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Packing Tips for your Disney Vacation!

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Packing Tips for your Walt Disney Vacation!

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Packing Tips for your Walt Disney Vacation

Your hotel is booked, your Magic bands have been picked out and you know what park you want to visit on which days, so what is left….Packing!!!! If you’re a couple weeks away from your trip, it is time to get those suitcases out and start packing!  

I have created a master list of what we need to pack for our trips to Disney and I keep it in my Disney Binder. This way every time we go I can pull the master and start my list from it. I add and take away items based on past experiences.

In this post I am going to focus on organizing clothes and toiletries, but I thought it would be helpful for you to reference my list when creating your own.  Here is a photo of my master list.

You can customize your own list and add categories such as Baby Items, which just got removed from my master list now that my youngest is 3 and potty trained (WOO HOO)!

Another example would be replacing Road Trip with Flight as a category. For our next trip, I added a food/beverage category because we are not using the dining plan this time, and we are taking some groceries with us.

I also create a separate list for my park bag.(see below)

Packing Tips for your Walt Disney Vacation

Now is the fun part! I like to coordinate what my kids wear each day at the parks. This may sound a little over the top to some, but I will explain why. After our first trip, I found that on the days the kids wore the same shirts or color, it was so much easier to keep up with them.

We have traveled to Disney with large groups of 15 and with 7 kids. When they all had on at least the same color, doing a headcount and staying with our group was easy and less stressful. So now you know my why let’s get to the next list.

Heading to Disney with your family soon? You will want to check out these Packing Tips from a PRO for your Disney Vacation!

I write out the days and dates of our trip starting with the day we leave and ending with the day when we return home. Underneath the date, I list out what our plans are for each day.

Then I make a column for the kids, my husband, and myself. I have already begun to fill in what we are going to wear each day. Some of the descriptions are general and some say exactly what shirt so we know before the packing begins.

The kids have been packing their own suitcases since we began traveling to Walt Disney World two years ago.  It saves me so much work and helps them feel a sense of leadership and ownership in the packing process.

I supervise the packing because when we started they were 5, 3 and 1 and we did not want to end up with 1 pair of shorts and 15 tops!!!

After I have finished the list, we gather upstairs and I start with day 1. I read off the day, what we will be doing and if there is a specific shirt we are all going to wear. They are responsible for putting together the outfit.

They pick out the top, bottoms, undies, and socks and we lay it out on the floor. We continue this process until we have completed all of the days we are going to be on vacation.

While they are picking out the clothes and bringing them to me, I am making these Ziploc bags to hold the outfits.

I buy a box of Ziploc bags;  grab a marker and put their name, day and where we are going that day on the bag. It makes getting ready in the morning sooo much easier!

Even my husband loves that I do it because it is easy for him to help get the kids ready. It cuts out any arguments we may have on what to wear in the morning.  

Everything is together so we are not hunting down socks and trying to find a matching outfit.  It is simple enough even the youngest of my children can get involved.

So now we have all our clothes and it is time to put them in the bags. Each of my kids lays down their shirt, puts the pants on top, then the undies and socks and folds them together.

I help the kids put the outfits in the correct bags, push all the air out and seal it. We place them in their suitcases in order and have plenty of space for extras. When we arrive at the hotel, they like to unpack and use the drawers.

We lay the bags inside the drawers in the order we will use them.

 

 

I do the same with my husband and my clothes but instead of Ziploc bags, I use the rolling method and roll the outfits together. It saves lots of space in my suitcase and helps keep the clothes from wrinkling.

Now that we have all of our clothes ready, it is time to move on to the toiletries and extra items we need on our trip. You can reference the master list for these items.

My go-to organizing method for this is my $5 hanging shoe organizer. I like the one with all of the clear pockets on the front.

Heading to Disney with your family soon? You will want to check out these Packing Tips from a PRO for your Disney Vacation!

Once we arrive at the hotel, I hang it in the vanity area on the metal pole. I fill each pocket with items that we need to get ready or wear to the parks, like Magic Bands!!

One pocket will hold our bands, another one has toothbrushes, and another has all the hair bands and accessories for the girls; deodorant, hair styling products, keys, medicines, and anything else that needs a home. It is wonderful!!!

No one likes waking up in the morning and having to search the room for the lost magic band or having to ask your spouse 5x where the Tylenol is.

My kiddos know where to find their toothbrushes and toothpaste and I can focus on getting ready and making sure we have the park bag ready for the day.

Once we return in the evening, we make sure everything goes back in the pockets for the next day. Not only does it help with getting ready and keeping things easily accessible, but also it helps keep the clutter down in our room.

These are two of my favorite tips for keeping things organized while on vacation. I would love to hear what you have found helpful for yourself or your family. Please leave a comment below!! Happy Vacationing!

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Packing tips for your Walt Disney World Vacation with Kids.

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Jeffrey

Friday 22nd of September 2017

What a great group of suggestions.

Misty

Sunday 24th of September 2017

Thanks Jeffrey!! Hope they come in handy for you!

Heather

Friday 22nd of September 2017

Love the hanging shoe organizer idea!!

Misty Hodges

Monday 25th of September 2017

Thank you!

Barbara

Friday 22nd of September 2017

These ideas are terrific! I'm going to steal, er, use them all.

Misty Hodges

Monday 25th of September 2017

Steal away!

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