Packing for a Family of 4 for a 30 day trip

We made it home from our 30 day trip and have recovered.  We took a ton of photos but it is taking more time than I thought it would to sort through them.  We will get photos and details of our trip up soon though!  In the interim, I thought I would detail what we did for packing.  Many of you saw the photo of our two carry-on pieces of luggage in which we fit a family of 4 (2 adults, a 3 year old, and a 10 year old).

The black pack is a Deuter Transit 50 with a detachable daypack (we used this daypack everywhere we went).  This bag was amazing and I cannot rave enough about it.  The blue bag is a Granite Gear Cross- Trek Convertible Wheeled Carry-On with Removable 28L Pack.  This bag was the same price as the Deuter but overall seemed to be built a little cheaper. It worked for the trip and I loved the removable backpack for places like on the plane. I also loved the wheels but most of the time it would have been nicer to just carry it on my back so my hands were free.  There are strap on the entire suitcase to carry it but they are very uncomfortable and there is no back support straps. If I were to do a 30 day trip again I would buy a 2nd Deuter but with a slightly smaller capacity, as the 50 L is a little big on my small stature. The only thing missing from this photo is Carson's red backpack which you will see in another picture farther down. To keep things organized inside our bags we used eBags Packing Cubes (they come in many colors so each of us had our own color) and 1 shared eBags Pack-it-Flat Toiletry Kit.

So you might be wondering how in the world we fit a family of 4 into these 2 bags.  And what did we pack? We unpacked everything a little after half way into our trip.  By this point we had acquired a few souvenirs and kept peanut butter and bread with us at all times.  But to start with each of us had:

• 5 Complete Outfits (4 packed and 1 on our bodies)
• 1 pair of tennis shoes and 1 pair of flip flops (we wore mostly flip flops so should have packed 3 pairs of socks instead of 5), Oliver also had his Croc shoes so we shouldn't have packed his flip flops
• 1 Hat and 1 Rain Jacket and/or Light Sweater, 2 pairs of sunglasses 
• Games (ie UNO), books, and Electronics (Kindles, Ipads, Phones, Nintendo 3DS, ect), Headphones, Chargers for each electronic device, power adapter for Asia power outlets
• Toiletries (razors, toothbrushes, sunscreen, hand sanitizer wipes, homemade 1st aid kit with medicine, cough drops, and tissues); we picked up an all-in-1 body/hair wash, deodorant, and toothpaste in Hawaii then trashed it when we left there (after 1 week), then purchased the things again in Thailand where we knew we had 3 weeks until we got on a plane again)
• Small spiral notebook to keep notes as we traveled, pens, pencils, coloring pages, crayons, blank printer paper for drawing, passports, print outs for everywhere we were travelling and staying

 Here is what all of this looks like (plus a couple extra souvenirs) unpacked:

After getting everything in the packing cubes here is what things looked like with the bags they went into:

Everything on the left hand portion of the picture went into Aaron's Deuter bag: orange cubes-(Aaron's clothes and items for the plane-neck pillows, etc), 1 pink cube (games/electronic chargers), and 1 gray cube (Oliver's clothes).  You can see the day pack removed from the big bag on the top left.  

On the right-this went into my Granite Gear suitcase: The pink cube (Dorina's clothes), Green Cube (Carson's clothes), Blue cube (toiletry bag--this was great for airport travel--our liquids were in 1 ziplock type baggy inside but all I had to do was pull the entire cube out of the suitcase and put it in a bin at security). 

In the middle-these items went into my Granite Gear backpack: 1 grey cube (electronics and headphones for the plane), mine and Oliver's sweaters and hats,  Oliver's stuffed animal Apollo, snacks, tissues, hand sanitizer wipes, and non-electronic activities for other (paper, crayons, books, etc).  

The bottom right went into Carson's red back pack: hat and sweater, tennis shoes (although sometimes we packed these into his clothing packing cube which went into my suitcase), green cube (electronics and headphones for plane). 

Final tips for packing light:

Unless you are travelling to the middle of nowhere or into a jungle where there are no stores, remember there will always be a convenience store of some sort where you can buy goods.  Everywhere we went we saw 7 Elevens.  They had all the big brands you would expect in the US but prep yourself to be flexible anyway. To keep your weight down and make traveling through airport security easy buy your toiletries at your destinations (we mostly purchased travel size items but if you know you will be on land for a while you can purchase larger items).  Also try to share items if possible.  Although I usually like my body wash, shampoo, and conditioner separate, for this trip we bought an all in 1 wash that covered everything from hair to body.  My hair was always up in a pony tail anyway so I wasn't worried about winning any beauty contests. I did not pack any make-up as where we were travelling was hot and humid most of the time.  It would have melted off my face 2 seconds after stepping outside!

For clothing and shoes, check future weather forecasts for where you are travelling.  Future forecasts said there was a slight chance of rain a couple places we went, we never had rain but we packed our rain coats anyways because they were small and took up little room.  If your coats take up too much space and there is a small chance of rain leave the coats behind.  There was clothing and ponchos everywhere we went so it would have been easy to get extra items if needed.  

Also, you can plan ahead to book B&Bs with laundry services although we did not do this.  We did book B&Bs and guesthouses the entire trip then just checked with the owners about laundry services.  We found a pay for someone to do your laundry in one place, found a do-your-own laundry service in another, then had the owner do our clothing for us at another place.  Our final rental in Guam had machines in the house so we did all our laundry there and came home with clean laundry (except what we had on our body).  So don't worry about laundry services if you are travelling to a known touristy place.  

We picked up snacks and drinks as we went along at convenience stores.  Again you will find normal brands you would see at any convenience store although you won't find all your favorites.  We normally do not eat Pringles at home but on our trip this was a favorite snack.  

In everything be flexible and open and you won't be disappointed!