The Murdock Travel Guide

The evolution of travel Murdock Style:

In the early 2000s we had one small baby who required lots of diapers, wipes, changes of clothes, comfort items such as a favorite blanket(s) or toy(s), and other bodily fluid containment systems. He even needed specialty seats for feeding, car seats 4 times his size, a portable crib to sleep in... There was no such thing as traveling lightly. We had to be prepared for everything. Traveling was like war, we had PDKs (Personal Disaster Kits) stashed in the car, in the diaper bag, at the places we were visiting. It was exhausting. And then we had more babies!!!! I have come to the conclusion that having babies means it is completely impossible to travel lightly... But there are some ways to minimize the stuff you take.  And eventually they do grow up and not need so much stuff. And we have learned some things along the way that make traveling light so much easier these days.

Tip #1: Use ziplock bags to stuff clothes in. You can put a pair of pants in a bag and then squeeze all the air out of it while you zip it closed and Viola! It is smaller and takes up less room in your luggage. Bryan learned this skill in scouts as a boy when packing for camp. Works like a charm.

Tip #2: If your child has a favorite toy such as a creepy rubber snake that he/she must hold at all times then you need to practice letting your child put it through some sort of pretend scanner to simulate that awful moment when your child has to let go of it in the security line so it can be checked in the x-ray machine to make sure it is not a bomb. Our story: When Isaac was a preschooler he had this rubber snake we found at a garage sale that he loved and had to have with him AT ALL TIMES. He slept with it, he ate with it, he played with it. When it broke into two pieces he magically had two snakes that he must keep with him at all times. When it broke into more pieces he ran out of hands and would just stash bits of that snake places that made him happy. I was not allowed to throw any parts of it away. The only piece I could actually throw away was the piece of snake that fell in the toilet. I stood my ground against the tiny dictator that that part of the snake needed to go in the garbage. We traveled to Oklahoma via plane during those preschool years and Isaac had to have his snake. He almost had to go through the x-ray machine with that blasted snake. He had to let go of the snake to let it go through security. Enter tears and screams. Everyone around us hated our guts for bringing that screaming munchkin along to the airport. Please please learn from our sorrow. Practice that scenario before you get there so it won't be a most embarrassing moment contender.

Tip #3: Roll your clothes up. Just like little sushi rolls. They take up less room that way. If you roll them up and stand them on the flat end then you can see everything in your bag at once. Put all the pants together, put all the shirts together, rolled up and stood on end so you see the swirl in the roll from the top... It is actually pretty in your suitcase. Magical even.

Tip #4: You can even roll up entire outfits... tops, bottoms, underpants, socks. This works really well for road trips where you stay overnight someplace. Put one roll of clothes per person in a suitcase along with all toiletries and then you just have to bring in one bag to the hotel making more room for everyone to squish into one hotel room.

Tip #5: I love to put my underpants and socks in their own separate bags within my suitcase.
For a long time I used ziplocks to put my undies in. Then came that time when my bag got searched because I was visiting my family and my grandmother insisted she impart of her wealth to me so she gave me a sliver plated pepper grinder. TSA did not like that silver plated pepper grinder they saw in my suitcase via x-ray and I must have looked incredibly worrisome so they searched my bag. And there were my undies in a clear ziplock bag right on top of my open suitcase. It was embarrassing. I have since moved to using cute little zippered fabric bags to store my undies in so that next time TSA decides to search my bag I won't be horrified by my undies being so dang visible in my carry on bag. The cute little bags make them store smaller just like a ziplock but have the advantage of not being see through. REI and the Container Store sell some awesome little travel storage bags that I coveted... but they were ridiculously expensive so I made some myself. They were super cute and inexpensive and worked the same. Plus I got to sew- which I love to do. It was a happy thing for me to hack those cool storage bags.

Tip #6: Let your kids pack their own bags. I give them guidelines: 4 Jammies, 4 pants, 4 shirts, 4 undies, etc and let them pick what they take. They love the chance to choose what to take.  Yes, you can examine the bag later to make sure they followed directions.  

Tip #7: This is the hardest. Just travel with ONE CARRY ON bag. Whether you are in a car or traveling by plane, you will be so much happier to have less to cart around. If you need diapers, buy some when you get there. If you need toothpaste, buy it there. Bring just barely enough clothes with you. Wash the clothes every night if needed. You may wear the same out fit multiple times that week, but the reality is that most of the world actually does that. When we were prepping for our trip to Croatia a few years ago we studied the Rick Steve's website with travel tips and this was his most adamant tip. It was a good one. Just do it. It was fun to go shop for things we did not have but found we needed. And it did not cost us much to get some of those things. It was risky, it was adventurous, it was fun to visit the stores. It was worth not taking so much with us.

We hope your upcoming year is full of adventures and travels and that these tips will help you.