We travel quite a bit. It’s a necessary evil when you live so far from everyone (well except the in-laws who live 300m away, but you get the idea). We quite often pack up the car on a Friday afternoon and drive for 4 hours to visit my family.

Last week we visited the mountains again, to catch up with family (and visit Ikea), and so I thought I would show you a little trick that helps with the packing.

I give each of the girls a packing list and a suitcase, and they do their own packing. I draw pictures next to Meg’s to help her out. Depending on where we are going I may add things like books, colouring, and change the clothing, but for a summer trip to my parents we need very little (I wish I thought to photograph the packing list for Magic Beach – it was rather long).

Occasionally we might get somewhere with some unusual combinations of clothing (think florals and stripes together), but generally that is OK. If I want them to pack a specific outfit, I put that on the list too.

All I need to do is pack clothes for Toby and myself, and grab the camera, and we are ready to go. I love how packing gets easier as they get older!