Packing for Travel with 5 Kids

Hi guys, Melissa here. I hope you guys are doing well. For those of you who are going through the end of the school year, I hope everything is going as smoothly as possible. As I mentioned last week, we're going on this really, really exciting trip. I'm going to tell you guys a little bit about the trip and talk a little bit about how I'm trying to go about packing, you know, for my five kids for a long trip, and the way I'm trying to think about it, reach out to you guys, see if anybody has recommendations or suggestions. And then, you know, hopefully, I'll be able to share some of what we go through on this trip, and how the packing works out, and see, you know, what the lessons learned are and stuff like that. But anyway, to make a long story short, you know, I've mentioned this before, but my mother is Swedish. I do have a lot of family that live in France, live in Spain. And we have gotten one of these sort of "once in a lifetime" opportunities that a friend of mine runs like a sports kind of club for kids in Spain, and he's offered to basically set us up to go there. Another friend who lives in Paris is giving us her apartment. I know, I cannot believe it. So we're going to be going there in July. We are leaving town next Saturday for nine weeks. And I am so excited, and the kids are so excited. The only one who's not totally excited is Marc, because he's not going to be there for the whole trip. So I think he's kind of a little sad, but I'm very grateful that he's letting us go. So we're all so excited, and you know, really, really just grateful. And just, I can't even imagine what's going to happen, and all the adventures we're going to have. And I'm going to be trying to share as much of them as I can. But at the same time, I am super scared, you know? And I know I get up here, I'm always like sounding like I know how to do this and how to do that, and maybe I seem relatively self-assured. But I actually am like a bit petrified, because I'm flying on my own, with the five kids. I'm arriving at a place that I don't know well, in Spain. You know, I do actually speak Spanish, but, so that will help. But there's a lot of things I don't know. And I'm worried that like something will happen, that happens with my kids, you know, what am I going to do? Is there a hospital? Like all those things, and I'm just like in a flurry of kind of excitement and anxiety. But you know, anyway, I'm just, I've told myself you know I don't want to be ten years down the line and say I had this opportunity to take my kids on this huge adventure and I didn't do it because I was scared. So I'm trying to go beyond my comfort level to do this, you know, for them. Marc thinks it's all for me, but I think it's actually mostly for the kids, because I know they'll get so much out of it. But anyway, I'm sort of scared. And part of how I'm dealing with all of my anxiety and stress and excitement is to prepare for the trip and pack for the trip. And I started preparing. It's now, what day is today? Today is um, Thursday the 29th, and I started prepare, of May, I started preparing in early April. I'm, I'm not kidding. And you guys know I'm like a control freak, and I like to have everything organized. But that's the only way I've been able to sort of work through all the logistics, all the planning. And so now I'm going to show you guys a little bit of where we are in terms of getting our suitcases ready and our stuff. And so I'm going to go down on these suitcases now. You can see. This one's sort of like a medium, hold on, a medium suitcase. Can you see? This is a sun hat. I have a little passport bag for one of the boys. And this is kind of stuff that I have gotten ready. And then I still have here, this empty suitcase. So what I'm going to put in that smaller suitcase are sort of, you know, toiletries, things I don't know if I can buy there, things that we need. We use like this organic, um, shea butter shampoo and body wash and conditioner, stuff like that that I just am in love with. And I don't know if I'll be able to find it there. So that stuff I am going to bring. And I'm going to try to put all those kind of things in one bag so that hopefully they don't leak all over the clothes. So I've got them all laid out on my dining room table here. And what I do is I actually like, you guys know I'm like completely nuts, right? Okay. I mean I'm not really completely nuts, but I'm probably like on the verge, just kidding, on the edge. But anyway, what I do is I take these containers and I close them with blue tape and then I put them in double ziplock bags, because I don't want to run the risk of them leaking over everything. So here's my dining room table. As you can see I've got my ziplock bags here. I've got my blue tape here, because I'm going to use both of these to get my stuff ready and I've just started. This is body, um, lotion, shampoo and body wash from Everyday Shea. I've got a video about these guys. I just love these products. You can see through there. And I don't know if I'll be able to find them. So we're all going to use these and hopefully they will get us through the, uh, nine week trip. So I'm bringing those. Okay. What's next on my list? You guys are really going to laugh, think I'm the biggest nutcase. Garbage bags. I have black garbage bags, because I don't know how well my kids are going to be able to sleep where we are. Whether they're going to have blackout shades. I don't want them waking up really early. I'm going to seal those windows with the garbage bags if I need to at night and use blue tape. So I'm bringing garbage bags. Yes I am. Okay I have some organic, you know, um, pads in case mother nature calls, which she should in the normal course of things. Other stuff I have here in ziplock bags. This is contact lens solution. I don't know if I can buy it there. I have a children's Tylenol, our favorite sunblock, should be able to buy it there but I'm not sure. That, this is something the kids take sometimes. Um, deodorant, whatever, and what I've done with all these things when they're liquids is I take, like this is the um, aloe vera gel that we use. And it's so wonderful for skin, especially if they get a bit too much sun. So what I do is I basically seal the bottles with blue tape like this, and then I put them in a ziplock bag like this. And then I'm going to put them in a double ziplock bag, because I don't want all this stuff like getting all over my suitcase. Here's some other, sort of, toiletries. Now I'm going to walk you guys into the kids' room, and I'm going to show you what's going on with their stuff. So just hang on one second, we'll go into my boys' room. Okay. Okay. So I'm really proud of this, because what you see here is that, in this suitcase I have the clothing for five children, for nine weeks. And I think it's going to be enough. Now what I'm debating is whether I'm going to bring these Children's Place, um, sort of sweatshirt-y, kind of warm things that the kids absolutely love, because I don't know if they're going to have a cold day. And so I don't want them to freeze. But this is going to take up a lot of space so these are kind of in the "question mark" category. And then I basically have, you know, all their stuff, and it's pretty much, I mean it's not like perfectly organized. I've still got to deal with these raincoats on the top. But I've been working on this suitcase for a month. Okay? I know the kids are going to be playing tennis so they've got their tennis sneakers. Underwear and things like that for the girls I've put in a ziplock bag. These are bathing suits. And, you know, each kid, these are socks for the girls. Um, these are some t-shirts and stuff like that, undershirts for the boys, shorts. This is kind of like the boys side. And then it, you know, it gets the girls side. And because they're going to this little tennis and golf camp, um, I already have ready, because we're not going to have a lot of time, like what I'm going to put in their backpack on that first day with a sunblock. Um, so anyway, that's exciting. And of course, because as you guys know that I'm a little bit of an extreme packer, the sunblock I wrapped it in blue tape, I put it in another ziplock bag inside here. Um, these are new pajamas that the boys, I got these at Filene's Basement. The boys are so excited that I'm finally letting them graduate away from the striped, you know, Hanna Andersson pajamas. So they've got these kind of cool pajamas, which I think they'll be nice and cool for the summer. And really like almost all the rest of the stuff I got on sale at Hanna Andersson or a Children's Place. And it's just like our staple stuff. I got these cute dresses. I love them. I think these are going to be so adorable on the girls. I'll show you guys. Isn't that just so cute? It's kind of dressy but casual. So I'm so excited. So it's fine, because they each have a couple new things that are going to be fine. And basically that's it. Each kid has two hats. It's going to be really sunny. They have bathing suits. They have like light dresses and some t-shirts and stuff like that. And that is basically it. And so, for me, hold on I'm going to turn the camera back to me now. This was like the really hard part of, you know, this whole trip and packing for this trip. It's sort of like this whole process of elimination. What do I really need? And anything you don't think you really need, I honestly think you have to just leave it on the cutting room floor as they say, because it can be really cumbersome. And uh, you know, really difficult to be traveling with small kids and just have tons and tons and tons of stuff. And if you're going to a place, you know, that's a metropolitan area or city, chances are they're going to have the Gap. They're going to have small places where you can pick up something if you really need it. So anyway, that's really been my approach to packing for the trip. Trying to start really early, trying to think about what we need, trying not to bring too much, separating, um, liquids and medicines and pharmaceuticals, and you know, products, care, you know, body care products from the um, clothing. You know, other than this one example of the sunblock, which I put with the kids camp stuff because it's like double-wrapped. Wrapping all that stuff in blue tape, making sure it's closed, putting it in extra ziplock bags. Bringing my garbage bags, in case I need them, in case it's really light, and just kind of like trying to think through stuff early. Oh I'm going to go to my bedroom because I want to show you guys two other little things that I have ready to go. Okay, one second. Okay so here's one other thing I've been doing. These are European chargers. They are actually really inexpensive. You can get these on Amazon. These are probably going to be good for your computer, for your phone. Um, I've got those. And then I have locks, you know, that I've just sort of built up over the years, these sort of coded safety locks that I'm going to put on our suitcases. So anyway, those are kind of some of the things that I've put together. So today I have some extra time. So I'm going to be trying to finalize some of this. And oh, one other thing I forgot to say, I think raincoats are a really good idea. You never know when it's going to rain. So that's a really good idea. And if it's the summer that can keep the kids a bit warm too, you can kind of use it as like a windbreaker. And then comfortable walking shoes. They all have sneakers. And I have some pretty comfortable walking shoes too. So anyway, just a little video on how we're getting ready for this big adventure. Um, hope it was helpful. Sorry about the sort of mixed production quality on this. I'm getting the hang of the whole format. Thank you guys so much for watching CloudMom. And for the people that have written in, saying nice things about these recent iPhone videos, I just love you guys so much. I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you said. It' s like very nerve-racking, you know, throwing this stuff up on YouTube and not knowing, you know, what it looks like or whether it's going to be good or whatever. So for people that have voiced the support I just really, really appreciate it so, so, so much. Okay. I hope you guys have an amazing day. And I will see you soon on CloudMom. My husband and I are going on a really exciting little two-day trip this weekend, because his best friend's, um, daughter is having her bat mitzvah in Florida. So we are going away. So I'll try to share some of that, because we're going to be on the beach. It's going to be super, super pretty. Okay? So thanks so much you guys. Have a great day. Bye.