If your family is anything like mine used to be, every holiday involves some suitcase grief. You know what I mean, three hours before you are due at the airport, the suitcase just wont close, it is obviously overstuffed and overweight, you have the discussion and sometimes heated words around just how many changes of clothes you need and the expected or feared weather patterns. Sometimes it gets nasty because packing for a holiday and meeting deadlines can be a high stress event.

I have a solution.

We have used this simple trick for the last ten years of travel and it has saved us so much time, has eliminated all of the angst and made packing for holiday a breeze.

The rule we use is this. If you pack it and don’t wear it costs you money. In our house its a dollar, and I know that wont be enough to deter most people so you can up the ante a bit on the fine if that’s what it takes. We find however, that the dollar is more of a symbol. We hear things like “I will be darned if I’m giving you guys a dollar” and out of the suitcase comes that fifth pair of shoes, the third pair of long pants and perhaps that second hat.

My bride was the worst at this and is now a bloody hero packer. Once upon a time we would be looking around the room for the heaviest person to sit on the suitcase to get it closed, but no more. This last trip to Hawaii, was fine free. Ten days away and not a dollar spent in packing fines.
It goes without saying that if you travel as a family of six, that you have to pay everyone in the group a dollar for every piece of clothing not worn.

It works a charm.