Packing for Costa Rica

So we're headed to Costa Rica in a few days.  I decided to take my mom's advice and start packing early.  No packing the night before and pulling an all nighter.  So, on Saturday  night, I started by making a big list.  The list is always the hardest, but if done right, I'm not scrambling and worrying about forgetting stuff.

Then I started piling stuff on the bed.  The most time-consuming part of packing is clothing.  I blogged before about packing for trips and I'm using my "pack by day" method again.  Here's the trick.  I figure out what we are doing each day, then pick outfits for me, Maki and CJ for each day.  These outfits include everything we need: underwear, socks, shirt, pants, socks.  The pile for the day goes into the suitcase as a pile.  I'm even considering putting post-it notes on the piles so that Maki can figure out who wears what.  :-)

This method is fabulous because it means you are only pulling out what you need, no fishing through piles of t-shirts, pants, socks, etc. and pulling everything out of the suitcase.

Now, of course it might rain and we need a second change of clothes. Or plans change.  Or someone gets sick and needs to change.  In this case, I have extra clothing in another suitcase; I am packing 3 sets of extra clothing for each of us, more for CJ.  The second suitcase also includes our books, CJ's toys, electronic plugs, etc.  This suitcase gets unpacked and re-packed more often.  I love this method.  It's time-consuming but I do it for every trip now and it keeps me sane.

I have a new method for packing for a trip

Wow, packing for a trip doesn't normally make for the most exciting of topics, but I'm so thrilled with my new packing technique, I just had to write about it.

Ever since I got married and now that we have CJ, I pack for the entire family when we go on trips. In the past, I would group all the like items together and put them in the suitcase. So, all of Maki's shirts would go in together, same with my shirts, CJ's clothes, etc. During the course of a trip, I would dig through the entire suitcase or suitcases to put together an outfit for any of us, on any given day.

For the Florida trip, I tried something different. I put together outfits for every day, for every member of the family. Then I would pack each day's clothes together in the suitcase. In essence, I created little piles for each day and only that pile would come out of the suitcase when we got dressed in the morning. This method worked like an absolute dream in Florida. I didn't spend all morning looking for matching clothes and even Maki could figure out what CJ was supposed to wear. :-)

Of course, this method requires more advance planning than just throwing a bunch of t-shirts and undies in the suitcase. And if the weather is different than what I had planned for, things shift around.

This method also seems to create less mess in the hotel room because the clean clothes stay in the suitcase until I need them. In a small room, this is key to keeping my sanity. Give it a try on your next trip and let me know if this method works for you.