Do you struggle with packing for trips? Need some packing tips? Join the club! Katie Pyle of OrganizingMoms.com to the rescue! Lyn and Katie share their best tips to make packing as stress-free as possible.

See the video version of the interview below…


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TRANSCRIPT

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Families Fly Free podcast. As always, I am Lyn Mettler. This week I’ve brought a guest for you on a topic that I know I struggle with: packing. And so I’ve brought one of our members, in fact, who blogs about organizing to kind of help us with packing because while it’s awesome to fly fre,when you start flying free, you start taking more trips and then you start having to figure out things like, where do we need to go? How do we get organized for a trip? How do we pack? All of that stuff comes along with it. So we like to talk about that stuff on the podcast too. All right, so I’ve got with me today Katie Pyle and she blogs at organizingmoms.com.

So I’m gonna let, Katie, why don’t you introduce yourself. Just tell us a little bit about your family and where you live and maybe how you got started blogging. Okay, yeah. I’m Katie Pyle. We live in San Antonio, Texas. We just moved here about a year ago. Prior to that we were in Washington state, close to Olympia.

And we’re really from the Midwest though. My husband is in the military, so we’ve moved several times. But yeah, now we’re in San Antonio and enjoying the warm weather. I have two boys, twin boys, they’re 11 years old and I started my blog in 2014 when we moved to Washington and I was formerly a teacher and I wasn’t a teacher anymore once we moved.

And it was kind of something for me to do and it was great. It helped me get organized at home and I learned a lot of new things about making websites and social media and things like that too. So what types of things do you talk about on your blog? More recently, I’ve done a lot of stuff like planning and time management and things like that.

But when I first started out, I actually wrote a lot more about travel because we traveled more, you know, in 2014 than we do now, which is part of why I joined the membership, Families Fly Free. ’cause we did wanna do more traveling and figure out how we could make that possible. So Yeah, let’s talk about that for a minute.

Tell us why, how you came across us, why you decided to join and, and kind of where you are. Katie joined, this is in March, so she joined in January, so she just a couple months in. So she can kind of give us a good perspective of kinda where she is in the process and what it’s like sort of as a new member I think.

Yeah. Okay. I think I heard about you. I, it was on the Choose Fi podcast and I remember I was on a walk and I was listening And I was like, oh, this is like, we could actually travel more. ’cause since we’ve moved away from family, really our travel budget has been kind of like getting back home. So that one trip a year in the summer,

usually to go visit family in the Midwest. But when I heard your podcast I thought, wow, we could actually go on other trips too. So I started listening to your podcast and watching your YouTube videos and things like that. And then I went to one of the webinars and found out more about it that way.

So I joined in January and we started working on getting the Southwest Companion Pass. We just finished that like a week or so ago. So we have that now. Is that so Exciting? Yeah. Yeah. And I always say like you’ll now that you have one, you’ll never be able to not have one. It’s like so amazing. You can’t imagine not having it. Yeah, it’s like a 25% discount on all of our Right. Yeah. For A family of four, right? ’cause one of you’s not paying any points. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So we have the Companion Pass now and we’re going on a trip at the start of April.

We’re gonna go to Denver to see some baseball games. So it should be and were you able to, to make that one that flight free?

Oh yes.

So that gives a good timeframe for folks that, you know, a lot of people wanna know how fast can they get this going, you know?

So Katie’s been able to do it in, well two months really, if you’ve already booked the flights. Right. So for a flight, that was three months after you joined. So I think you had sort of started the process a little bit when you joined. Right. But definitely possible to get going that fast.

And that’s really just step one, right? Right. Yeah. And then we show you how to, how to what card to put your everyday spend on going forward so that you continue to replenish your points. Because now her family will have at least 125,000 Southwest points. ’cause they had to earn that to get the Companion pass. So they will spend those down the way we show them to pay fewer points per flight and then we’ll show ’em how to keep replenishing those points through their everyday spend.

So that’s great. And I love that you talked about, you really were just traveling to see family because I, I hear that a lot. So a lot of people come in and they’re like, oh, this is all we’ve been able to do right now. Or even we would just like to be able to fly free to see family. And then I can say, would you like to take some other trips for fun too? You know? Yes. Great. We can help you do that too. Like, I think that’s, it’s just a, a mindset shift and suddenly if you’re not paying for flights, then yeah, go see. And when you’re seeing family, you don’t have to pay for accommodations, so that’s not a worry.

It did take me a while after I kind of wrapped my mind around like how it could work. I’m, I had to stop and think, well, where could we go? Because I, it just had never really occurred to me that we could do so much. So Yeah. And that, that becomes the, the issue is where should we go?

And, and when you’re flying, like we do six times a year, I think we might hit seven this year, we’ll see how, how it works out. But you know, you got, after a couple years, you gotta figure out where else do we wanna go? There’s plenty of places to go, but you just need help coming up with where, so we do a lot of that in the membership talking about destinations and good places for families. And It’s a good problem to have. It is a good problem to have. Yes. Okay, so let’s talk about packing because again, we fly six times a year. I’ve been doing this since 2015. I just do not have packing down. So I thought this would be a great opportunity.

When I saw Katie was, had done, she had written some about this on her blog and that she focuses on organizing. I was like, oh, let’s have her on and see what tips she can give us for packing. So I know that it’s just been a struggle for us. We do have some systems in place, I think that help, but inevitably I struggled the day before, you know, and the day of, I just cannot seem to get, I always wanna plan ahead, but it just doesn’t seem possible to do that. So we’ll talk about some of that today. But do you guys, have you ever struggled with packing?

Oh yes. And you know, it changes as our kids are different ages too. When they were younger, a lot of it was like just me, you know, trying to figure out outfits for all the kids and diapers and all that kind of stuff. Now they can help me a little bit more. But yeah, I think that’s one of the challenges is that you’re trying to do everything right before you’re going and remember all the things that you have to pack.

But you also have to think about like, okay, how are we gonna get to the airport? Who’s gonna take care of the dog? What do we need to do at the house? There’s just a lot going on that usually it’s like one person, probably the person who’s watching this video or listening to this podcast right now that that person is in charge of.

So that’s been a challenge for us always just kind of wrapping our minds around everything we have to do and everything that needs to get those suitcases before we can go out. So, And we, like, we have created a packing list and we do, we have multiple packing lists inside the Families Fly Free membership. Like we have one for national parks and one for cruising and one for Disney and a general packing list.

But, so that sort of came from the list I have sort of developed over time and I will put on the packing list, you know, you know, sunscreen, whatever. But I’ll also put on there, schedule the dog at the kennel and roll out the trash and you know, download videos on our devices before. So, and what I try to do with that,

I keep that as a Google document and then after each trip, like inevitably I, I print it out, I’ll have to scribble on some things I’ve forgotten and then I try to remember afterward to go back and add those things or take things off that you know, are no longer relevant. Like maybe you get to take diapers off at some point, right?

Yes. Car seat, diapers, that leaves up a lot of things. Yeah, no kidding.

So where do you see families kind of struggle, you know, in terms of packing, you know, what are some of the problems that come up?

Well, I think kind of like you said, it’s like it’s always it feels like it’s very last minute. And I think, I mean especially for me, I know when I’m doing it last minute it’s because I’ve put it off because I don’t wanna do it. You know, I’m just kind of dreading it. I could have probably started a few days earlier but I didn’t. And then it’s just all kind of last minute.

But yeah, we have some packing lists too. I actually have the app Google Keep and I’ve kind of used that over time to add stuff. ’cause I can have it like on my phone and if I’m just like somewhere and I think, oh we’re going to Colorado, I need to remember to bring like long underwear or something ’cause it’s probably gonna be cold when we’re there.

I can add that in and share that with my husband too. Yeah, That’s a good tip. Is that sort of like Evernote or, yeah. Or is it, Yeah. Okay. Very similar. I have seen that, but I’ve never really looked at it closely. Yeah, I like it. ’cause you can do like little check marks on it, right? And check things off. Check things off. And you can also put it into a Google doc if you wanna like print it out to use when you’re packing too. But yeah, I think, you know, having things be at the last minute is just really stressful. But it’s not that exciting to start packing.

So I try to make myself start a few days before just by like with laundry and things like that as I pull something out of the laundry, if I know that we’re gonna take it on the trip, I kind of put that in like a designated packing area in our house. So I may have like a sec, just a place on the floor in our bedroom.

Or if you have like an extra bed you could put stuff there and just start adding things to that packing area so that when it comes time comes time to put the suitcases together and get everything ready. It’s not quite as much. Yeah, you’ve got some of it there already. Yeah, I know. I always find myself running up and down the stairs and you’re like,

oh I forgot this. Oh I gotta put this in. Oh, you know, and that’s my dog’s cue that, oh no, they’re packing. That means I have to go to the kennel or poor dog. But, and you had some good stats, didn’t you, on what folks said about the stress of packing? Yes. So I found this study that was done by the Nordstrom Trunk Club.

Let me see what I’ve got. It says 41% of respondents said that packing was one of their top stressful travel moments. The only thing that beat that out was going through security at the airport. We can solve that one for you ’cause we can get you t ss a pre-check and then it’s much less stressful. You don’t have to take your shoes off, don’t have to take your computer out. Hopefully you bypass any long lines. But, so yeah, we can just narrow it down to just be stressed out about packing Security is going to be okay. Yeah, We can get you through security. I can’t come pack your bag though when you don’t want me to. So let’s talk about laundry. ’cause you mentioned that.

So like, this is where I get hung up is I feel like, you know, I need to have all clean clothes before I can pack, but my family’s wearing their clothes, you know? Right. And it’s not like I have tons of clothes for everyone such that we have clothes they can wear and clothes we can pack, you know? And so I am inevitably like that’s where I get stuck is it has to be the last minute ’cause at the last minute I have to do everybody’s laundry, you know, in order to have the clean clothes to pack. So do you have any suggestions for that?

Yeah, I, I try to start like a couple days before just pulling things outta the laundry that I know we wanna take. That kind of helps. ’cause then I don’t have to put that stuff away too, which is like one of my least favorite things to do. But yeah, I mean I guess if you are, you know, gonna wear your clothes a couple days before, it makes it hard. It’s like you just kind of have to do that last minute laundry and yeah. Put it into the suitcases. I don’t know.

One thing that I have run into before that’s been kind of a challenge is if we’re going to a place, it’s like a different climate. Like if we’re going to a warm place and we lived in a cold place, just that our kids have grown or maybe the adults have grown too or, and the clothes don’t fit anymore and it’s hard. So that’s something, if you’re going to a different climate, maybe do that ahead of time too, just to make sure things fit and you know, you could get replacements or something if you need to.

Yes. I think that’s a really good point. And we, inside the membership, we do have like an email series that you can sign up for like 30 days before you’re taking a trip and it will email you the, and so I do have in there like, you know, two weeks ahead,

three weeks ahead, check now do I do this? Probably not. But this would be, would it be helpful, check what you have and then order anything that you need. You know, like are you out of sunscreen? ’cause like I said, like it’s winter here, so I’m not, yes. Sunscreen is not top of mind for me when we’re going somewhere.

When do you have sunscreen? Like what can you order it from Amazon, have it delivered to the house or order it from Target or whatever, you know, so that it gets here in time. Or like I found last year thinking we were going to Hawaii and we needed, we need specific like reef safe sunscreen. And I always like, my kids are forever leaving their swim goggles somewhere.

So inevitably I have to buy new swim goggles anyway. So those kind of things. Yeah, if you can think about it ahead of time and order them in advance, that helps a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ’cause often that stuff is hard to find in the store if it’s out of season and then, you know, you really do have to kind of plan ahead on that.

Right. Or plan to get it when you get there, I guess if you’re desperate but then you’re spending Vacation time at the store, so Right, right. Which you don’t wanna do that, but you can’t. I try to always remind myself that, yeah, worst case scenario, we’ll just go to the store and get it when we get there.

’cause inevitably I forget multiple things. Right. Yeah. It’s just not the end of the world. But do you, what do you think about kids packing for themselves versus the parents doing it? Like, I still get hung up in doing it because I’m just a, and I probably shouldn’t, like I have one, I have one going off to college probably.

He ought to know how to pack a bag, you know, but just for fear of they will forget something, you know. Yeah. Well and you know, I think, I think it’s great for the kids to do it and even for them to have like the natural consequence of like, what happens if I forget this? Yeah. But often on a trip that natural consequence actually goes to parents because like if kids forget like they’re hiking boots and you’re going hiking,

it’s kind of like the trip will not work unless you get that. Or maybe or they forgot to pack a prescription or something like that. That would be, yes. Yeah. But maybe I guess parents can just come along behind, let them take a stab at it and then come along behind and make sure everything is in there. Yeah, I mean our boys are 11.

So for the past we, we went on a trip, we went to Houston like on a, a road trip last weekend. And I had them help me pack the suitcases, just mainly like their stuff. And I don’t know, I think you kinda have to think about the kids themselves, like kind of their executive functioning and what they can do,

what they can remember. Yeah. But I had them help me make the list before. So like, what kinds of things do we need to bring on the trip? What will you need? Like if we’re staying in a hotel, think about those things. And we kind of made that list together. And then later, like not all at the same time,

but later I had them help me. And at first I was like, okay, get, you know, four outfits for when we’re gonna be there. And that was like a lot for them to remember. And then, so I finally was, I said, you know, okay go get four pairs of shorts and bring those to me. And then I could kind of check the shorts and then I would send them like on another mission to grab something.

And I, and after a while I said, you know, if you find anything else that you know is on our list, you can bring that too. So that took longer Yeah. To do it that way. I probably could have done it faster by myself, but I think it was good they, and they also had some say in what they were bringing too.

Yeah. Was, I think that’s important because then they’re, they’re always more invested in whatever you’re doing if they have a say in it, you know? Yeah, Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And I found like, especially when mine were a little bit younger, like I, I did get into packing cubes at some point because what I did first, like I was finding, I would put, you know, a shirt and shorts say together for each one of them, but they wouldn’t keep them together. Like we would get to the destination, we would pull a shirt, we would pull a random pair of shorts, they wouldn’t in any way match. And then whatever we had left didn’t match either.

Right. So I was like, okay, maybe I could just put like shirt, a shirt and a pair of shorts and a pair of boxers or whatever in a Ziploc bag or something like that. That’s how I started to try to keep ’em from doing and they can just take a Ziploc bag. Yeah. And then I graduated to packing tubes where I just sort of keep each one, they each have their own packing tubes or whatever and they can try to keep, they’re better now about not doing that so much. But I just, I found that to be a real problem. I don’t know, particularly boys, they don’t care. They’re just, yeah. They’re like, okay, what’s, what’s mine in here that I can put on?

Right. Or, or even, it doesn’t even have to be there, it’s just, I’m just whatever. You know. And then like they go through the clothes too fast also. And you know, I have to be like, no, we have limited clothes here, so like let’s you know, if it’s still clean, let’s still wear it.

You know, instead of changing a different shirt for the nighttime or you know. So I think all of that’s tricky with kids, but they, that’s a good learning opportunity for them too, I think. Yeah. And I think the Ziploc bags idea is I’ve done that too. Okay. With the kids for their outfits, you know, and it would be like,

you know, socks are in there, underpants, shorts, you know, t-shirt, all that together. And for a while I would even like save those Ziploc bags to use again. Like I kind of labeled them with their names and I guess I kind of started doing it ’cause I have twins and they had very similar, Oh yes clothes. But they’re slightly different sizes.

So that helped them know like, okay, this is actually mine. You know, because when they would look in the suitcase and it was just clothes, they had no idea. Right. But those ziplocs always come in handy for other things too. Like if you have wet stuff later on you can use them or it’s always nice to have some extras of those around.

Right. Yeah. And those are multipurpose. I’m with you. Like I just keep a stash of them and reuse them. Yeah. For, yeah. Even for toiletries and that kind of thing. But I have, I do like packing cubes, so I do try to put like, I don’t know, swim stuff in one and then put a little, like a fold up bag that can then become our bag to go to the beach or the pool or something like that in with it. Or our football or whatever it is we take to, you know, use in the pool or the beach. And then, I’m trying to think what the, what these are called. But I have these little like mesh zip bags that I’ve now started.

I kinda like them for like underwear and socks and or to, I watch Marie Kondo how she rolls up like underwear and boxers love that socks. I roll everyone’s boxers and put them, they each have their own little zippy bag of bo whatever. So I don’t know, I think you can sort of find like, yeah, different but d a mix of products like that I think are helpful and they’re not,

you can get packing cubes on Amazon for crazy cheap. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I’ve seen them at like TJ Maxx and things like that too, where they’re pretty discounted. Yeah. And I like those ’cause they have a handle too. So like just say your bag is too heavy or something. You can pull one out if you would have to and take it on the, we’ve never had to do that, but, or you can turn it into a bag if you bring it along with you.

How about overpacking? So this is another area where we fail big time. We always overpack and every time we say, oh we didn’t wear half of that, we’re not gonna do that again, but we still do it again. But we, we also just had Stephanie on the Families Fly Free team. She’s a family of five. She says they never ever check a bag. And so we were all like, what Sue tell, so she just made a video that we’re gonna put up in the online hub for the membership in April. It’s March right now where she,

it’s just like a seven minute video and she literally opens her suitcase and she shows exactly how she fits everything in a carry-on. And so she just has each member of her family take a carry-on and they never have to check a bag. So anyway, there were some good tips in there, but I, I’d love to hear your thoughts on, you know,

how to avoid overpacking and actually fit everything in the space that you have. Well, I kind of talked about this a little bit earlier, but we always set up a packing area in the house before we like actually put stuff in the suitcases. And that’s helped me just to see like the volume of stuff that we’re trying to take with us. And usually through that I can kind of pull some things out or you know,

even if we’ve packed things that are kind of bulkier fabrics, maybe swap it out for something that’s a little bit more thin and easy to pack and fit in. But yeah, I always bring too many shoes, too many socks. Shoes are a hard one. Yeah. Yeah. And you know that study I was telling you about, they said the thing that people most over pack or that they brought that they didn’t end up wearing was jackets.

But I think you know, when you’re traveling with a family you do kind of wanna be like over prepared. I know. You know, just seem like you do. Yeah. Especially you know, it’s not like you’re gonna have to go out and get one extra jacket. It could be like four or five extra jackets depending on how many people you’re traveling with.

But I think seeing everything together helps for me to just say, okay, we have enough. Like it’s okay, I can take a few of these outfits out. Also if I know that I could potentially do laundry, that sort of mentally helps me if I can just like pack a few like Tide pods or something. So I know I could do that while I’m there.

That helps. And like I think having things like packing cubes and Ziploc bags, that helps too because it limits the amount of space you have for a certain category of items. That’s a good point. So if in there’re, yeah, if you’re packing too many like t-shirts or something and you get it in there, you think well, oh okay I could take one or two of these out.

So it just kind of creates more like limits on what you would Pack, Right? Yeah. Yeah. And we, I, we’ve gotten stuck on the jacket thing, so not taking jackets in San Francisco in the, oh I think it was in June. Like we did not, we were in no way prepared for how cool it was there and yet we had,

we just had to go buy everyone a sweatshirt when we were there. Again, not the end of the world to have to buy everyone a sweatshirt. But, so what I like to do with jackets, it’s just, and I think Stephanie said this too, just tire on your waist on the plane or you know, I try to have my kids each take one of those little knapsack things that with the drawstring that are popular now. Yeah. What are those called? They, I each have, what is it? They’re just like little backpacks with strings for the Yeah, yeah. So they each have one of those and then if they don’t wanna deal with it around their waist they can just, you know, toss their jacket in there. ’cause that does take up a lot of space in the suitcase that yeah. Is not necessary. But I pretty much always have a, at least a hoodie or some kind of light pullover that to try to help mitigate if it’s cooler on the plane all of a sudden or you know, somewhere at our destination that’s cooler so I can layer and take things off.

But that was not enough in San Francisco. Do be careful and check, you know, another thing You can do if it’s like you really need to bring some bulky things. I’ve seen people use those vacuum bags where they can put it in there and it just kind of like compresses it. Yes. I have never done that but I think Lisa on our team said that’s what she does when they’re going to like cold weather destinations where they need a lot of scarves and gloves and Puffier things.

The overpacking is definitely, I think, a continued challenge. And oh I was gonna note on the laundry too, like what we’ve learned over the years is even if your hotel say doesn’t have a laundry, if you’re in a city, a lot of times you can find a place where you can just drop off your laundry and they will do it and fold it.

Like New York City is one for example, we did that. That was awesome. That would be really nice. But You’ve gotta allow for enough time. Sometimes it takes ’em a day or two. So just like don’t wait till your last day and think you’re gonna get it done. And also throughout Europe, like in Paris and places like that, you can find like ask the concierge or something,

you know, what’s the, a nearby place where you could just drop your laundry off and they’ll do it and fold it. So that’s always an option too. Like, so like Europe, that would be a good one ’cause if you’re there for an extended period of time and they’re washing washer and dryers do not work the way ours do, it’s very different.

So it’s like they’re all one thing and it takes like forever if you have one. But anyway, that’s it. Just keep that in mind that that might be an option for you even if there’s not, you know, was and dryer at your vacation rental or your hotel and a big time saver too If Oh yes, drop it off. I wish I could do that every week at home.

Can someone just do all my laundry for me? Yeah, that’d be amazing. Alright, I think those were most of my questions for you. Do you have any other tips for us?

One thing that has helped us is we made just like a travel bin. So we have like one of those plastic bins that you can get at like Target and Walmart and we put anything that’s travel specific in there,

like neck pillows. We have like headphones that we use on the plane in there. We even have like ponchos that we got at Disney World if we’re going back to Disney World, we could bring them with us. Like that kind of stuff. So anything that really we just use for trips we put into that box. So that’s been really helpful. And then I don’t have to like search around and try to find all these different random items if I try to put them away somewhere in the house.

And my husband, he used to travel a lot too, so that was good. He could just kind of pull things and put them back and it just made it easier for him to, so that’s been a big help. ’cause that’s cut down on, on a lot of like panicked trying to find things right before we’re going and Right. It’s kept me from re-buying stuff too that I know we have somewhere but I just can’t find before we go.

Yeah. And with, that’s a great tip. And we have just a drawer that I, I do similarly with, you know, things that we just use for tr like travel alert, the disposable washcloth. That’s one that I like that was good during the pandemic and it’s good in Europe where they generally don’t have washcloths because that’s for whatever reason.

I just keep in there and then I can throw ’em in our bag if needed. And I did, I had a friend who traveled a lot for business and she said like she always just kept a toiletry bag ready to go. And I thought, so I’ve been working toward that at my house where I just have at least,

you know, like a duplicate toiletry. I like, I have a deodorant, I have toothpaste and I have duplicate toothbrushes and Advil or whatever that needs band-aids, you know, that need to be in that bag that I just have that in there ready to go. And then on my list I can just kind of make sure, you know, we’re not out of sunscreen or out of whatever it is.

So that saves a little bit of running around and trying to get everyone’s deodorant and everyone’s Yeah. Yeah. Into the bag. So I thought that that was a pretty good tip and you just have to kind of build toward that I think. But that can save some. Oh and here’s one more question I thought do, what about like types of bags?

Like do you have a preference of soft side, hard side? Does everyone have their own bag? You know, We’ve done both. We have a couple of really big suitcases that are pretty much on their last leg. Yeah. And their soft side ones. I think when we replace them we’ll probably get the hard side ones just ’cause they’re, they got pretty messed up quickly just going through.

Yeah. And You guys, when you travel six times a year, let me tell you, your luggage gets some abuse so I would agree. We started with Salt side too and they look horrendous. So, And we have, we all have like the same carry, carry-on suitcase type thing that we could also check. That’s a hard side. And then I got like for the handles,

I found like a package on Amazon that had different colored handles that you could add to the carry-on bag. So if we do end up checking them, it’s pretty easy to find them and it’s easy to know which carry-on belongs to which kid or which adult. I prefer to check the bags actually rather than bring the carry-ons. Maybe when the kids get a little bit older we’ll do more just carrying,

because it is nice to not have to go pick that up when you get to your destination. But I found that my kids just really like to spin them around and play with them and Oh, so maybe when they’re a little more mature we can do that. Yeah. But we’ve, we’ve done it a couple times and you know, that part of it’s been kind of hard but it was nice when we got there everything we could just like leave the airport and not have to go pick up stuff.

And those suitcases have been good. They’ve held up okay. They’re, they’re hard side suitcases with wheels and yeah, I like, I like them a lot so, and I think we just got them at Walmart. They weren’t really a fancy brand or anything like that. Maybe as we start to travel more though, we’ll need to invest in something that’s a little bit more.

I mean as long as it works. Like I think we got my husband’s, like you said at TJ Maxx or Marshall, something like that. And it, he has a hard side. The one thing we don’t like about it is it opens like, what do I wanna say? Half and half like in the middle and so you can’t like set it up against a wall or something like that and you know,

have the top against the wall and then the bottom because everything would just fall out so. Oh, I see. Okay. So it’s a clam shell. That’s what I wanna say. So we end up, it takes a lot of space on the floor so we don’t love that about his. And so we end up getting me another one.

And I really like the suitcase and it’s from low gel, L O J E L, but it’s a little more expensive. But I wanted something that would last and it’s kind of unique in that it has, it does just open the top and everything goes in the, the bottom part. And then it has like little straps that keep the top open for you, which I’ve never seen a suitcase do that. And that’s super handy so that it just stays open as you’re packing. And then it has pockets on the top that you can put again, underwear, socks, that kinda stuff in there. So that’s one that I’ve liked. And I actually just added their carry-on to our collection too ’cause our carry-on. Oh nice.

You know, the wheels were falling off. So it probably is worth the investment to get something that will last. But again, it seems like these hard sided ones, they do pretty well. The wheels I think are the main thing to keep an eye out for. You want something that has a good wheel because if the wheels are done then your suitcase is done unless you wanna try to send it back and have ’em fix it.

And we actually got a different brand of suitcase last summer and on the first flight one of the wheels fell off. Oh, we were like negative on this one. Like really like that’s, it can’t even make it from one flight without a wheel falling off. So yeah, I think you want sturdy wheels and, and, and last thing I would say there is like a good travel backpack.

I always have my travel backpack and you, if you have a good one, you can fit a lot of stuff in that and that can help somewhat with the overpacking, but it’s always me with the giant travel backpack, which is full of stuff and heavy. Yes. But that comes with overpacking too. But anyway, that can help. Yeah, I’ve done it for ba we do backpacks too,

so just, we have our hands free and things like that. But I always put in there just like a disposable grocery bag or something like one of the cloth ones. Um-huh. And then once we’re on the plane, I pull out the stuff that we’re going to like use on the plane. So if we’ve got snacks or hand sanitizer, anything that I think I’m gonna need to grab really quickly,

I kind of make a separate bag. But after you’ve gone on the airplane and they’ve checked, you know, how many items you have. But that’s made it easier for me to, ’cause sometimes just getting that backpack out or your, you know, your carry on out and getting something out, just it’s, it’s kind of hard because it’s packed so much with Yes.

Maybe an extra, you know, an extra change of clothes or extra toiletries or whatever you brought along. So Yeah, I think I love that tip. That’s a good one. And that would be good, particularly for families with little kids too. Like if you have toys and that kinda thing, you can just sort of Yes. Put it all in there.

I agree. That’s a good one. I never thought of that. So it’s just easy, easy grab whatever you need. ’cause you’re right, it is hard to, and sometimes I don’t remember where I put stuff and yeah, you End up going through the whole. Right. No good. And that leads me to one other thought is someone suggested to me unpacking at some point to always put things in the same place and that that has helped us a lot.

So like I always put our car keys, for example, in the same place in the travel backpack. It’s like that, you know, if we’re leaving the car at the airport or whatever, so because that was a problem, we’d be like, we’d arrive back from our Vacation and that was a week ago, you know, and be like, yes.

Oh my gosh, I have no idea what I did with the car keys. You know? So now I just, my brain doesn’t even have to think about it. It’s just always in the same place that can help a little bit with some stress and trying to remember where different things are. It’s just these things are always in the same part of the suitcase or you know.

Yeah. And if other people know where they are too and they can exactly go look for them without having to ask, that’s always kind of nice too, right? Yeah.

I think we had some awesome tips for everyone today. So Te Katie, tell us where we can find you online. I’m online at organizingmoms.com. That’s my website and I’m also on Instagram and Facebook and all that, just under organizingmoms all one word.

Go check Katie out at OrganizingMoms.com, and if you want to ask her about the membership, I’m sure she’d be happy to tell you about her experience as well. You can check out her review of Families Fly Free as well. Thank you so much and we’ll see everyone on next week’s episode. Have a great week.