Packing to go on holiday

We had very few holidays when I was a child so I don't remember any packing by my mum.
At the moment DH and I are in Holland on our boat and it is very hot.
I had to pack what I needed as DH brought the boat over 4 weeks before I flew out here. Luckily I had packed mainly shorts and strappy tops.
When we go on a hotel holiday I make lists and start packing about five days before we leave.
We always take too many clothes and each year I comment that next time will be different.

Pantglas2

Lists are your friends Folks… I start a list, weeks before, with everything I need to take for a winter or summer holiday and find I can leave it until the last day before actually packing.

All washing is done a few days before so no surprises like no clean undies to put in!

I'm afraid that making a list would just mean that I took far too much, I'm better off packing at the last minute

A week before the we go I go through my wardrobe and pull out things I might want to take. I then hang these in the guest room or put them on the bed and make the final choice the day before. Without missing a beat DH takes one look and says every time “We’re only going for a week”(or whatever)!

Yes, I have turned into my lovely Mum. Holiday stuff put to oneside, or hung up away from the stuff we'll wear before the holiday. Lists made and new knickers bought!
House cleaned and left tidy ready for our return.

I honestly can’t remember and we didn’t have a holiday very often.
I haven’t had a holiday for a while recently but I do remember feeling slightly panicked about packing, possibly the more holidays you take the less you worry about what to pack.
So I always overpacked!

Well I always do that, even though there are now just the two of us. We are off to North Wales in a few weeks, so soon the case will be open on one of the spare beds. A list beside it and a pencil to cross things off, and little piles of Mrs JJ and Mr JJ stuff.

We have a narrowboat, so some things are already there which we don’t need to think about, such as toothbrushes and towels. We tend to go away for about 10 weeks at a time now we are both retired. So there is basically our entire wardrobe to take (catering for all weathers) and I also like to take as much food stocks as I can as my pet hate is shopping when on holiday. It’s also an enormous task to get the house sorted - because we are away for so long I like to empty the fridge and turn it off, and although I’m by no means a tidyness freak I like to have everything clean and vacuumed, and beds changed, for when we get back! So all in all it’s quite hard work. I often think it’s far less hassle to load a couple of suitcases and jump on a plane, which we do from time to time.
Should add that our son comes over every week and looks after the garden and clears the post.

I tend to make a list and after packing, highlight the items on my list that can’t be put in until the last minute ( phone, charger, wash bag, medicines etc) I too start to make piles of clean items ready to pack, perhaps adapting as the likely expected weather becomes clearer. My mother did much the same. I always take a first aid kit- similar to above.

travelsafar

I have a friend who always packs a 'just in case bag' plasters, insect bite cream, savlon, painkillers, throat pastilles and cold remedies, compression bandages...in case of sprains...icepack and Coldsore ointment!!! 😆😅

That was me when the family were small plus steristrips and an ice pack! It usually stayed unused but it was my comfort blanket for years .

I pack week before. Iron & place a plastic bag in between our clothes to prevent creasing. Oh & put half n half between our two cases incase one goes missing.

Lins872

We often went to Rothesay on Isle of Bute on.holiday. Our clothes were packed in a wicker trunk and sent on ahead to our BnB . So for the week before the holiday there was very little choice of clothes to wear

My granny had a holiday house there, so went most summers.
I just remember mum whitening all our sandals & plimsols. I know we had a new long dresses to wear to the Dancehall on the front. That’s all I can remember tbh.

Meant to say… my mum didn’t do packing. She just told us that we were going to (eg grandmas) for a few days and to put anything we would need into a bag. We learned very quickly about what we needed and what we wanted and the difference between the two!
A consequence was that I read my way through my Mancunian G’ma’s bookcase full of Penguin classics, so that was handy.

ViceVersa

No, we only travel with hand luggage - takes me about five minutes to pack.

Snap! And a supply of travel soap leaves for washing as we go.
But then our holidays don’t include posh meals or sports which need a lot of equipment.

Holidays weren’t really a feature of my childhood although we had a couple staying with an aunt. I don’t recall any packing, I was too young.

My list is in my head and years of travelling abroad for my dh’s work has refined it down. I think on our very first holiday together half of the boot of the car was taken up with my platform shoes! I do have a tendency to overpack and come home with some unworn stuff. We’re having a couple of short breaks this month so I shall try to restrain myself and pack economically.

I don’t know if any of you have read this book but it’s a delightful tale of exactly what it says on the title page - two weeks in September on holidays, including many of the minute details of holidays preparation. persephonebooks.co.uk/products/the-fortnight-in-september

I watch the forecast like a hawk to see how many layers I need to take. I’m going away next weekend, so I shouldn’t need extra
Layers. Shoes are the biggest issue as they take up a lot of room. It is easier now that trainers are acceptable wear with a dress, as my feet need to be comfortable at all times.
I use default lists, but it is all the non-clothes items which are tricky as I can’t pack them in advance,
I need to decide what clothes I’m taking well in advance as otherwise I will surely find I have worn beforehand just what I needed to take, then have a last minute panic.
I wear one piece of jewellery only, for simplicity, so it has to be the right one.
This summer I have had to buy extra “ heatwave” clothes. I have scarcely needed them in previous years.

I am the world's worst. If I could take the kitchen sink, I would.

We have a touring caravan we use abt 5 times a year and it takes me a good 2 weeks of choosing/washing/ironing. It all goes in and at least half of it comes home again - unworn.

We're hoping to go on our third World Cruise in January and I've already done "the list" (amended several times, and more to come!). Half of that won't get used either.

I think I remember a trunk that was sent ahead of us by a week or two, so I guess packing in advance was a necessity.

I have a pile of clothes here worn on holiday in May/June that I've washed and since kept unworn to go away again in September. That makes life easier!

I don’t recall my parents doing that, but most of our holidays were days out as we lived near the sea.
We usually pack the night before, or the actual day, both pack lightly, I had years of business travel, so it’s no bother, it all the iPads, leads etc these days.

I can do four weeks with hand luggage, since I realised nobody cares if I wear the same dress four times, and I can wash things when I’m there ( ‘ sapple them through’ my mother would have said!) I have things I bought specifically for long trips because they are lightweight and don’t crease. My friend is horrified, as she takes shoes, bags, jewellery to match every outfit! Packing is done maybe two days before.

I have a friend who always packs a 'just in case bag' plasters, insect bite cream, savlon, painkillers, throat pastilles and cold remedies, compression bandages...in case of sprains...icepack and Coldsore ointment!!! 😆😅

I've packed today for going away tomorrow for a week in an air B&B in this country. Packing for 4; me, Mr. S. and the two dogs.

My memories of mum packing in 1957 are a tin of dentifrice toothpaste and a tin of Quickies - tiny wet wipes. Oh the excitement!

Now there’s only me, I thought this year would be easy, but I have a default setting that is “take everything but the kitchen sink! The year before last I brought back half of what I took, unworn. This year, I bought a smaller case, thinking that would solve the problem. Fine. But it’s all the other stuff that needs a large hold-all - wet weather gear (and boy did we need that!), camera, binoculars, walking shoes, walking poles, a non slip mat for the shower in case there wasn’t one (there wasn’t), etc etc. SiL gave me the same look as DH used to give me!
I packed underwear for the lower half and forgot to pack underwear for the top half, so ended up retiring to a large Sainsburys in the nearest town to buy two bras and thought the elderly male checkout operator was going to have a Father Ted moment!

My daughter always goes to Greece for a month in the summer and takes only hand luggage! She says its easier getting on and off the ferries when she goes island hopping. She definitely doesn't take after her mother. I take a couple of cases for ten days road tripping!

To answer your question RosiesandherMaw yes I have turned into my mother when it comes to holiday packing.

As a child our holidays were spent in Devon. I recall my mother on the Friday evening before departing next morning standing there hands on hips declaring “I don’t know what to pack” I am an indecisive Lulu too and seem to get worse as I get older. I’m a bit like you too Casdon as my list is done on an A4 notepad and I just look back on the old lists for reminders.