All About That Road-Trip Packin'

It's almost vacation season, y'all! For some of us DWIFOs that means flying across the Atlantic Ocean and for the rest of us it means driving halfway across the country. Regardless of where you're headed this summer, you're gonna have to pack. There's no avoiding it. For this month's post I decided to show you guys how I do it and what I like to bring with me. This is gonna be a doozy of a post so let's do this!

First and foremost, you have to have a packing playlist. (Big surprise, a DWIFO talking about music) It needs to be made of a few hours of upbeat songs that you won't have to skip through. Lucky for y'all I made one on Spotify earlier of everything I'm obsessed with as of late. Click the picture to start jammin'.

After you've got your playlist going, the next thing is to make some lists. Now, you could skip this part but I like making out a schedule/calendar type deal to help me sort of limit what all I pack. Let's be real I like making lists for almost everything. I just took a notebook (a One Direction notebook thankyouverymuch) and wrote out the days I will be gone, what I'll be doing on those days and what I thought I will want to wear. I also just did an overall list of clothes I might want to pack. Pretty simple stuff. 

Here's what the inside of my main suitcase looks like. My luggage is by DVF Studios from Macy's and was a Christmas gift I think 2 years ago? It's no longer available but there are a couple similar styles on Macy's right now and they're on sale. It's not very big- in fact I think it's considered a carry-on size when the expander isn't in use. I like to use this bag for all of my clothes and shoes with the exception of my pajamas. But we'll get to that later. You can see in the picture it has lots of inside pockets, which are incredibly useful.

The next thing I do is straight up organized chaos. I walk around between my dressers and my closet and literally throw everything I might want to take into my bag. When I get done, this is what it looks like. There is no way I could get that zipped if I wanted to and my shoes aren't even in it! Let's remedy this. 

Muuuuuch better. Look at all those neatly stacked piles of clothes. My OCD is very pleased, ha. I will be gone for nine days, some of which will be spent in a car, some of which will be sight-seeing, and some of which will be at concerts. So, among those piles of clothes I have:
-3 pairs of jeans
-1 pair of denim shorts
-2 pairs of jersey sweatpants (almost formal sweats...)
-2 dresses
-5 tee shirts
-4 tank tops
-6 ~dressier tops
-1 loose knit kimono/sweater
-1 chambray shirt
-1 flannel shirt
-1 bathing suit top+bottoms
-3 pajama bottoms

 Now to begin the process of actually loading up my bag...

First things first, my tall boots have to go on the bottom. They take up the most space and just wouldn't work anywhere else. Then I utilized the top pockets for my tanks and underwear. That's not exciting, so I figured pictures weren't necessary, ha. After that, I decided to put my beach towel over my boots to act as a divider so my clothes wouldn't be touching my boots and so my boots wouldn't get scratched up. On top of the towel I put a comfy sweatshirt. I get cold at night and you never know if it's going to be chilly sittin' out on Tim's land. (We're going to Texas. Texas Forever. Friday Night Lights. Tay has a post about this, people.)

                

The next thing I did was take my stack of pants and put them on the right side of my suitcase. Yes, this was intentional because that is the end with the wheels and my jeans and pants are more sturdy than my flimsy shirts and tees. So those went on the left/top side, along with the two dresses I'm bringing. Then I took my flannel and chambray shirt and stacked those on top of the pants. My bag has a little attached cosmetics bag on the top that I like to use for softer shoes. This trip, for example, I used it for my TOMS Cordones, but I might also squeeze a pair of flip-flops into it before I leave, just in case. This keeps my dirty shoes off of my clothes. (I'm a little obsessive over that. It's fine.)







Next up is what I like to call my bathroom bag. It's another a carry-on size bag also by DVF studios that has a set of upper handles and also an extendable handle and wheels. I like to use this bag for my pajamas and all of my toiletries; everything I might need in the bathroom. It's extremely sturdy and holds way more than you might think. And it sits perfectly on top of my other bag so I can roll both at the same time.

Here's everything I am taking in this bag. We've got a stack of pajamas that includes a pair of pants, two pairs of shorts, and two tees. The tiny polka-dotted bag in the back is a bag I take with me on every single trip I take. It's got travel sized Lysol, dry shampoo, hairspray, body spray, a lint roller, and bandaids. Just a few essentials, if you will. The clear/metallic zebra bag holds my makeup, and my hair dryer and straightener are right in front of it. Then we have my actual toiletries. Since I'm not flying anywhere I'm just bringing full sizes of almost everything: shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, you know the drill. I'm also bringing my Clarisonic and a new brush head for that.

Next up: you gotta bag up that ish. I actually prefer to double bag it. I have this irrational fear of something exploding in my bag, even though that hasn't actually ever happened to me. (KNOCK ON WOOD) 

Last but not least is the little bag I use for jewelry. I have had this baby Vera Bradley zip bag for years now and it's perfect for packing jewelry. I can't be without an excessive amount of cheap costume jewelry c'mon now. And yeah, I realize that's an obnoxious amount of midi rings to bring but whatever I'm really into those right now. This little bag goes into my bathroom bag second to last- right before my makeup bag. 

And I think that's finally it?! If you think I forgot something, like chargers, meds, etc check out the post I made about what I lug around in my purse. I'm pretty sure I have all of my bases covered.

It's road trip time! 

"Oh darling, let's be adventurers..."