The thought of deciding what to pack for nine months can be overwhelming. Since I believe in not reinventing the wheel, I researched different websites to determine what to bring (Everyone who knows me knows that google is my BFF). It was a great starting point and provided a few ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of, oral rehydration tablets for example (Tom thinks I’m being a little too careful but you never know … always be prepared).
We are each taking one backpack. Tom’s is a 70 litre, mine is a 50 litre and the boys are 30 litres each. Having said that we aren’t stuffing them till they are filled because weight will then be an issue. And Tom knows that at times he will be carrying them (hence the Sherpa moniker).
In the end, we went with common sense. This is our packing list. It wasn’t until I wrote it all down that I realize all the stuff we were taking with us.
Kids
4 – T-shirts
3 – shorts
4 – underwear
4 – socks
2 – track pants
One each of the following:
- long sleeve shirt
- hoodie
- dress shirt
- bathing suit
- water shirt
- nice pants
- sweat pants that double as PJs
- raincoat
- travel towel
- sleep sheet
- running shoes
- sandals
- baseball cap
Kim
4 – T-shirts
3 – tank tops
2 - nice shirts
2 – shorts
4 – underwear
4 – socks
2 – pants
One each of the following:
- Long skirt
- Skort
- Dress
- long sleeve shirt
- hoodie
- nice sweater
- bathing suit
- raincoat
- PJs
- Scarf
- Sarong – double as towel
- sleep sheet
- running shoes
- sandals
- baseball cap
- sun hat
- travel pillow
Tom
4 – T-shirts
2 – dress shirts
4 – underwear
4 – socks
2 – pants that also have zip off shorts
One each of the following:
- Shorts
- long sleeve shirt
- hoodie
- bathing suit
- water shirt
- raincoat
- travel towel
- sleep sheet
- running shoes
- sandals
- baseball cap
- Sense of humour
- pound of patience
Medication
- Adult Gravol
- Kids Gravol
- Transderm-V patches
- Ginger capsules
- Kids advil
- Imodium
- Cold and cough medication
- Muscle relaxants
- Oral rehydration powder
- Constipation medication
- Voltaren - Topical muscle pain reliever
- Hand sanitizer
- Medical Kit Containing
- Medical tape
- Band-aids
- Thermometer
- Antibiotic ointment
- Cotton pads
- Alcohol swabs
Technology
- Camera
- Laptop
- IPads filled with learning apps, games and books
- IPhones that were unlocked
- Earbuds
- Noise cancelling earphones
- Ereader
- External hard drive
- Flash drives
- Chargers
- Adapters
Toiletries and Other Stuff
- Soap
- Toothbrushes
- Toothpaste
- Lush shampoo
- Deodorant
- Q-tips
- Shaver
- Comb
- Feminine hygiene products
- Umbrella
- Stain remover – we do have 3 young kids
- Smart Klean Laundry ball - One ball the size of a softball will do 365 loads of laundry
- 5 headlamps
- luggage scale
- swiss army knife
- binoculars
- 2 flashlights
- Copies of passports
- Bladder type water bottles
- School stuff – pencils, pens, paper, erasers, geometry set
- Toys – travel games like Sorry, Uno and Farkle. Also an awesome fabric balloon ball. It is just a piece of fabric but place you blow up a balloon inside and it turns into a ball. Thanks to the Gillespies for giving it to us.
There is all is packed up. Our life in backpacks for the next nine months!!!
