The Eternal Packing Dilemma

 

Now, I am sure I am not the only one who suffers from packing dilemmas when they go on holiday.  I never seem to get this one right.  For this particular holiday, we were as a family going on a road trip.  Since there are five of us, packing light is essential.  Now, I don't pack for my older kids anymore, thankfully, but I do like to know what is going in volume wise and also remind them of a few things to avoid the dramas when we get to our destination. 

Our road trip was to be a five day affair with a lot of driving, walking and a meal out to celebrate a young man's ninth birthday.  There was to be the potential of swimming with the near certainty of rain and given it is spring the uncertainty of summer like or winter like weather which necessitated packing a little of both and because of lack of space not a lot of everything.  Five overnight bags were duly issued and packed into the car.

My overnight bag contained:

A raincoat
A down jacket for extreme weather
White spotty batwing tee
Animal print batwing tee
White Renfrew tee
Black long sleeve thermal
Purple Renfrew tee
Black Jalie skinny cargo jeans
Beige  skinny stretch pants
Beige linen shorts
Swimwear
Black wool Jalie hoodie
White cotton Jalie hoodie
Blue cotton cardigan
Black leather ballet flats
Canvas sneakers
Jandals
Walking shoes

Added to this little lot was some underwear and pyjamas but that is all very boring so I didn't list them here.

You might wonder what worked and what didn't!  Well through no fault of my own, the shorts didn't see the light of day but everything else did, so my packing can't have been that bad.  The weather proved to be very wet, as predicted, and also quite cold so I would have benefited from a bit more warm gear and some shoes that didn't soak up the water but all in all I am pretty happy with what I packed.  I lived in the black wool hoodie so another one in a brighter colour may well be on my radar.  A note to self though.....white hoodies are not practical for road trips, especially when take away coffees are involved!  You live and learn!