You can definitely cope with a family trip to downtown or a restaurant for a weekend dinner. Nevertheless, when it comes to longer trips, far away from where you live, things get more and more difficult as there are tons of stuff you need to pack. To be specific, you must utilize the space in your for all the luggage and family member. And the first thing you should do is take a note and jot down all the things you need for the whole trip!
Besides money, neck pillows, water, and snacks, you should bring some paper rolls or tissues to deal with the unexpected spills made by your kids. Moreover, consider these following things in your luggage checklist:
Technological/entertainment equipment and accessories
Smartphone, power bank, and charger
Tablet/MP3 player/DVD player to make your kids entertained in the car.
GPS for locating where you are and an offline map if you don’t have a physical one
Camera gear, tripod, and selfie stick to capture every beautiful moment during the trip
Extra batteries/memory cards, etc.
Technological accessories are necessary in every trip
Emergency toolkit
At least one spare tyres in case one of your wheels get broken
Torchlight
Tyre pump/inflator
Jumper cables to help crank your car if your car’s battery is too old
Handy first aid supplies
A first aid kit is the uttermost crucial thing in every trip.
Ice spray or cold packs
Band-aids, of course, and you may need to bring along extra band-aids even the first aid kit has some
Painkiller/aspirin (for kids and adults)
Allergy medicine
Mosquito repellent to avoid mosquitoes, obviously
SPF50+ Sunscreen
If one of your family members are under any treatment, keep in mind to store their prescription on the car
Having a emergency toolkit helps you a lot in unexpected situations
Road trip packing essentials for kids
Comfortable car seats for kids
Activity books and colouring book
Crayons, pencils, erasers, and papers
Road-trip games(e.g board games) and books
Extra diapers/wipes/clothes/quiet toys if you have any baby
Don’t forget to bring enough clothes (e.g swimsuits, pajamas, jackets, fresh underwear) if you are planning for traveling several days. Moreover, you should prepare small backpacks in order to keep essentials for visiting fun stops along the trip. Besides, bring along extra keys! Make sure you have a person keep has an extra set of car keys in case you unfortunately lose your keys.
Choose enough stuff can save a lot of comfortable space for you family members
The free storage space of your car is obviously limited, so you have to decide which items are really necessary to bring along. Look once again at your checklist, think twice, and then remove the unnecessary items.
The most important thing you must keep in mind is that your vehicle has to be empty before you start packing it up. Check carefully the inner space of your car and take out everything. This will both help you have an empty car and the most utilised storage space for loading things later.
The boxes will use up a lot of space and do not have enough flexibility to fit inside your car’s limited storage spaces, especially if your car is a family model.
Spending time with family gain you happiness
The most crucial point when packing a car is to know which items you’ll need on the way to the destination and which one you’ll need once getting there. By doing this, you don’t have to mess everything up just to get the thing you need and then spend years to rearrange the luggage.
Many people want to have their own backpacks when travelling. However, as stated above, try to pack in several bags only in order to have more free and comfortable space inside your car.
For example, if your family is going on a beach vacation, pack swimsuits, towels, sunscreen, fresh underwear, and other important items last in order to get their first later when you reach the beach. Besides, you don’t need to put all things in the boot, you can store bottles of water, tissues, sunscreen, and other handy items in your backpack to easily take them out.
Remember: last in and first out!
It is a very good idea to sour out your family members’ pants, shorts, tops, underwears, and socks into zip-lock bags and you can also put tags on them if you want. Using zip-lock bags is highly-recommended as they are easy to pull out of the suitcase. Moreover, you can use them to separate dirty clothes.
This is the same idea of the order: First in, last out. First, place the less used bags at the back under other bags in the boot which may be packed with clothes and the items that you’ll need only when you arrive at your destination. Next, things that you frequently use will be placed on top of the luggage or near you (e.g on your seat or in your backpack) so that you can load them as fast as possible.
Alright! Everything seems to be done, but you must check all the luggage at least once to see if there are enough stuff and a checklist will help you.This step is very important because it makes sure you are well-prepared for the family trip. In case you miss something, you have to grab it and arrange the luggage again; therefore, another small but useful tips for you is that you should also check the stuff while packing, then when finished, check if everything is perfect. Hurray!!! Now call other members and start travelling!
Everyone loves travelling, especially travelling with their loved ones. Indian Auto hopes you will have a great time with your family members. If you find these steps useful and want to get more tips from our site, click here.
>>> Also read
Tips For Navigating Through A Car Accident Smoothly
5 Common Reasons Why Your Car Won’t Start & Troubleshooting Tips