Travel tip: Pack light. Leave yourself room to add the things you forgot or don't know you need
Although we wanted to bring everything we realised quite quickly that we had to have the space to fit it all.
So what did we pack?
Shoes
We limited ourselves with shoes, a pair of thongs, sandals, sketchers, slippers and crocs (for little miss). Now it may seem like a lot of shoes but it's really not. Comfortable walking shoes are a must, thongs for the beach or shower block and sandals for the warmer weather. If your going somewhere cooler you will adjust what shoes are appropriate. We however will not be going where it's cold so not needed for us.
Clothes
We have a plastic tub for each of us for our clothes. Jamie's is slightly bigger than our but little miss and I have one 30l tubs each. When we left it was still cold so we had lots of warm clothes which have slowly been weeded out as we go. We have 1 good outfit each (We haven't used them yet).
2 dresses, 2 pairs of shorts, 5 short sleeve t shirts, 3 long sleeve t-shirts, 5 pair of leggings/pants, 7 pairs of undies and 3 pair of socks. 2 summer PJs and 3 winter PJs (I added 2 extra for little miss) a jacket, cardigan and coat.
It doesn't sound like a lot because it isn't. To get them to fit in the tubs I roll all the clothes and put them like with like.
We have got rid of 1 pair of winter PJs each already and I've got rid of 3 pairs of pants and bought 1 pair. I also haven't worn shorts in years and now I own 2 pairs. Little miss has added a dress and pair of shorts.
Our thoughts have always been we can add clothes if we forget them, it's a pain to get rid of them or send them home if they're favourites. We are planning to swing past family before Christmas and will swap over clothes for little miss while we're there.
Toys
This was a big one, it was hard for little miss to choose what to take because she wanted to take everything.
We limited her to a big cube (we got some from IKEA) she could only bring 1 doll (baby born got the pick because she can go in the water), some special soft toys, 2 barbies with their accessories in a box, a teaset, a handful of books and a pack of blocks.
I'm glad we limited her, there are some toys she hasn't played with or books we haven't read and they have been sent back. The blocks have been great and used a lot, we often pull them out when we get to a new spot or need to keep her occupied for a bit.
Mrs Meddler sent her off with some puzzles, wishing stones, dress ups and cuisinarie rods. They have all been thoroughly played with.
We've found she's too busy to play with all her toys, she has leaves, rocks, sticks, shells, a random bit of rope and the beach to explore.
We did bring textas, pencils, a small water colour paints pallet and colouring books, as she loves to draw and colour. We also packed her scooter and bike which has been used more as we have travelled.
Kitchen
We were careful in what we chose for the kitchen and have a plastic tub that holds everything. The best things we bought we the tefal ingenio saucepans with the removable handle. A bit pricey but totally worth it with space saving abilities. I did have a small saucepan from IKEA but got rid of it because it was awkward to pack, took up space and we hadnt used it.
We have 1 fry pan (No lids as they're all glass and didn't want them to break when we move).
We each picked out a bowl, side plate and dinner plate from the correl range from big w. They are chip and break resistant but will smash into piece if dropped on coment (oops).
We have a 4 pack of knives, forks, spoons and a pack of teaspoons. Little miss has 2 melamine plates, bowls and some of her own cutlery. We have 1 cup each, and little miss has a sippy cup as well (lids on drinks are handy with her).
We have a gas top kettle, but no toaster. We have a lightweight bbq plate that fits perfectly over 2 burners, you couldn't buy them separately so we bought the one with the gas stove and left the gas stove behind.
We did add an electric kettle and toaster, as well as an electric frypan. While staying at caravan parks and paying for power we use the electric cooking as much as possible. We also use the kettle for washing the dishes in the sink, it just saves on turning on the hot water and making the inside hotter. We've also added a few of the collapsible containers and bowl from big w, I have a few hard ones but mostly use the collapsible ones.
We added a bbq mat, we haven't used it yet but if we need to use the public bbq we can use that to cook on
Laundry and bathroom
I have a 15l tub for the laundry stuff. A pegless clothesline, pegs, mini lint brush, a peg airer, sards soap bar in a soap container, liquid laundry detergent, stain spray
I also have a small plastic container with spare bathroom stuff. Extra toothbrushes, a few bars of soap, a bigger bottle of my shampoo and conditioner, body wash, a spare deodorant, toothpaste, I have spare bubble bath and shampoo for little miss as well.
We got a collapsible bath from Kmart (one of the best things we've bought), we put it in the bottom of the showers or some caravan parks have family bathrooms with a bath and I put it in for little miss to have a bath. When we free camp and can use it to collect the water from our shower. We can use it for washing clothes and water play. It folds flat and is easy to store when we move.
We have 2 flat folding washing baskets as well. They don't hold a lot of weight so you have to be careful with wet washing but it's handy having 2. 1 lives on top of the pantry and has the dirty clothes and the other has any clean clothes ready to be folded and put away
I haven't gone crazy with bathroom and laundry supplies mainly because we can buy more as we go, but I did want to pack some of the stuff we already had rather than buying more.
We do carry a supply of hand sanitiser, disinfectant wipes and hand soap. With covid you can be too careful. We're using communal spaces and touching different things so we have mini bottles that we refill as needed.
Bits and piece
We have some mini light/fan that we can hang above us, they are super handy but run on batteries so have to be mindful of having spare batteries. Jamie and I limited ourselves on what we could bring. I've got a cube of wool and crochet supplies as well as 6 books, and Jamie's got some new books.
We did pack some of little miss's favourite dvds, we have dvd head rests in the car as well as in the camper trailer.
We do have the internet setup, we didn't want to have to rely on caravan parks or our phone, it's much cheaper for us personally.
We have all the usual headlamps and torches
First aid kit I replaced before we left making sure it was fully stocked. We also have a little drawer with medication (it's hard to get into so safe with little miss) we've got a bit of panadol and Nurofen for us and little miss.
We also packed some card games and some games for little miss, we haven't had a lot of time to play them but they don't take up much room so I'm happy to leave them.
I do also have a hidey cupboard with some treasures for little miss, as well as her Christmas stocking. It makes it hard when her birthday is before Christmas and making sure we have a few little treasures for her is important. I have got a few little cheap things wrapped up as lucky dips (she found out what they are thanks to the markets), so when she's been good she gets to choose one which she just loves.
Outside
Very important was a drinking water hose, the regular hoses can make your water taste funny. We got all the tap fittings and connections. We also have 2 collapsible buckets. We have a 15amp electrical cord for plugging in, as well as a converter (15amp to 10amp) so we can plug into someone's house if we stay with people
We do have an assortment of tools, most importantly the drill (very handy for setting up) and the battery can go in the chainsaw and the vacuum cleaner.
Extras we added
We added a 5 shelf pantry and an extra table. The pantry makes it easier when we shop and can see what we've bought. And the table we use to put the kettle and toaster on or to cook or as a prep table. It's nice having a little extra space.
We also got a 4 step ladder rather than the 2 step one that we originally bought. Our annex is tall and it's great for Jamie to climb up and reach.
We bought some more lights for the annex, it's nice to be able to sit up rather than having to go to bed early if we don't want to.
It's hard to list everything that we've packed (mainly because I can't remember everything) but these were the important ones for us. We are constantly adding and taking away what suits us, but we are always mindful of weight and storage capacity.
What are your must haves? What did you pack and not use?
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