Gadling

I've let the worries about forgetting things go by the wayside. I've made up a spreadsheet (nicely formatted, so it's printable) with categories of items to pack, along with checkboxes for all the items in a given category. Since we travel 10+ times per year, we were able to identify all the items we'd possibly need for various types of trips and include them on the list. So if it's summer, I just cross off things like gloves and scarves; or if it's a beach trip, I can cross off suit, tie and dress shoes.

It's divided into categories like Entertainment (phone, dvd, computer, respective chargers, headphones, books), Travel Documents (passport, itinerary, hotel/air/car reservations, etc.), Toiletries, Clothing, and Other (cash, foreign currency, travel pillow, etc.). I even have a checkbox reminding me to check weather.com to see if I'll need any special weather-related items (umbrella, raincoat, etc.).

I've done the same for our daughter, who has taken 6-8 big trips a year with us since she was 4 months old. Her spreadsheet has evolved more over time than ours (it used to have things like formula, bibs, etc., that are now off the list). It's particularly been a huge help in getting her packed up, because forgetting some of the baby-related stuff (diapers, pacifiers) could come with dire consequences!

Having the pre-made packing lists eliminates the stress. It can't take away the drudgery of packing, but we've never forgotten to pack a single thing in the 4 years we've been using the list!

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