Packing for a Weekend Away

Weekend getaways are fun. No worries about making your bed and cleaning dishes, scrubbing the bathroom or cooking dinner. Staying in a hotel takes care of so much of our normal daily chores, I love it hands down.

But then there is packing for the trip. *gasp*

Besides my husband's work clothes, we aim to keep a fairly minimal wardrobe as it is - kids included. This takes care of most of the packing already. But just in case, here is my "how to pack" for a quick getaway with two kids.

1. Choose your colors and stick with them. Not only for our getaway, but our closets in general, have mostly neutral whites, creams, and grays with some blues and blacks in them. This is huge as my daughter's closet used to be all pink and purple, she now has a selected few items that are still left over from her pink days (mostly PJ's). Everything else has been replaced with more neutral whites, blues, and grays, as she has been outgrowing clothes. As much as I wanted to go ahead and replace her ENTIRE closet at once, I waited patiently until she outgrew and then replaced her new clothes. It made for a fun transitioning time that will always be remembered. *smile*

2. I stick to my favorites. New outfits that I'm not sure how they wear just yet will get a different occasion to be worn, but not one far from home where I am stuck with what I have. My basics last weekend were a pair of blue jeans and a pair of tanned, with a white and tanned shirt to mix and match. It worked.
The kids matched in blue and white, so did my husband with his black and grey. Perfect for the tons of family pictures that were taken. No bright pinks or oranges that throws everything off balance.

3. I choose basics tested in time. Chasing trends is great if you like it, but just as said above, I stick with a color palette that I trust. I don't want to look back on our family photos years from now and wonder "What was I thinking wearing that eighties bright color" (not that I have anything bright to wear, but you get the point).

4. I choose easy to care for materials, especially with having two kids - and one of them likes to wipe his mouth on my shirt all. the. time. Thus, I make sure to choose materials I can wash in the hotel sink and that dry quickly over night if needed. Now, for a weekend getaway it may not matter much (unless your kids are at their best behavior #not ), but for a longer trip this is something good to keep in mind.

5. Shoes. I went out on a limb by choosing only one pair of shoes to take. Now keep in mind it was only 2 days and I checked the weather forecast. I packed two pairs for my daughter, because alas she is only 3 and loves jumping in puddles, dropping ice cream or *gasp* have an accident. You get the point.
In retrospect, all went well and she only wore her one pair of sandals all weekend. Ha!

Now on to the bag!

I was determined to go as minimal as possible, choosing only to bring a small carry-on sized suitcase. But, I do have a Baby and a Toddler coming with me, with Pyjamas and burp cloths and a couple of toys, we ended up going with the regular sized suitcase. One half filled up larger suitcase in favor of having to bring multiple bags and run a gazillion times between the van and the hotel room. It worked for us. :)

Not shown are the outfits we wore on the trip and all the toys/blankets we took.

And that was our packing for the weekend. Now I can't wait for the next trip to push myself a little further in minimal packing.