWB - really minimal clothes for everyone (when we go to see family I know I can wash at least once), and I've done without some items that we have at home. I had my mom buy a travel crib/PNP at a consignment store (actually one of her friends went and got it for me) so it would be there when we came, I skipped the monitor, only brought like two - 2 ounce bottles and some BM storage bags, bought diapers on the other end if using disposables (order online if you want to). And after C was maybe 5 months I started skipping the breastpump and bottles...

Good luck!