All overseas adventures are on hold at the moment but most of us can still explore our local backyard. If you’re planning (or dreaming of) a trip, mum-of-three, Jenni, shares her super simple hacks on how to pack for kids when you go on holiday.

Get The Kids Involved

My advice, keep it simple. If your children are old enough, involve them in the process, it saves fights later.

Each child gets a packing box

We are lucky, we have a big van with lots of storage but we still like to keep items to a minimum. The children each have one ‘packing’ box of clothes (the size of the box will depend on the size of your child’s clothes) and then they are allowed to take one cuddle toy and one play toy each. The boxes we use are just Sistema boxes bought at half price from Woolworths. Stored in the van we have a few games/puzzles, stories, beach toys and colouring for those rainy indoor days. Depending on where we are going we may also include bikes.

No ipads

We don’t allow our children to take their Ipads, the idea is to get outdoors and explore and make our own fun. I do take mine for those absolute emergency times where a child might need some time out to calm down etc, but I only have puzzles, no games on it. We very rarely get it out though as they are usually too busy and totally forget about them.

What Clothes do we pack for kids?

So clothes wise, what do we pack for kids? From our experience, it’s always good to be prepared for all weather, and we often have specific camping clothes which stay in the van permanently. We just wash as we go, or once we return home, then repack it straight back into the box. This means next time we are ready to go, we don’t need to think.

Below is our clothing list for each child (keep in mind our children are still young so sometimes need more than one set of clothes a day, older children would need less).

• 4 x underwear
• 4 x socks
• 2 x singlets
• 1 x summer pjs
• 1 x winter pjs
• 4 x t-shirts
• 2 x long sleeve t-shirts
• 2 x leggings
• 2 x tracksuit pants (3 for our son because he doesn’t have leggings)
• 2 x shorts (3 for our son because he doesn’t have dresses)
• 1 x winter dress
• 1 x summer dress
• 1 x jumper
• 1 x warm jacket
• 1 x vest
• 1 x rain jacket

We also have bathers, beanies and gloves that live in a cupboard in the van. Shoes wise we have sneakers, thongs and slippers that also live in the van and depending on weather, we do sometimes chuck in a pair of gumboots for the puddle jumping days.

This may seem like a lot when it’s written down but it actually isn’t once packed and apart from the jackets, it all fits in the box.

When you have little ones who sometimes fall in puddles or have little accidents, you need an extra set of clothes and can’t always get stuff dry for the next day. If you don’t have the storage space or you need to keep weight limits down for towing then only pack for the weather that you are travelling in, so your clothes list will halve.

Boxes At The End Of Beds

The boxes are kept on the end of each of their beds and they can choose their own outfits for the day and, well, because we have identical twins it’s even easier for us to remember whose clothes are whose (especially for dad).

I hope this helps someone else be prepared. Happy packing!

You can follow JENNI AND HER FAMILY’S adventures and get other tips and information about places we’ve stayed by going to our website or following on Facebook or Instagram.

What are your tried and tested tips to pack for kids for holidays? Tell us in the comments below.