FLUFF- When getting ready for vacation, when do you (PIC)

Honestly? Like the day before. ha ha And its an allll day affair. I do all of the laundry first, fold and then make separate piles for what I am packing. I have three kids though, so I am never on top of laundry on a good day. I feel like doing it this way just makes less work for me (although it does make for a very long day of packing right before a trip).

I keep a packing list in Excel, divided up by clothing, toiletries, carry-on, then add ons for various types of trips (beach, camping, anywhere out of the country, places with a kitchen). Uber-anal I know, but it works for me. I used to get anxious and lose sleep, and then start tossing crap in piles about a week before a trip, all in the name of not forgetting something. Now I don't stress. I stockpile magazines a couple weeks before the trip, do laundry 1-2 days in advance, and then pull out my list(s) and start packing either the night before or the morning of depending on when we leave.

Kikipea, I used to buy all of the scrapbook magazines, and save them for trips. I miss them!

It depends on the trip. If I am going on a snorkel trip, I will start a couple of weeks ahead of time putting stuff in the guest bedroom that we will need to take. I like to get our snorkel gear out and ready and make sure I have my tiny baby shampoo for the masks. I also get the underwater cameras ready to to getting all batteries charged, make sure I have any cables needed if I am taking my netbook with me, etc. I will also get my netbook out and charged. Clothes might wait until a bit closer unless it is a trip in the winter so we are not using our summer clothes. I also like to get out my travel toiletries and make sure everything that I can fill ahead of time is ready to go. I always have last minutes things that I need to add to the toiletries. Nothing gets packed until the day (or maybe 2) before we leave.

If I'm going somewhere I'm really super excited about, I start pre-packing anywhere from 2 weeks to a month before. I try to stop wearing the clothes that I plan to pack probably a week out. If it's a special piece, or requires dry cleaning or hand washing, I definitely get that done at minimum a week before, earlier if I can help it. I always make a list. I do my final packing the day before, packing around my empty CPAP case. The morning of I pack my CPAP and then re-settle the rest of the stuff in the suitcase. I have doubles of everything else, so those items are packed as soon as I get back from my last business trip, which may end up being the day before. I seriously love planning what to pack for my trip. My sister, cousin, and I booked our rooms for WDW in October just yesterday, and I'm already starting my list.

For work, I pack on Sunday for my Monday flight. Everything except clothes is already in my suitcase. I may double-check toiletries to make sure I'm not low on anything. Then I check the weather where I'm going, decide if I'm going with a brown or black color scheme, and gather a week's worth of work clothes and undergarments (plus one extra for emergencies) and put them in their respective pack cubes in my suitcase. If I decide I need a different sized suitcase than the week before, it takes seconds to transfer everything over.

I also double check my carry-on (or car bag if it's a road trip) the night before. That's the same no matter what type of travel. It has my emergency overnight kit in case I'm stranded without my luggage, reading material (books for air travel, magazines for road trips), headphones, meds, wrap or light jacket, wallet, phone.

It depends on the kind of trip. Camping, the day we leave. We have all our camping gear organized and labeled in the garage and each time we get home, we get everything cleaned and put back where it belongs, so it's ready for the next trip. When we leave the next time, all we have to do is pack clothes and food, put the gear in the car and go. We can be out the door less than an hour after deciding we're going camping.

For a business trip, I plan my wardrobe the week before and get anything washed or dry cleaned that I'm taking with me. When it's clean, I hang all that in the guest room and actually pack it the night before I leave. Most leisure air travel is about the same.

For a family road trip or going to a vacation rental, it's a couple week process of things here and there. Figuring out what all we can fit, what we will need (do we need to take the bikes? tennis rackets? hiking boots? etc), food and kitchen tool planning (we usually do vacation rentals over hotels because we prefer to not eat out all the time), etc.. This is definitely the most time consuming kind of packing, but makes for a super relaxed vacation, so it's worth it.

I keep packing lists for each kind of trip on my phone, and tweak them as need me, so that really streamlines things.

I'm a list maker too.  I keep a list on my IPad of things I always take like cameras, phone chargers, clothes steamer, etc.  If I need to buy anything like snacks or toiletries I do that a few days before.  Laundry gets done 2 days before and I pack the night before we leave.  I will start setting my clothes aside about a week before then purge the pile down when I'm ready to pack.  

We do a lot of road trips with our car club and I'm getting really good at packing to fit a Corvette "trunk".

A few weeks ahead of departure I start a packing list that I will add to as I think of things I want to bring, outfits I want to pack, etc.. I have a travel toiletry bag that is ready to go at all times.

I get caught up on laundry a couple of days before I start packing my suitcase, which is the day or night before departure. I am kind of crazy then because I try on all my clothes to make sure I'm comfortable in everything I'm bringing. I also make sure I can mix and match several items of clothing.

I am a light packer. I wash clothes the day before, pack  just before bed and toss my toiletries in the morning of.

I do the same.  It makes it so much easier knowing I don't have to think of everything.

On the 2nd page of my list is a "Things to Do" list, which includes items such as printing boarding passes, holding mail & newspapers, making sure all phones, camera batteries, etc. are charged, watering plants, throwing out food from the fridge, and shutting off the main water valve.  

I am typically not organized at all, but this list seriously saves my sanity.

Lately I have been packing at the last minute for our trips, but I am thinking about what I want to take for about a week before. That way I know not to wear something or to make sure it is washed.

I do small loads of laundry throughout the week so it's rarely an issue of "saving" clean clothes for a trip. I travel a good bit (anything from overnights to long weekends to several weeks abroad) and can pretty much throw a bag together for any given trip on a moment's notice if need be. I do keep a complete set of toiletries packed for short trips so it's easy to just add makeup to the bag.

I still subscribe to a number of magazines but they pile up because I rarely take the time to read them at home. We've had two long road trips this month so I finally worked my way to the bottom of the current stack. I love magazines for trips because I can just shed them as I'm done with them. All I have to show for those two recent road trips is a stack of ripped out recipes to try. The magazines have been left behind all across the country!