Settle a debate—how early do you bring out suitcases for vacation?

[Anonymous]

I pack the night before the flight. For road trips I back right before we leave if we aren't heading out too early.

[Anonymous]

You pack the way you need to, not based on others.

Husband shouldn’t mock

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I pack the night before the flight. For road trips I back right before we leave if we aren't heading out too early.

Same. I might be more thoughtful and plan in advance if the destination was somewhere extremely remote or requiring very specific items I wasn't sure you could buy onsite, but for your average trip to Europe or whatever I toss things in the night before. I spent 8 years traveling weekly, I'm a very efficient packer.

[Anonymous]

I pack day of or night before.

Nothing wrong with packing early as long as it isn't stuff that is needed or that he wants to use / have / wear between now and the holiday.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I do what you do. If there’s room to keep a suitcase open, then it relieves me of worrying I’m going to forget the thing I remembered. It also depends how long the trip is. If it’s a couple of days, I’ll just stack up piles of stuff. If it’s a week, the suitcase comes out earlier.

Tell your husband that planning and packing and getting excited beforehand are part of the fun of travel!

[Anonymous]

Your husband sounds like a loser

[Anonymous]

OP - I am with you!! I stage / prep-pack the weekend before we leave (normally we work that week tho). That way I know if I need any Amazon orders or laundry. DH thinks I’m a bit nuts too but I just ignore his eye rolls.

[Anonymous]

My husband likes to be done packing 2 days before. Mens all laundry that we are taking is done 5 days before we leave. He packs himself, kids (5 and 8) pick and put their own stuff into packing cubes, i just need to tell them how many pairs of underpants, shirts they need to choose. I have general lists of stuff we need (swim suits, towels, medications etc). We are very planning oriented but it saves any last minute rush and we leave a clean house to come home to.

[Anonymous]

Ignore him and stop talking about it. You make the situation worse by talking about it. Respect his space. If you share a closet or another room, don't make your organizing intrusive. Keep doing whatever makes you happy, adds to your excitement for the trip, and gets you organized. You can not expect all others to be in sync. Since you know your DH thinks it's odd, share your building excitement with others who understand.

[Anonymous]

I gather stuff in laundry basket(s) or sometimes suitcases starting a week or two before, so I don’t think it’s overkill.

[Anonymous]

The week of and not before. Things are laid outside of the suitcase during the week and shoved in the day or hours before......

[Anonymous]

Low stakes trips where we don’t need anything other than basic clothes-night before.

More complicated trips-I’ll start pulling things together much earlier so I can figure out if I need to buy anything.

I also make packing lists on my phone so when I do pack, I’ll remember all the random things I thought of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We leave for vacation next Friday but are officially on vacation right now/next week. I keep thinking of random things I don’t want to forget and the tote bag I have staged in our closet has runneth over. I brought out a suitcase and have it staged in our guest bedroom. My husband saw what I was doing and told me it’s “ridiculous” to be packing already and I need to “calm down with the excitement”. Party pooper!

Anyway, how early do you start prepping like this?

You have it staged like it’s there just for fake or you’re actually using it?

[Anonymous]

Instead of staging and putting things in the bag a week before I just keep a list as I think of things to add or things I don’t want to forget. Then I pack the night before and check off the list as I go. I need it to be fresh in my mind. If I pack too soon I keep going back to check to see if I packed this or that.

[Anonymous]

15:51 again. I’m curious whether your husband helps gather all the things.

When you wait to do it all at once, it takes forever. Toiletries are in multiple different bathrooms, umbrellas live in the car, seasonal clothes might be packed away if you’re going somewhere with different weather, you might need to buy a few things or gifts, etc., etc. It’s so much easier to do the actual packing if all that stuff has been gathered throughout the week!

When I don’t do it in advance, my husband’s the one who gets to run around the house retrieving this and that while I’m packing!