How to Create a Perpetual Packing List - The Easiest Way to Pack

Every time I ask what you guys want to see more of the response is overwhelmingly, “more organization posts, please!”  So today I’m delivering, and I’m going to share my perpetual packing list that lives in my phone. 

We are a family of four (plus a fur baby), so every time we travel, even if it’s just for an overnight trip, we have to pack a lot of stuff.  I recently created a perpetual packing list in my phone for every single thing that we could possibly need for any trip, and it has been the most convenient tool to have!  It makes packing an absolute breeze, and it ensures that we never forget anything. 

I have an app on my phone called “List Master” that I bought nearly a decade ago, and it has been worth its weight in gold.  It houses all of my perpetual lists (grocery lists, gift ideas, wish lists, packing lists, list of movies/shows to watch, etc.) and it is so nice to have all of those lists in one place.

In my List Master app, I have a list titled “Pack for a Trip,” and then there are 17 lists divided into categores within that list.  The packing list for myself is divided into three separate lists… I have one list for each bag that I pack – my suitcase, my toiletry bag, and my purse/carryon.  Then I also have lists for the different places we go (there are some items that we only pack when we go to the beach, there are some items that we only pack when we go to Disney World, etc.), lists for the kids, a list for Maui (our pup), and I have lists of things to do before and after the trip. 

Since there are so many lists, I have them color-coded so I can see at a glance which category each list falls into.  All of the lists for myself are in pink, the lists for everyone are in red, the list for Jacob is orange, the list for Olivia is yellow, the list for Maui is green, and the to-do lists are blue. 

Here is a list of the categories and a little explanation for each…

 

1. Lindsay Suitcase (clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc.)
2. Lindsay Toiletry Bag (shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, etc.)
3. Lindsay Purse/Carryon (wallet, chargers, books, etc.)
4. Medicine Bag (daily medications, meds for unexpected illnesses, vitamins, etc.)
5. Food Bag (food/snacks to keep in our hotel room/condo)
6. House Bag (when we stay in some places we have to bring extra toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, etc.)
7. Other (items that don’t fall in any other category – umbrellas, DVD players, pillows, etc.)
8. Georgia Games (clear stadium bags, face tattoos, tailgate food, etc.)
9. Beach (beach bag, boogie boards, coolers, portable speaker, etc.)
10. New York City (belt bag, comfy shoes, etc.)
11. Disney (Mickey/Minnie ears, Magic Bands, ponchos, etc.)
12. Vegas (casino cards, etc.)
13. Jacob (clothes, shoes, toiletries, etc.)
14. Olivia (clothes, shoes, toiletries, stuffed animals, etc.)
15. Maui (crate, bed, leash, food, etc.)
16. To Do Before (pack, clean house, make sure appliances are off, etc.)
17. To Do After (unpack, laundry, etc.)

 

Here’s what the list looks like in my app.  I had to take two pictures since all of them won’t fit in just one screenshot.

 

In each of these lists, I include every single item that we could possibly need for that category.  Before I pack for a trip, I uncheck every single item from the lists we’ll need (I obviously wouldn’t uncheck any items from the Disney list if we weren’t going to Disney, and the same goes for Georgia games, the beach, New York City, and Vegas), and then as I pack the items, I check them off of the lists.

Do you want to take a peek at what’s inside some of the lists?  You know you do!  ;o)  Here are some samples of what the lists look like.  Many of these lists have so many items that I can’t capture them all in one screenshot, so you’re only seeing the top items on the lists, but you get the idea…

Here’s the list for my suitcase:

And here's what it looks like checked off:

Here’s the list for Jacob:

Here’s the list for Maui:

Here’s the list for Disney World: And again, these are only things that we pack if we’re going specifically to Disney World, so I obviously wouldn’t even reference this list if we were going to the beach.  Eventually, I’m sure we’ll go to other locations that will require their own specific lists in addition to Georgia games, the beach, Disney, NYC, and Vegas, and I’ll create lists for those locations as needed. 

Here’s the list of things I do before a trip: And this list has 38 tasks, so you’re not seeing the whole thing on one screen.  I thought I’d list all of them here, though, so you can get some ideas for your own lists.  Some tasks are for the actual trip, some are for the house (I like to come home to a clean, tidy house… there’s nothing worse than coming home from a trip to a messy house), some are for the blog (I like to have all posts done, all emails caught up, etc. before we go, so I don't have to work while we're away), and some are for safety reasons.

 

1. Pack me
2. Pack Jacob
3. Pack Olivia
4. Pack Maui
5. Charge phone
6. Charge camera
7. Charge iPad
8. Charge Ring cameras
9. Hook up DVD players in car
10. Buy everything we need for trip
11. Ask somebody to watch Maui
12. Manicure
13. Pedicure
14. Tidy the house
15. Clean the countertops
16. Dust
17. Clean the toilets
18. Vacuum
19. Mop
20. Blog posts published for entire time we’re gone
21. Catch up on regular emails
22. Catch up on blog emails
23. Catch up on blog reading
24. Catch up on planner
25. Poshmark closet on hold
26. Shut down home computer
27. Water plants
28. Ask someone to get mail (unless someone is house sitting)
29. Last minute packing
30. Turn off air/heat
31. Turn off oven
32. Turn off all fans
33. Turn off all lights
34. Turn off heated blanket
35. Turn off curling iron
36. Close all blinds
37. Lock all doors
38. Set house alarm

Here’s the list of things I do after a trip:

Once I feel like I’m done packing for a trip, I just go back to the main list, and I can see at a glance on the righthand side if each category is fully checked.  Soooo convenient. 

I have been using this method forever, and I’ll continue to use it since it works so beautifully.  It truly makes packing a breeze, and it ensures that we never forget anything.

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

Welp…

Hey y’all!  I know you’re probably coming here today for a weekly recap, but unfortunately, I had technical issues all day Sunday and Monday.  Every now and then, my pictures won’t transfer from my phone to my computer, and this was one of those times.  I fought with it for two hours Sunday afternoon and all day yesterday, which means I had no time to do the actual blog post.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for an organization post (yay!), and then I’ll have the weekly recap up on Thursday! 

In the meantime, here’s a little snippet of our weekend!  It was fun and exhausting, and I feel like I need an extra day to recover.  Haha. 

 

Happy Tuesday, y’all!  

2024 House Cleanout - End of February Update

Every year in January, I start the process of cleaning out our entire house from top to bottom with the hope of having the whole house done by the end of March.  I started out strong this year, tackling many things in January.  You can see the recap of everything that I did here if you missed it.  I lost some steam in February, but I’m hoping to pick up the slack this week.  Here’s what I’ve done since my last update…

 

Master Closet (Brian)

Accomplishments:

-       He cleaned out his entire closet

-       Freed up 57 shirt hangers and 20 pants/shorts hangers

-       He hung his tie rack (the one I gave him literally 15+ years ago.  Lol.)

-       He purchased and hung a shoe organizer

-       He sold lots of his old shirts on eBay (so weird… who knew people bought clothes on eBay?!)

Said Goodbye To:

-       57 shirts

-       16 pairs of pants

-       4 pairs of shorts

-       2 pairs of shoes

-       2 hats

 

The Before.  It actually looked even worse than this.

After

After: You can finally see the floor!

After: The shelf is completely cleared off now, and he hung his tie rack

After: the shoes are now off the floor and organized in pockets

Bye bye bye, bags of clothes

More clothes that he said goodbye to

More clothes that he said goodbye to

My Office

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out bookshelf

-       Rearranged a few things on my bookshelf to optimize functionality and make it look less cluttered

-       Found a home for a few items I’ve been wanting to display

-       Cleaned out side table

-       Cleaned out storage area next to desk

-       Cleaned out desk

-       Cleaned out craft table

-       Cleaned out closet

-       Cleaned out file cabinet

-       Started a medical and health spreadsheet and transferred all of the information from old medical and health papers to digitize them so I could toss them

-       Filed some old papers that have been sitting on top of the file box forever

-       Sold a few items on Facebook

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       27 books

-       Pile of trash

-       Pile of recycling

-       Bag of random stuff to donate

-       A stack of papers that is literally 6 inches tall (from my file cabinet)

A nice, decluttered bookshelf 

Bye bye bye, old stuff!

Master Bedroom

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out my dresser

-       Cleaned out my side table

-       B cleaned out his dresser

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       Several pairs of socks, winter hats, swimsuit coverups, bras, tights, and various other random things

-       Several old prescriptions (I keep them in my nightstand)

-       Lots of old white t-shirts and socks of Brian’s

Bye bye bye, old stuff!

Old prescriptions I said goodbye to

Master Bathroom

Accomplishments:

-       Cleaned out all cabinets

-       Cleaned out all drawers

-       Wiped down top drawer organizers where we keep toothbrushes, etc.

-       Organized makeup

-       Organized all items that I buy in bulk when on sale

 

Said Goodbye To:

-       All expired medicines

-       A whole pile of stuff for recycling

-       A whole pile of stuff for trash

A nice, cleaned out, wiped down top bathroom drawer

My cleaned out, wiped down makeup organizer (similar here)

All supplies I ordered in bulk are now organized in my bottom bathroom drawer

Bye bye bye, old stuff from the bathroom cabinets

Miscellaneous

-       Photographed 5 more clothing items and listed them on Poshmark.  (Already sold a couple of them, too!)

-       Photographed and listed various other toys/books/home décor items on our local Facebook selling page.  (Already sold some of them, too!)

 

And that’s it for now!  I’m hoping to have the whole house finished by the end of March, so I should have a pretty hefty update next time.  And if you missed my last update, you can see it here.  Lots of good stuff!

Happy Monday, y’all!

Happy 10th Birthday to Our Olivia Cate!

Olivia,

On Sunday you will be TWO WHOLE HANDS and I just can’t believe it.  To think that it’s been an entire decade since I held you in my arms for the first time is truly unfathomable.  You are currently still clinging to the innocence of girlhood while also dipping your toes into the waters of tweenhood.  Thankfully, you still lean into the childhood things more heavily, playing with Barbies, snuggling your stuffies, and drawing and crafting, but more and more we’re seeing glimpses of the teenager you will soon become every time you put on red lipstick or belt out the lyrics to a Taylor Swift song.  I know our days with a “little one” in the house are numbered, and I’m trying to cherish every single second.

This past year, you completed your third-grade year at school, and you’re currently making your way through fourth grade.  Your grades are still stellar despite the fact that you’ve recently started stumbling a bit through fourth-grade math.  The older you get, the less you enjoy school, but I think that’s pretty standard of most kids.  Fourth grade was when school started to lose its luster for me, too.  You do love seeing your friends every day, though, and that’s what keeps you enjoying every single day.  You do not like waking up early, though… you love your sleep… just like your momma!  However, you get right out of bed every single morning without complaint, even though you’re not a morning person!

You are still in the Challenge Program at school (AKA the Gifted Program), and you’ve declared some days that it’s boring.  Leave it to you to be bored by a program that’s supposed to challenge you and take the boredom out of school.  Haha.   

Your group of friends means everything to you, and while you’re still cherishing your two oldest friends, Aubrey and Cami, you have also grown closer this past year with Savannah and Maren.  They are just the sweetest group of girls, and we’re so excited (and a little apprehensive) about having all of them over tonight for a sleepover to celebrate you!  I have a feeling it is going to be an exhausting night.  Haha.

In addition to those girls, you have several friends who you still keep in touch with in the way of occasional snail mail – your old friend Becca from school, Evelyn who you met at the beach last summer, and Clara, who you hit it off with this past Christmas.  (You haven’t sent Clara’s letter yet, but you keep talking about it… we just need to get it mailed!)  You and Evelyn have been writing letters back-and-forth all year, and we are hoping that you will be reunited at the beach in June! 

Last year, I mentioned in my birthday letter to you that your crush of four years had finally fizzled out, but that’s actually not the case.  You are still crushing hard on him all these years later, and we think it’s the cutest thing.  I won’t mention names here, but I’m sure 15-20 years from now when you’re reading this, you’ll know exactly who I’m referring to.  ;o)

You are the craftiest little thing, and you are always tinkering with paper, tape, markers, glue, cardboard, jewels, string, beads, and whatever else you can get your hands on.  If there’s something that you want, you make it.  You’ve recently been into making Taylor Swift Eras Tour outfits out of felt for your Barbies, and it’s actually quite amazing the things you can do!  You’re also becoming quite the artist.  At age ten, you can already draw a human face 100 times better than I ever could, and I love that you have gotten your Pop’s artistic abilities.  I know that makes him so happy, too.

In addition to crafting and drawing, you also still love to write, and you’re constantly starting a journal, only to abandon it and move along to writing song lyrics instead.  You do still hate reading, though, and that’s just baffling to me since you love to write so much, but I guess you’d just prefer to make up your own stories rather than read someone else’s.  You do always meet (and exceed) your AR goal each quarter at school, though.

You are literally never quiet.  Whether you’re telling us about your day, talking about random Taylor Swift facts, singing a song, talking to yourself, or interrupting one of us to say something super important, you always have something to say.  Or sing.  Which reminds me… you’re still taking voice lessons, and shortly after I posted your ninth birthday letter last year, you sang in your very first voice recital! 

You did the best job, but promptly burst into tears the moment you left the stage because you were so relieved to have it done.  After that, you were adamant that you’d never do another one because you said it was way too nerve-wracking.  You did end up skipping the recital in December, but after reading a recent article about your hero, Taylor Swift, and how she used to be nervous to get on stage, you’ve been inspired to try to do the voice recital again this spring.  We will see. 

As for dance, you added yet another style this year, and you are now taking SIX dance classes – ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, musical theatre, and hip hop.  Whew.  You will have an intense schedule for the recital this year, but you’ll also have six fabulous costumes, and you are thrilled about that.  We are already counting down the days until we can see you shine your light on stage in your dance studio’s production of Mary Poppins!

As for other things you love, #1 right now is the queen, Taylor Swift.  You are positively obsessed with her, and for good reason.  ;o)  You are eating, breathing, and sleeping TS these days, and it is the sweetest thing.  I could write a whole book just about your love for Taylor, but for now, we’ll just leave it at this paragraph. 

As far as foods go, your love for PB&J somewhat fizzled this past year and we are baffled since it’s the only thing you ever wanted to eat for years.  We’re thinking that maybe you just got sick of it?  You’ll still eat it, but you don’t choose it above all else nowadays.  You do still love Cheetos, cheese dip, and ice cream, though.  Oh, and Kraft Mac and Cheese.  We can’t forget that! 

The older you get, the messier you get, and honestly just when I think your room can’t get messier, you prove me wrong.  You haaaate tidying up, you couldn’t care less when you can’t find something, and you pretty much just drop whatever’s in your hands wherever you are at any given time.  Haha.  It drives me absolutely insane.  We just cleaned out and tidied your room to perfection a few weeks ago, and it’s already in utter shambles despite my very best efforts to encourage you to stay on top of it.  It’s funny, because you LOVE when it’s tidy, but you don’t care enough to keep it that way.

You are still dragging Sheepie everywhere with you, which I absolutely love, and I pray that you always love her as much as you have these last ten years.  You bring her in the car to school every morning, and some mornings rather than abandoning her in your seat, you’ll hand her to me so I can make sure she’s well cared for while you’re at school all day.  Sheepie and I have spent some good quality time together this past year. 

You and Jacob still love each other very much and you are most definitely each other’s biggest fans.  Y’all are still inseparable at home for most of the time, but I have noticed in recent months that you are both starting to do things independent from one another every once in a while… I have a feeling that is probably just because Jacob is tired of listening to Taylor Swift, though.  Hahahaha.

We gave you most of her CDs for your birthday last year, and I’m pretty sure it’s one of the best gifts we’ve ever given you because you have worn those things out this past year.  We also got you an Echo Dot for your bedroom for Christmas and you have been wearing that out, too.  Your love for music reminds me very much of my love for music when I was your age, and I love that you are constantly listening to something while you’re doing other things.  You named your Echo Dot “Ziggy” instead of the traditional “Alexa,” that they typically default to, and we’re constantly hearing, “ZIGGY, SKIP THIS SONG!!!!”  Haha.

You add so much light and joy and spontaneity to our home, and we all love you with our whole hearts.  You make life so much more FUN, and we know that you’re going to do big things in life!  Happy Taylor Swift tenth birthday to my very best girl!

We cannot wait to celebrate you tonight!

Love,

Mommy

Birthday Letter - Age 2

Birthday Letter - Age 3

Birthday Letter - Age 4

Birthday Letter - Age 5

Birthday Letter - Age 6

Birthday Letter - Age 7

Birthday Letter - Age 8

Birthday Letter - Age 9