It drives me crazy (and I refuse to post a picture here of what it looks like in reality!)
We are usually pretty organized as we leave home, but by the time we are done with our adventure and heading back, a gear tornado has taken over our vehicle.
We usually finish our ski (or hike, etc.) and throw the kids into the car, quickly take off gloves and boots to make sure extremities are warm, and give them a snack (and dig through quickly-shed jackets to get there) before they start getting really fussy. Two minutes of craziness means no organization what-so-ever.
However, we have gotten better, thanks to being more consistent about our packing and trying to enforce a system (despite the madness!)
What we do for the shorter trips (in the area):
- All P's clothing (hats, gloves, booties) are zipped into his snowsuit and then put into the community duffel bag.
- J wears his snow pants and boots to the trail.
- Mountain Papa and I also wear our ski pants and ski boots to the trail.
- All our extra gear is thrown into a big duffle.
When we're going a little further:
- Everyone's gear goes into separate bags (though for now the kids share one bag.)
- Mittens are paired and stuck into hats and then into coat sleeves.
- Boots have their own pockets in said bags (wait for it....) to keep them separate from other stuff (avoiding mud and snow/water on everything.)
- We bring a bag specifically for snacks and water bottles. All empty containers and fruit peels return to that bag (we usually carry a reusable trash sack for the garbage.)
- The car does not move until all gear (wet or not) returns back to its spot. Because we usually are going to need that stuff again (coats for dinner later or hats and gloves and snow pants for sledding, etc.) we want to know where it is.
- When we get home, our railing is full of the wet stuff to dry!
THE bag(s) that helps keep that organization a little better:
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| Edge Jr. and XTW in Gray/Lemongrass Multi Floral |
