Packing Light

Since embarking on our summer roadtrip, one of the questions I've heard quite a bit is, "How did you fit everything in your car that you need for a family of 4 spending 2 months on the road?" Well, I will be the first to admit that it's a tight squeeze, especially since we don't have a van or SUV, but we managed it by thinking outside the box. Or in our case, INside the "box"!

When we first started planning our trip, I was pretty concerned that we wouln't be able to fit everything we needed into our car. Then I read a blog post by a woman who packed for a long road trip with her very large family by using plastic containers. I thought it would be a great idea to have a big, clear tote box for each person's clothes, which would make it easy to locate items we needed instead of having to rummage through suitcases. So I measured our trunk to figure out what size our containers needed to be and then headed to Walmart, where I found 4 boxes that fit the bill very nicely.

Our 4 individual containers fit perfectly into the trunk.

After testing to make sure the containers would actually all fit in the trunk, I began to pack. Since we were taking pretty much all of our clothing except winter items, I rolled all the clothes to maximize space in the boxes. After doing that, my husband and kids even had room in their tote boxes for shoes. I, however, did NOT have room for shoes in MY container! No worries though! A large, shallow container held all my shoes and fit nicely on top of the other boxes in the trunk. An identical container held my Miche bags because even on the road, it is imperative that my purse match my outfit! :) No need to sacrifice style because of limited space, right?!?!

Because one of the purposes of our trip is raising support for our missions work, we need materials with us to give out to people we meet with. I packed 1 small tote box as our "church kit" with everything we would need to set up a literature table at churches where we spoke, including a tablecloth. A second container held additional literature to replenish our church kit as needed, along with some office supplies we might need.

The smaller containers stack on top of the 4 big boxes and everything else fits arounds the sides of the trunk.

Since we planned to make multiple stops of varying lengths, I didn't want to have to lug all the boxes into places where we only staying for a few days. Solution: A collapsible duffle bag! For our short stops, we just pack everything we need into the duffle and leave the containers in the trunk. When we don't need the duffle, it folds up into a small size that can be stored easily. (Side note: The duffle makes a great barrier in the back seat to keep 2 kids from driving each other crazy!)

When we make longer stops, we just bring all the containers inside where they stack neatly. Because the tote boxes are all clear, it's easy to figure out which box belongs to whom. This evening when we arrive in Wheaton, IL where we'll be spending the next 5 weeks, we can just unpack all the containers and stack them inside each other for easy storage until we're ready to hit the road again.

Everything stacks neatly for long visits.

Honestly I wasn't sure it could be done, but we managed to pack everything in the car we needed and some things we could have even lived without. Not too shabby, huh? It is definitely great practice for packing for Italy!