Pack now or later?

As you know, Disney is looming in our near future.  Yay!!!

What you may not know is how differently each of my family members approaches the upcoming trip.

Guess whose suitcase this is?
You got it!
Julie, my overachieving, extremely excited second-grader.

This was packed on April 5, a full 25 days before our departure date.  What does that tell me? 

One - She has WAY too many clothes if she can leave 7 days worth of clothes packed and still be fully clothed for a month. 
Two - She's a tad excited about the trip (just a smidge).
Three - She's totally my child :).

OK, this one is David's.  The only reason it is partially packed (the things are literally just thrown in there) is because Julie convinced him that he needed to pack it.  Unfortunately he doesn't have the amount of clothes that Julie does.  Which means that after he packed all his clothes, I had to unpack most of them so he wouldn't be naked at school.  He's excited, but not nearly so much as Julie.

Embarrassingly so, this is my little stack of things that I can't forget to pack.  As I think of them I either write on my list or put them in this chair. 

I am a list-maker, big time.  Here is my Disney packing list:

Um, except that's just part of it.  My "list" is actually 5 lists.  I've divided it into Papers/Books, Toys/Games/Electronics, Clothes/Toiletries, Misc, and Food.  But, hey, I rarely forget much that way.

This is what Tim has done to get ready....NOTHING.
He'll pack about a day or two before and put everything here on the bed.  He packs by asking me what he should pack and then I actually do the packing into the suitcase because I have a knack for getting it all in one suitcase.

But the cool thing is, we all get where we are going and we all are packed by the time we get there :).

Now that you know our quirks, here are a few packing tips for your next trip.

• For each child, I took gallon ziploc bags and put dates on them for each day we are going to be gone.  Their shorts, shirt, underwear and socks for that day all go in that bag.  When they wake up, they just have to pull out the bag for that day and its all right there ready for them.
• For adult clothes, you can fit a lot more in your suitcase if you roll all of your clothes instead of folding them.  (I actually rolled the kids clothes inside each bag as well.)
• We are only taking 2 pair of shoes each - tennis shoes for walking around Disney and flip-flops for the pool.
• I've gotten each child a fanny pack to wear in the parks (good thing they don't know how uncool that is).  They will put their sunglasses, chapstick, mp3 player (in a plastic bag), and snack in there.  That way they get to "share the load."

13 days to go. What additional packing tips do you have for us?

**Don't forget to enter our Disney trip boredom contest.  A comment on this post earns you an additional entry!**