Do you love to travel, but dread the coming home to mounds of clothing, both clean and dirty? Soon vacation season will be in full swing. Dealing with piles of dirty clothing, sorting the clean from the unused (and just washing everything because it was all mixed together) used to be a hassle for me when I returned from a trip. But after traveling for a while, I started to streamline everything before, during and after our trips, I have found some excellent packing and unpacking tips to keep things running smoothly.

• Don’t pack each child and adult separately. When packing bags, pack for days. Everybody’s Tuesday clothing is stacked together and placed in a bag; Wednesday piled in, Thursday piled in, etc. I find that I can pack less bags this way. The only exception to this rule is when packing for babies.
  

  Mickey Suitcase provided by American Tourister

• If we are driving and making several stops, we have less bags to pull out as I only pull those bags with the day’s outfits.
• Tuck a few garbage bags and several large and small Ziploc bags into your suitcases. These bags are used for dirty clothing, wet clothing, keeping things dry such as cell phones at the beach or water park, and for various other things that may come up. I also place a couple of plastic store bags for “barf bags” in the car just in case someone gets car sick.
  

• When you arrive at a hotel, empty the clothing for the next several days into the dresser and utilize the closet to hang items, place an unused garbage bag into the empty suitcase. As you take clothing off, fold the dirty clothes and place inside the garbage bag. When the bag is full, zip the suitcase, and you are ready to begin the next suitcase/garbage bag combo.

Garbage Bag in empty suitcase

• Since I always pack extras with children, I usually have one bag of completely clean clothing. I rarely do laundry while on vacation unless we have accidents/messes/sickness that needs to be taken care of before we arrive home. This leaves more time for vacation fun.
• When arriving home, open the suitcases, take the garbage bags to the laundry room and begin the process of washing, drying, folding and putting away.
  

  Full garbage bag ready for laundry room!

• All clean clothing can be returned to your drawers. If you have been to the beach or camping, you may want to wash even the clean clothes as sometimes they develop a smell.
• When driving, I have been known to pack straight into laundry baskets. It is a little unconventional, but my children know exactly where to put their dirty clothes in the hotel room. I still pack baskets with clothing by day. Plastic totes can also be used – and they stack better in the car!

Next Week I will bring you some tips to keeping things Tidy in the Kitchen!

Disclosure: I received the Mickey Mouse suitcase from American Tourister as part of the Disney Social Media Moms Conference. All opinions expressed are my own, and I was not compensated for this post.

Last Weeks Tidy Tuesday – Keeping it Tidy with Beach Towels
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