Our Family Packs Too Many Bags When Traveling
Luggage, every traveler'due south bane and many traveler'due south only worldly possession. Do we own it or does information technology own us? Sometimes I really wonder.
Looking back, when Micki and I started traveling together on our first year long RTW adventure in 2003, we each had a moderate sized backpack and a smaller daypack for our daily jaunts. In the first few weeks we arrogantly convinced ourselves that those bags would be all we ever needed. Boy, how wrong nosotros were…
You lot encounter, some people tin can go for days without washing their wearing apparel and don't seem to mind walking around in what I lovingly call the backpacker funk. Most travelers become through times where laundering your clothes just isn't like shooting fish in a barrel, however at that place are some backpackers that truly revel in it.
Then at that place are the ultra lightweight travelers who use their t-shirts as towels and wash their only underwear every nighttime in the sink. To put it simply, those guys are too energetic for me and the reality is that I need a change of clothes every now and again.
To make me feel even worse, at that place are hundreds of posts out there where travelers are marveling how they've never been then happy since they limited their vesture to only a few items.
Bluntly, we aren't those people.
The reality is, on that first trip, our numberless were total from the first and as our trip wore on, somewhere along the fashion nosotros were forced to selection up another large backpack. You lot might retrieve that it was from all the souvenirs nosotros horded, however it wasn't. There are nonetheless two boxes in our storage locker that are full of all the things we shipped domicile during that trip that have notwithstanding to run into the light of 24-hour interval.
Part of the trouble was that we're probably the simply backpacking couple that carried a tuxedo and wedding wearing apparel for 8 months of their travels.
Since we got engaged a few months into that beginning trip, we decided to get married earlier we returned to Canada. Equally a upshot, I had a tux custom made for me while we were in Thailand and Micki had her nuptials dress designed there as well.
Now don't get me wrong, we never intended to conduct them with us for so long, still our nuptials appointment kept getting pushed back farther and further on that trip until finally we decided enough was plenty and made it happen. Of form, by so we were well-nigh on our way home so our tux and dress went dorsum into the backpack until we got back to Canada.
That trip told us a lot virtually our travel habits, what we could live without and what we considered essential. In the few years between then and starting a family, we even managed to reduce and refine our gear to what we considered the ultimate compromise of needs versus wants.
That perfect luggage period was ridiculously brusque lived.
As soon every bit Cole was born, all semblance of order was thrown out the window. Extra diapers, actress wipes, blankets, sheets, clothes, portable crib, emergency pharmaceuticals, you name it nosotros carried information technology. It's hard plenty to travel with a babe, never mind having to pack for every possibility.
Back then nosotros nevertheless felt guilty for wanting to go along our travels and God forestall that something went wrong. We would accept had to face the accusations of the grandparents and family unit who thought our errant travel days should be over now that we had started a family. To be on the prophylactic side, back then nosotros packed enough to flatten a donkey.
I'k not going to prevarication, traveling with young kids is never piece of cake. Not merely practice you have to deal with all the crap that goes with having little ones at home, but y'all too have their extra gear and safety to worry well-nigh while on the road. It's still possible to savor travel only our days of simply grabbing our backpacks and jumping on a plane were over.
Don't tell anyone just i of the happiest days of my life was the day we packed up for a trip and left the diapers, blankets, strollers and baby seats backside since our youngest was finally at an age that she didn't demand any of it. Glory days were definitely upon u.s.a.!
This trip we went in a new direction and decided to test out the rolling luggage approach. Information technology has been an interesting change from just the backpacks however, besides for the pain of wheeling something with tiny wheels up and downward Spain and Portugal'southward steep and winding cobblestone streets, information technology's been working.
For any of you wondering, on this trip we accept two big rolling suitcases, a backpack we commencement used on that trip in 2003 too as three daypacks. Because in that location are at present 4 of us, I go along telling myself it'south non that crazy.
The smaller daypacks usually concord our electronics while the other one holds travel snacks, spare clothes and toys for the kids. The two large rollers deport our dress and some extra toys like Lego and a few modest blimp animals that the kids refuse to part from. The large haversack carries extraneous items like our snorkeling gear (two masks and snorkels), schoolbooks, craft supplies and learning activities for the kid as well as a first aid kit and a few small bowls and cups for those non kitchen equipped stays.
In theory, between the four of us it's manageable. We also mostly long stay in places so the bags are sedentary nigh of the fourth dimension.
Of form, that little jaunt we made to Portugal for three weeks kind of went against the norm, but we also had a rental car for that leg of the trip so lugging our gear usually only meant hauling our stuff up and down three or four flights of stairs and so a block or ii to our parked vehicle.
Towards the end of our fourth dimension in Portugal, the joy of staying in charming, old historical buildings on tiny streets was speedily losing against places with ample parking and blessed elevators..
Though we did have a hate on for our baggage in Portugal, so far what we've been traveling with has been working.
That said, we just got back from Morocco and bluntly, our luggage wasn't invited. The thought of all the touts and mayhem in that location was only too much for us to deal with.
I told Micki nosotros were either taking the kids or the bags. I didn't think the kids could handle hanging out in a locker for a week so I hope our bags enjoyed their little pause. I hate to always go out anything behind, but my nerves and my dorsum enjoyed the suspension fifty-fifty more.
The worrisome part is that for the well-nigh role, nosotros didn't miss the stuff that was in the two big bags we left behind. Are nosotros finally reaching the point of a small purse for each of us? Probably non but for the showtime time in years I think there is hope ahead.
Have a horror story about your baggage or some tips most treatment luggage and kids? If and then, we'd love to hear virtually it.
Source: https://www.thebarefootnomad.com/travel-blogs/2-kids-6-bags-and-a-flat-mule-baggage-woes/
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