Packing for Argentina

My family is going to Argentina for six months. We are leaving the beginning of June and we're coming back mid-December and it's time to pack! There's a lot of stuff I can't pack yet because we're using it but once Jackie is out of school, I will be able to go through her stuff with her and have her pick out favorite toys. I thought I would take you along for the ride while I packed to show you the suitcases we have, the packing cubes I'm using, the essential things I'm using to pack.

Packing for Argentina | Strategy

All right, let's talk packing strategy. For context, I've been traveling internationally since I was five. My grandparents lived in Germany and we would go and spend summers and Christmases there, and then we would travel all over Europe. My dad also, because of his job, was traveling internationally multiple times a year, and we would often go with him or we would meet him somewhere. I've traveled a lot. That's actually how my website started, my mom convinced me to start documenting my traveling and my travel tips. I have a lot of them. I have packed for a 10-day trip to Europe during the winter the just a 21 inch suitcase. I know how to pack and I know how to travel.

For Argentina, we each have three bags, and then an extra. Even though we each technically have our own bags, the majority of these bags are going to be checked and the checked bags are going to have everybody's stuff mixed throughout all of them. If a bag gets lost or delayed, then all of the stuff in that bag you don't have. If I put all of my daughter's stuff in one bag and that bag gets lost, then all of her stuff is gone. She's autistic and has set routines and things that are SUPER important to her. If the bag with all of her stuff got lost, it would be really bad and frankly I wouldn't like it if all of mine, my husbands or the baby's stuff got lost either. I have eight larger bags we are checking and I'm going to spread stuff out throughout those eight checked bags. I will put a portion of all of our clothes in each bag and I'll do the same thing with the toys.

In packing cubes (I have packing cubes that correspond to each member of the family), I will have several sets of clothes in our carry-ons. When we get to our destination, if for some reason all of our bags are missing, we have clothes for a few days. I also am making sure I have all of the basic toiletries in our carry-ons. Just keep all of this in mind when you're packing because it's really important when you're taking this many pieces of luggage and for an extended period of time with this many people to pack for. We will have roughly a set of 3 bags per person as well as the four small carry-ons. I tried to supplement what we already had bag wise and then added extra bags in bright colors (so they are easily identifiable). For Jackie, we got a suitcase she will be able to ride on and sit on whenever she needs to.

Packing for Argentina | The Packing Process

I'm waiting for school to be out to start doing all of her packing, but I wanted to get a jump start on it and see kind of what we have to work with and how much space we have. I have almost all of my son's stuff (he is going to have the least amount of stuff). I have my winter clothes laid out with my spring summer clothes in my closet still because I'm packing those a few days before we leave.

I have our eagle creek packing cubes and packing envelopes I will be utilizing to make it a little bit easier to pack. This will also give us some clothes to change into when we get there because it will be a lot colder in Argentina than it is here in Tennessee. For the most part, I'm going to be packing our clothes in vacuumed sealed bags because I feel like we'll get more in the bags and get more usage of our weight limit.

After I fill and vacuum seal a bag, I test it out to see how much room we have left in the suitcase. So, with this type of combination that contains some of my clothes, the baby's clothes, and my daughter's clothes, it only takes up one side. That is perfection! In this bag I was also able to fit the bed tent, my Hunter travel rain boots that roll up, and some other shoes for each person. For each suitcase I'm going to try to have a vacuumed sealed bag of assorted clothes on one side and any other things I can fit on the other. I'm hoping to have extra space so we have room to pack any extra items (like my husbands mandolin that he REALLY wants to take).

I continued this process of packing the vacuumed sealed bags on one side and leaving room for bulkier items for each suitcase. I'm getting more hopeful we will have enough room in the suitcases we have. I then went on to test out what I could get in Jackie's carry on. I started with her Mifold car seat and her blow up foot stool for the plane. We are taking a red eye flight and are really hopeful the kids will be able to sleep on the plane. I was also able to fit her bag of activities for the plane. She will have a backpack of stuff for the plane as well but it was important to test to make sure. I continued to pack and test out different suitcases with the hope that everything would fit. Good news is it looks like we are on track!

I still have a lot of packing to do so stay tuned for when I unpacked to see everything we ended up bringing.