Taking the stuff

I've been asked so here's my post about how I am taking myself and 3 kids out of the country for 5 weeks and not packing my entire house.

 Normally, I am an over-packer, I like to have options with my outfits and be prepared for every type of weather and event, and I have that luxury when we are traveling by car but I only have 2 hands and those hands are not letting go of 2 little girl hands in the airport or when traveling and I need to keep my eyes on Jackson and not extra luggage. I also want to focus on the trip and not the stuff. Organizing, cleaning, rearranging, and keeping track of so much stuff makes a more minimalist trip very appealing. Plus we'll be traveling around in Guatemala as well and I really don't want to drag much stuff around.

My first year in Guatemala (with just Jack and I) we had 2 checked bags (one had gifts for the school) and 2 carry-ons.

 Last year I went with only a backpack!  We were only in the country 9 days and I only packed for myself, but it was so much easier and I wasn't missing anything. I knew I would at least need one checked bag this year, but those other trips helped me learn a lot about the environment and what is needed and what isn't needed.

So this is what I am taking: 1 suitcase

Laila's clothes laid out

Every kids has 4 outfits, + 3 dresses for the girls, church clothes for Jackson, bathing suit, pajamas, etc. Every piece of clothing matches every other piece of clothing. No shorts or tank tops for any of the kids, Guatemala's weather is perfect year-round but they are very modest so it's pants or dresses with leggings all the way. (**I did slip in some shorts to wear around the room/hotels.) I plan to wash clothes every 5th day while the kids are there. There's a communal 'pila' and it'll be a new experience for the kiddos to wash their own clothes.

I roll the clothes and put them in these travel cubes. I love these!!! They are amazing for organizing, around $15 on Amazon, and one of my favorite travel buys. Here are all of Laila's clothes in the cube next to a shoe for comparison. Laila is little but the cube for my clothes is only a few inches bigger than the kids cubes, these things hold a lot and squeeze down!
Toiletries are probably the only things I don't skimp much on. I speak pretty fluent Spanish but I haven't studied my medicines so I just prefer to bring more of my own. Toiletries for 4 people also just take a lot of space. Here's the hanging bag of what I packed.

The colorful assortment below is also some travel necessities that I love. From the left, 4 quick drying super absorbent towels. The next 4 are sleep sacks, they are basically super thin sleeping bags and I LOVE them! I have one for each of us in case we don't like the blankets or we sleep in the hammock. I couldn't have slept well without one last year! And at the bottom, a hammock and slap straps to put it up anywhere.

This is what everything looks like out of the suitcase: 4 cubes of clothes, 1 cube of sandals for each person, and the toiletries bag.

And here is the final suitcase with all contents and closed!  It weighs 49 pounds and even though we aren't leaving for 4 more days it is ready! 

1 suitcase for 4 people for 5 weeks!

We also each have a backpack as a personal item on the plane. The kids have coloring books, books, snacks, etc and I have a kindle, papers/books that I need, and a few other items that I want to keep with me in mine. 

4 more days!!