Vacation Packing Tips For A Stress-Free Holiday {Video}!

Do you love vacations but hate getting ready for them? It can be overwhelming finishing everything you need to do before you go, especially packing. In this post I will share some tips to help make packing simpler and also some ideas to help you stay organized when you get to your destination so you can relax and enjoy yourself!

Tips for Decluttering Vacation Souvenirs {Decluttering Sentimental Items - Day 5}

Today in the Decluttering Sentimental Items series I'm sharing tips to help you declutter your vacation souvenirs.  Up until now I've shared general strategies and tips for decluttering sentimental items, but as of today we'll be talking about a different type of sentimental clutter each day... starting with your vacation souvenirs!

These can be any objects you or someone in your family kept to remind you of your trip.  They could include trinkets, keychains, postcards, magnets, brochures, pamphlets, plane tickets, hotel keys, etc.

How To Have A Great Family Road Trip Part 2: Driving Through the Night

Have you ever done a drive-through-the-night road trip?  Or does the thought make you want to run to the nearest travel agent and book a flight right away?

Driving through the night doesn't have to be scary.  It can actually be kind of fun!  It gets you to your destination quicker. And saves you the cost and hassle of getting a hotel room.  And sharing a bed with your kids who kick you all night long :)

We often drive through the night at least one way on our road trips.  My hubby and I take turns driving and sleeping.  When the kids were younger we found we could cover a lot of ground during the night because we didn't have to stop as often or as long.  Now we do it so we can save the cost of a hotel and be able to spend more time at our destination.  And the traffic is much lighter at night so we have less delays.

Last week I shared tips for how to have a great family road trip.  If you missed them, you can read them here. 

Today I want to give you a few more road trip tips, specifically for driving-through-the-night trips. 

How to Have a Great Family Road Trip!

Do you take road trips with your family?  Or do you avoid them because the thought of being cooped up in a vehicle for hours on end overwhelms you?

I have great memories of family road trips.  We flew for some vacations, but many of our family trips when I was growing up involved driving to our destination.  Often the journey was a big part of the vacation itself.  Of course back then we were bouncing around in the back seat with no seat belts and could just lay down on the seat to sleep (maybe I'm showing my age a little now!). I'm glad some things have changed.  Safety first :)

Early in our marriage I shared my love for road trips with my hubby.  He'd never traveled very far by car so it took a bit of getting used to.  But it's MUCH more economical than flying and since having our kids we've only taken road trip vacations.  Our kids don't know any other way of traveling.

Road trips can be great.  Or not.  I've heard plenty of horror stories of road trips gone bad.  Sometimes those make for great shared memories... years later anyway!  Like the time my parents' car got tired of pulling a trailer through the mountains.  We were already hot because we didn't have A/C, but when the car started overheating, we had to turn the heater on full blast.  Not fun at the time, but funny to look back on now.

You can't control everything on a road trip, but over the years I've learned a few tricks to help make road trips great.  I'm sharing them with you so you can plan a great family road trip too!

How to Return From Vacation and Still Feel Refreshed!

Do you ever come back from a vacation and then within a day or two you feel like you were never away?  It's hard to come back to mountains of laundry, piles of mail, an overflowing email inbox, and then have to hit the ground running at school and work.

Is there a way to avoid this?  To keep those refreshed feelings last more than a couple of hours?

I'm not always the best at this, but over the years I've tried several things to help make the transition from vacation to daily life easier.  I hope they help you too!

Organizing Ideas For The Weekend: Packing Tips

Happy Friday!  Time for another organizing idea for your weekend!

Continuing on with my vacation, travel, and packing theme, today I want to share some great packing tips with you!

I've started packing for our upcoming vacation and I'll be sharing some of my own tips with you on Monday.  But in the meantime, here are some other tips I've found online.

Printable Packing List - You Won't Forget Anything!

Do you worry you might forget something when you're packing for a vacation?  Have you ever arrived at your destination and realized you'd left something at home?

Worrying about forgetting something can cause a lot of stress.

Why go through that?  Use a packing list so you never forget anything!

7 Ways to Be Organized When Your Spouse or Partner is Away

Do you have a significant other who travels for business?  Or travels with friends or family without you?  How do you deal with the house and your family while he or she is gone? 

I've never been in this situation before, but soon my hubby is going to be away for nearly 2 weeks.  We share the load in our family and while I'm the "at-home" parent right now, it's still going to be a big adjustment having him gone.

Today I want to share how I'm getting organized to prepare for the time he's away.  Hopefully these 7 tips will help you if you're in this situation too.

Organizing Ideas For The Weekend: Planning Your Vacation

Happy Friday!  Time for another organizing idea for your weekend!

It's barely spring in some areas (like here in Southern Ontario!), but many of us are starting to think about summer vacations.

In our family, we aren't able to take time off during the summer because my hubby is pretty low on the seniority list at Canada Post.  So we're going to be pulling the kids out of school for a couple of weeks in May to get away as a family (more on that in upcoming posts). 

And just before that my hubby is traveling on a Holy Lands cruise for 10 days with his sister (it was a trip she won and she invited him to go with her). 

So we've got traveling on the brain around here :) 

Whether you've got a trip booked or you're just starting to think about a summer vacation, now is the perfect time to start planning your next trip.  And to help you out, here are some links with great tools and tips!