Are you a 2 AM Suitcase Stuffer? My ADHD-Friendly Vacation Packing Plan #186

 
 

When it’s time to leave on a trip, are you up at 2 AM stuffing random clothing in your suitcase because half of your clothes are still in the washer and you’re so delirious, you forget your underwear?

That was me up until about a year ago.

But this year’s spring break trip, I had everything packed and ready to go before 9 PM. 

Can you even picture it??

Today I’m sharing my system for packing for a vacation or trip that works for my ADHD brain. 

Plus I’ve put together my Kids’ ADHD-Friendly Vacation Packing List based on ages: Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Elementary, that will take a bunch of decision fatigue off your plate.

You’ll have everything you need with you, so you can rest and relax on your vacation.

Ready to get away?

Our annual ADHD Moms Luxury Weekend Retreat is coming up October 6-8, 2023 in Houston, Texas!

Add yourself to the retreat waitlist, and I’ll let you know as soon as early bird tickets are available so you can score the best pricing and payment plans. 

“This weekend was nothing short of a dream weekend come true! It was life changing to learn, to witness and experience the bonding amongst a group of women. I felt truly celebrated every moment. To bond with so many women neurodivergent mothers was truly a gift in itself.

Only a mother could have thought of that many ways to check off the boxes: "✅treat, ✅pause, ✅relax"🧘‍♂️🧘‍♂️🧘‍♂️”  –ADHD Mama K.P.

I’ll take care of all the details - you simply show up and enjoy. 

Put it on your calendar now.

Because you deserve to take care of yourself, too. Join the retreat waitlist.

Patricia Sung  00:02

Are you overwhelmed by motherhood and barely keeping your head above water? Are you confused and frustrated by how all the other moms make it look so easy. You can figure out how to manage the chaos in your mind, your home, or your family. I get your mama, parenting with ADHD is hard. Here is your permission slip to let go of the Pinterest worthy visions of organization and structure fit for everyone else. Let's do life like our brains do life creatively, lovingly, and with all our might. When we embrace who we are and how our brains work, we can figure out how to live our lives successfully, and in turn, lead our families well, at the end of the day, we just want to be good moms. but spoiler alert, you are already a great mom. ADHD does not mean you're doomed to be a hot mess mama, you can rewrite your story from shame spiral to success story. And I'll be right here beside you to cheer you on. Welcome to Motherhood in ADHD.

 Patricia Sung  01:07

Hey there successful mama, it's your friend Patricia Sung. This week, we are continuing our two part series on traveling and trips. And I forgot to mention last week that is my full opinion that vacations are not vacations with kids vacations are trips. And it can equally be as much work if not more to be on vacation, quote, unquote, to be on a trip with kids, because you don't have all your usual things that you have at home that you would have available to you. It can be simple things like if you have a baby and like you know not having you don't carry all the accoutrements of babies like the bouncy seat and then this Nomad to keep them safe and entertained for you know, hot five seconds, but like that is more difficult. You don't have all the things that you have in your kitchen, you don't have all of your kids safe dishes, you don't have the comfort of your own bed and the blackout curtains and you're not sharing space with the people possibly like there's so many ways that it is more difficult to go on trips with your kids than to stay at home. And at the same time, I am a huge proponent of traveling the world seeing what's out there doing something different, there's just something about being away from your house that allows you to slow down in a way that you just don't when you're at home. Because when you're at a hotel or Airbnb or at a friend's house or family's house, like you're not staring at your own pile of laundry that needs to get done, or that thing that you've been meaning to do really want me to fix that project, but you haven't. Or I really should clean off that counter. Like all those things are not there to remind you of all the things you still have to do. And being able to slow down and really focus on family time is a really beautiful gift that yes, it is hard. Yes, it cost money. All these things are true. And I still believe that it's worth it in the way that makes sense for your family to get away. And what's my version of traveling may not be your version of traveling, it may not be the next mom's version of traveling, but to create that space where your family can connect and have really great memories matters. Now before I get into how I pack for trips, which is like the bane of ADHD existence, let's listen to her review of the week. This one's from CMZ Tiger Samza Tigger, sim CIT, Tigger. Who knows? This is always a mystery. Okay. Anyways, it's called I'm not a mom yet, but I fell in love with Patricia's wisdom and practical approach to you're not alone and you're not broken two sentences, I should seriously consider getting tattooed on my forehead. Thanks for doing this podcast. And until I become a mama myself, fingers crossed, please. I can just keep on adjusting to my inner child's needs. I'm pretty sure that she also has ADHD. Smiley face. Oh, see, um, there's times I think about tattooing that on my forehead too. I'm not gonna lie. I need that reminder often. Thank you so much for the encouragement. Great. So before we jump in reminder that last week, we talked about planning and also what to do if it's your first time or maybe not even the first time but you're going on a trip of just you and leaving your family behind some tips there from other moms that shared in successful on my meetups. I also shared in Episode 19, all of my trips and hacks for traveling on an airplane with small children. And I also mentioned that due to do our ADHD luxury getaway for moms is happening this fall. I'm still in the midst of organizing the last few contract details and stuff with the hotel so I'll have that information.

 Patricia Sung  05:00

shortly so go get on the waitlist you deserve to take some time for yourself, meet other moms who get you and just enjoy sleeping all by yourself in a bed, a king bed all to you eating food without having to cut up someone else's stuff waking up because your body woke up instead of someone kicking you in the hand. You deserve to have an amazing weekend away. So go get on the waitlist https://www.patriciasung.com/retreat-waitlist and I will let you know as soon as the details are finalized. earlybird should be available next month. Alright, let's jump into how do I pack for trips. I'm sure we all been there. When we're staring at the mountain of stuff we need to put in a suitcase not sure if we have all the things and just wanting to give up. It's probably about two o'clock in the morning. You just want to burst into tears we don't have to do that. So let's dive in. In tandem with the last episode Amelie upon booking all the things you write them down so you have everything there you find a way to keep all that information together. Why don't like I said this last time when I get these confirmations, you know I for them to that the app TripIt that I mentioned, again, not a sponsored post just like that. I also will snooze that email to be like the week before the trip. So it pops up all those things pop up in my email the week the trip like oh, look, write these things, I need it. Now in that time, I also make a note of anything that needs to be done ahead of time, which I talked about last week. That also includes any things that you don't already own what you need for this trip. So for example, remember, we're just focusing on packing this time gear that you might need. Like if you have a rental car, do you need a car seat to go in that rental car? Can you use the one that you have? Do you have a backpack for that currency to go in so you can travel with it or some kind of bag? Personally, I like the backpack because it's just way easier to for us to get around. If you're going to any kind of weather that is different than northern you have? Do you need to buy winter gear? Do you need to buy ski pants? Do you need camping gear? Do you need snorkel masks? What are the things that you need that you don't own already and make a list that way you can start preparing ahead of time to shop and make sure that you can like spread that out if you need to for your budget, like what are all the things that you need to take with you that you don't already have. I also economic calendar for anything that I need to remember to do. So like three weeks ahead of time, make you know shopping for the trip and making sure that it's in the right place like you don't just throw a bunch of crap on my calendar, that going shopping thing needs to either go on the day that I will go shopping. So like if I usually run errands on Monday afternoons, stick it there. So I know that I need to plan for that time to happen. Or I put that on my calendar in the space that I do planning. So like successful law meetups, we plan Wednesdays 1130 Central put those to do lists on the time of your meeting. So when it's time for the meeting you right there, you're like alright, I need to do these three things this week. And you can put them in your plan and then the you delete them off the calendar once you have a plan for them. They don't just live there. Remember, your calendar is not a to do list. You have a plan now of where those things go. Okay, moving on. About two or three weeks out. This is when I make sure I do all of the shopping stuff. Especially for kids that grow so fast and like does the swimsuit from last year still fit? Do their shoes fit? Do any flip flops? Like if you're on the beach? Do you need beach gear? Do you need any baby stuff? You have a baby? Where's it going to sleep? Do you need to take a playpen is there one there at the hotel. A lot of times they'll have like a crib or playpen available sometimes they'll charge you like an extra 20 bucks. But usually though, you just give it to you. Oh, Blackout fabric for Windows. Okay, if I can, I think I have it. I will put that link in the show notes.

 Patricia Sung  08:45

Down link in show notes. I have bought this blackout fabric that has like sticky dots on it so you can cover behind the window. That way it doesn't like mess up any of the like paint around the window. Because I've tried like those accordion style ones, they don't do quite as good of a job. I really liked this blackout fabric. You just hang it up in the windows so that your kids don't wake up the record on and then you can easily pull it down and take it with you when it's trying to go. Other thing I do in this time is well I have not actually shopping for it. This is when I do like a meal plan grocery list and know what needs to be purchased. And if you're going somewhere where you're driving like you can start picking up like okay, this week, I'm gonna grab all the dry goods and then just get the perishables the couple days before. All right, another key piece of making travel easier is that I have a travel box so in my closet, I have a small plastic container thing that has doubles in all my travel stuff in it so it's doubles with things like phone charger, or like watch or Fitbit charger. That's where I keep like the travel sized bags or like camp towel. It's a quick dry, the holder for my curling iron. I don't really use it for

 Patricia Sung  10:00

Are you more of a like the heat tool pouch or like, granted, I used to be like a big traveler. So I've got a lot of that travel specific stuff. bags for shoes, like all those things that are specific to travel, like a small laundry bag, all those things live in that box. But I have doubled the important things so that I'm not worried about like grabbing my phone charger at the last minute, I just have a phone charger that goes on trips with me, I also have an entire duplicate of my toiletry bag. There's nothing I'm grabbing from my day to day stuff except for sometimes I'll take my electric toothbrush with me that's only for going to be gone for a while. Otherwise, I just take a travel toothbrush. But in that bag, there's like a tiny shampoo, my face wash, like all those things that I normally use, I have a double up so that I'm not worried about like, Oh man, I forgot my deodorant. So is theater and I was transgender. I have the tiny deodorant in there. Oh, I'll go look, if I may still sell them. I'll put the link for the Container Store holders that I really like. I don't know if they still have them. But I'll go look, write that down, do okay. But I really like their little containers because they don't leak. I am notorious for having things leak in my bag. So I make sure that now I have the things that don't leak and these don't like, okay, a week ahead of time, roughly seven days, I look at like, Is my toiletry bag stocked Do I have enough Q tips is the shampoo full. And then I also take a laundry basket and set it out. And I just start collecting things that I remember along the way that needs to go in there. So it's like, oh, let me take this in the trip. And I'll just goes in there as I find it as I'm going. So she's like, as I think of things, it all goes in the laundry basket and it's ready to go. Rather than like putting it on a list to just immediately in the basket. There's also men go through and make a packing list. So I have a generic packing list. Again, I will put in the one that I have. If I can find it online, I don't have to start thinking from scratch of everything under the sun. The template makes it easy for them just like do I need this do I need this check digit and super fast. I also like that it has like a number of like sacks. And then just based right how many sacks you need. I also have a template on my computer of the things I need for the kids. And I've just updated like, probably once a year, as they grow, they need different things. So I have like a running list of like, here's what they need to do when they're babies here. They need the toddlers here they need when they were preschoolers here, they needed elementary school because again, there's no point in doing things twice that we don't have to I don't have to make a packing list every time I go on a trip. So I'm gonna take that template and use it again. So it's saved on my computer, I use Evernote for stuff and then when it comes to a trip, I just copy that whole list out of Evernote put a new word doc and update like okay, this time I need seven pairs of socks instead of three pairs of socks. And have that all listed out so that the only things I'm adding on there are like one off things like already on there is like swimsuit fancy outfit for a special occasion like we're wearing like a wedding or something, the only thing I'm going in there is adding in like one off things of like if we were to go snorkeling and you put a snorkel mask on there, but that we're only thinking about a few things. I'm not starting from scratch every time Oh, the brainpower for that, I am gonna put my kid packing list on the website. Again, I haven't made this yet. So I will do that. And I'll put the link in the show notes. But you can pull that as like a starting point for yourself of where to go. So again, you don't have to do the mental load again, from scratch, take my list and then adapt it for your family. The other things I look at when I'm making a packing list is the number of days we're gone, what the weather is going to be. And that way I can plan accordingly for like, you know, if it's going to be rainy, I'm probably gonna need extra socks and probably bring an extra pair of shoes so things can dry or like boots or umbrellas, that kind of thing. Generally speaking, I will add in an extra pair of underwear for everyone. And then if you're in still that like potty training, or just out of that stage, some extra pants and underwear to the other thing I look at is so like we have our suitcase with clothes. And then we also for me and then the kids they have a coat like their car bag or their plane bag where they have the stuff that they're responsible for keeping track of so I let them bring like maybe two to three books for bedtime. I would normally say just one but I guess territory in the same story every night. So two or three books, and I usually limit at three toys because I don't have to go around trying to find that many toys at the end. But generally I'm like their own account, like you need to go find your toys. Do you have them in your bag, you're responsible for this. They have an empty water bottle or a full water well empty for the plane full of throwing in the car, their snacks are in there. Their pad is in there with their headphones, everything that they need for the actual journey. They're responsible for carrying. Now we definitely help them out carrying it sometimes like you know running through the airport or something like but generally speaking, they're responsible for carrying their bags in that way they have the things that they need there. Sometimes I'll throw in some extra stuff like if like We're tight on space like any other direction person

 Patricia Sung  15:00

Using there, but usually it's just the stuff that they need in there. Now on the packing list all have all this in here, but generally my, my like sections are first my bag. So it's the things that I need to have handy. Like the things I normally have in my purse, keys, wallet and stuff, the things that I need to have handy, like extra tissues, wet wipes, my book that never gets read my headphones, then the boys each have their travel bag, we have like the suitcase section of their clothes, and then a gear section for like, do we need car sees, you know, back when we are, you know, the kids like we're little or like the baby carrier, you know, he was sharp on Oh, and then the last section is things that they need to wear. So like if I pack flip flops, but I need them to wear their sneakers, I write down like here's the things they need to wear on their bodies. And the same for me like if I know I need to wear something in particular, now that I have looked through this whole thing, like here's all the things we need to have in our bags, because I don't have any order right now or go to the store and always like remind myself that most places like they have stores there. So like if you forget something you can run to Target or Walmart or the grocery store and get what you need. Like I don't have to have a panic attack over not having something because most likely I can get there. There are a few trips, obviously that like Nope, don't have that. And we knew you're not going to store but generally speaking, there is a store that exists barring disaster if you needed to buy something. Okay, now we're at about less than a week out like five, six days to go. This is when we run any errands that need to be done. Is there anything that I need to pick up? Is there anything I need to do beforehand, also go to the bank and make sure you have enough cash, there are certain cities that are definitely cash heavy. So like, for example, like New York City, a lot of restaurants will be cash only or like perking up to tip anybody do you have like smaller bills, and then I do laundry, I wash everything before we go on a trip because I like to be able to choose from all my things and have them whole as options. But I also don't want to return to mountain laundry. When I get back, I'm already going to be bringing back a giant pile of laundry, I also don't want to have to like be super overwhelmed by old laundry plus new laundry, my husband thinks I'm totally helpless. But it just makes me feel better to have all my options there and know that I am not coming back to a giant mess. This is something that is optional. Obviously, if I'm running out of time, then like if there's something I really need that's in the wrong load, I'll just grab it and throw it in. But like it just makes me feel better. That's that. But also, as I've been putting away all this laundry and in folding things, I set aside all the things that I want to pack. So it's like, Oh, hey, folding up these pajamas. And it's going in that basket I mentioned earlier, taking that on the trip, who I really want to take this shirt. And it helps me like almost like a seeing all those things allows me to like it reminds me of like, Oh, these are the things that I want to take with me. Now four days ahead. This is when we pack all the kids stuff, make sure that everything actually fits them. Still, it all goes in a laundry basket. So like all the kids stuff is in one laundry basket. There's the basket of like random things that I've collected along the way. And I haven't read also a basket for me. So I'm putting everything that's going in their suitcase in that laundry basket. As I go through the list, I you know, crossing things off, I will go back and circle anything that's a last minute item like their shoes, or like if I still am charging their pad, I circled that that makes it easier for me to see on the list of what still needs to happen. And if there's any way that I can make those things visible, so like, I can't forget to bring their headphones. So like, if there's still a charger, I will take the bag for the headphones and like set it by the suitcase that way like see that and will remember to go get the headphones off the charger. Like I said all of their snacks and gear and stuff. A lot of that will go in their bag. And then I will also pull the suitcases out of the closet to decide which ones we're going to be using so that I can kind of judge like, okay, there's this much stuff in the laundry basket. Will it all fit in this size suitcase. Three days ahead is usually when I packed my stuff, again, goes on the laundry basket. And again, I circle everything. That's the last minute items. Again, I said to the side, all the containers of things that will help me remember the last minute things as I'm putting everything in the laundry basket, that's when I fold it into a suitcase sized, fold,

Patricia Sung  19:17

size fold. And actually do it two different ways for outfits like you know, shirt that goes with pants. Like for the kids. I pair all those together so that I know I have all their outfits that like things that coordinate they're together in the suitcase. You can also do the roll up method where you roll up the shirt, the pants, the underwear, the socks all in one roll up so that when it's time to get dressed, you just grab one burrito of clothing and take that hand out your kid and they can get dressed. For me I usually when I pack I keep it really simple by choosing one color scheme so that everything coordinates with everything else generally speaking, so like if I'm doing black as the basis Like everything that I choose, like I have the black jeans and regular jeans, I would pick all like, I just generally wear a lot of like jewel tones. So like all the tops would match either regular jeans or black jeans, and my shoes would be the shoes that would match everything else. So I really limit the amount of things that I take by keeping everything in the same color family. So like all of my shirts are in the like blue, greenish, purpley kind of color family, maybe like a maroon but it's all like the same jewel tones. They all match with black bottoms, or black shorts, or black pants and black shoes, or like regular sneakers so that everything matches with everything. And I can mix and match as I go. Or sometimes I'll pick like that trip is like earthtone. So I'll have brown shoes and khaki shorts, and everything that goes all matches together. So I don't have to worry about like, oh, somebody spilled ketchup on my shirt, I'm not worried that like I don't have another thing that'll work. Everything is coordinated. And it just makes my life easier. And then two days before, hopefully, obviously, this is my optimistic timeline. Sometimes I'm not packing my stuff until the day before. But when things are going smoothly, this is how it goes two days before is the last minute things so during during the store for anything, not when it is time to actually pack. I take the laundry basket that I've been collecting all the random things in all week long. And I spread out all the covers on my bed. So it's flat, and I lay out all the things that are in the basket, then I take my empty laundry basket and go to the closet are the drawers and put in all the things on the list that did not get added from the first round of random collection. And as I go I circle anything that I have to add last minute things like my keys, my wallet, my phone, so that eventually I have on my bed laid out all the things except for the last minute things which are circled on my packing list, then I do a big check that everything that's on the list is now on the bed. That's when I take all the things now that I know they're all here on the bed and put them in the suitcase. And I only have left the things that are circled on the packing list. And that's also want to do some editing of like, okay, I really don't need two extra pairs of pants, I think we'll be okay with one and making sure that I didn't over pack. So this is my editing time that I have the kids pack their travel bag, and then I'll go behind and check and make sure that everything's in there. If I need to do one more little laundry of like, oh, well, I was going to take those pants and you just wore them. Okay, the day before. This is my buffer day. So sometimes things from before were happening on this day. But at least I have that space like available to me to get these last minute things done. So I try to put in all the last minute things in before we go to bed because I tend to all leave like first thing in the morning. So now I can put my wallet in the bag and my keys, make sure that I have my clothes picked out for the next day. Same for the kids shoes by the door. As many like boxes, I can check the day before they're done. Fabulous. Make sure that we check into our flight, verify that I have all my travel details ready to go and hopefully go to bed at a decent hour. So that they have it's literally just last minute things like my phone charger, electric toothbrush, and we can just literally exit and GABA house like now I really don't like is there anything? I forgot? How probably ooh, I don't know that I mentioned anything about food, I definitely try to make sure that we have a food plan a day or two ahead. So like that, you know, like on the day you're leaving, if you're leaving super early, like what's our food plan? Are we going to eat here? Are we going to stop and get something on the way? Are we going to eat in the airport? Like what is the timing look like? And I also tried to say we're getting into advanced work here, but like trying to eat all the food out of the fridge before we leave. So you know not having a bunch of food that's gonna go bad, and trying to make it work so that we use up all the stuff. And if we have to go out to eat the night before, that's fine. That's one. Is there anything else I forgot? I don't think so. I think the main takeaways here is that I tried to split it out so that it's not panic central at the end. And by doing the stuff earlier, it allows me brain to kind of marinate on things. And that's when I'll start to think about things that I forgot because they already started that like chain reaction. So it allows me to give my brain the space to think of anything that I missed because I have the space available because it's really most of my life panic packing at the last minute until three o'clock in the morning. And I don't find that to be fun. And I also seem to remember like things that I don't have at the last minute. But the more that I practice these different ways of doing things, the easier it gets because I'm creating new habits in my brain without like making new habits in my brain in like a way that's not fun and is like, like punishment. So yeah. If you have any fabulous travel tips, tell me send me know me. I'll put out a part three. I guess technically that'd be like a part four because I already have the episode 19 from eons ago, last week this week, so we'll see. Okay, it is worth it to take a trip Maybe on a vacation, but a trip with your family that you can do it when you prepare ahead of time in a way that makes sense for you. Oh, I didn't even touch on like having kids pack for themselves. Oh, I think there's going to be another episode for that as possible as they get older they need to pack Yes, you have to go behind them in check. But like a couple episodes ago, Lord gave us some really good ideas about creating visual checklists for our kids. So like it can't be done on to say that for another day. So try to wrap up one more time. It is worth going on a trip successful. When you figure out how to make sense for your brain. How do you make it comfortable for you? What do you need that would make this trip feels easier and better for you do those things. Good luck planning all of your summer fun, and I'll talk to you soon successful. For more resources, classes and community head over to my website motherhood in adhd.com

Podcast EpisodePatricia SungADHD adult, Executive function, Organization, Productivity