This blog could have been titled “How to pack – OCD style” but I decided to just stick with “I need a vacation.” Although, Brad just recommended “I need a vacation – or a hole in the head!”
That works too.
I got in the habit last year of doing a binder to organize everything for big vacations. Starting, usually, three or four weeks ahead of the vacation I start keeping a scrap piece of paper next to my bed and in the car. I wake up in the middle of the night and jot down things I don’t want to forget to pack later. I also for some reason think a lot when I’m driving (probably because that’s the only time I’m still) so I tend to jot things down at stop lights too. (My car also has this mega cool record function that allows me to record myself for later play back so I can just click the button while driving and verbalize the lists in my head for later transcription once at a safe stop.) I then take those notes, compile them into a running list up until the week before the vacation. Then I rewrite, organize the list into sections, (OCD remember?) and separate categories. My binder has tabs for: To Pack, To buy, To Do, Don’t forget and Map and Directions. I hole-punch each ‘draft’ of my individual lists and keep them just in case. Oh, I also use different colored pens for each person.
Yea, I’m not well.
That doesn’t even include the packing part yet. I pack bags for everyone then a separate bag for the hotels so we don’t have to pull out all the suitcases. I have a small Rubbermaid box full of entertainment for the girls. There are individually bagged coloring pages with a few crayons, bags of beads with pipe cleaners, make your own necklace kits and other individual activities each bagged and tagged per girl. Anthony gets his own backpack full of his activities. I filled a tote with zip lock baggies, per person, of easily accessible snacks such as cereal, carrots, celery, graham crackers and trail mix that was mixed to each person’s individual preference. I bought Ziplocs that have Disney Princesses (Makenna), Tinkerbell (Hailey) and Go Diego Go (Anthony – though under protest since we couldn’t find a more masculine or grown up character baggie) and then used regular bags with our names on it for Brad and I. In any given tote, ice chest or box you can find each person’s personalized item identified by the character on the bag.
Then (yes, it gets worse) I packed one of those under-the-bed Rubbermaid’s full of snacks and activities specifically for our drive home. I hate it when everything gets used up, smashed or broken on the trip to our destination. Plus, for this vacation specifically, our drive home is the longest so I wanted the kids to have ‘new’ exciting things to play with. One of my friends also gave us 2 leapsteer portable gaming systems and 10 games that her kids have outgrown. Those are hidden away in the ‘way-home-box’ too.
This last week, when not prepping any of the above things, I have been catching up on all our laundry (a huge task that was helped along by a fairly-grandmother) and cleaning like a mad woman. (As if the previous activities were sane.) Yesterday and today specifically, all the dishes are done and put away, all the laundry is folded and packed or put away. The trashes are all out, the toilets and showers scrubbed, the floors vacuumed and mopped. The linens are all clean and beds were made this morning. (And God forbid our house sitter see a dirty baseboard! The shame!) I hate coming home to a dirty house because then when we get home the car vomits into the house and it becomes a compounding mess. Since I’m the one who has to spend the next week cleaning, that defeats the relaxation of the vacation.
See, its all for a purpose.
Its how I relax.
Sort of.
In a twisted, slightly insane way.
I clean, organize and mega list so I can relax. Yea, that’s why I do it. J
I really am insane!
Here’s to hoping I can actually relax this week! *Fingers crossed*
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