The summer holidays are nearly here, and we can’t wait. There’s no time quite like a holiday for reconnecting with your family and getting some good ol’ fashioned quality time with the little ones. Whether you’re heading off for a tropical beach holiday or travelling closer to home, getting away from the daily grind and letting your hair done is an annual tradition well worth the effort.
But your dream holiday can quickly turn into a nightmare when it comes to packing the family’s suitcases. We’ve all been there, cramming a heap of clothes into a suitcase that strains the zip but never gets worn. For the parents of fashion savvy kids, packing can become a battleground, with the pile of clothes growing ever higher and higher.
In this post, we show you how capsule packing can take away the stresses of pre-holiday preparation and ensure that you and your little angel look great all holiday.
What Is capsule packing?
From sightseeing to sunbathing, water sports to fancy dinners, it turns out you only really need ten key pieces for the ultimate holiday wardrobe. Capsule packing is all about mixing and matching key looks — and so streamlining your holiday suitcase. Capsule wardrobes are light, portable and stripped down. Each item is designed to be worn in a variety of different situations and each coordinates perfectly with the others so that clothing can be layered, mixed and matched into different outfits that last your whole holiday.
Creating a capsule suitcase will not only save you time and effort during your pre-holiday planning but also on holiday itself. With fewer outfits, choosing what you and your little angels wear is easier.
Summer Holiday Capsule Packing Tips
Summer holiday capsule packing is easy to do, and the extra minutes of planning are well worth the investment. Here’re four steps for getting capsule packing right:
- Lie all of the clothes out in advance. This will help you to get an overview of the kinds of garments that you’re going to take.
- Take away a third of the items. Okay, so this may seem quite extreme, but it’s an important exercise in streamlining. Undoubtedly, there will be items that are a little worse for wear, or a bit too heavy for high temperatures, or that doesn’t quite fit. Removing a third of the items is an essential step to achieving your capsule suitcases — so be cut throat!
- Avoid “what if” thinking. We’re all prone to being overly-cautious when packing, opting to include a winter jumper for a beach holiday “just in case the weather turns”. But you should be able to gauge the kind of temperatures that you will experience on your holiday, and often you only need to pack light items that can be layered.
- Organise the items into different outfits to suit different situations. You may not need to have a fancy frock for every night of the holiday or active wear for each day — but you do want to be able to put together an outfit that will fit each occasion. So cover all bases by making smart choices — a cute summer dress can be worn during the day with sandals and glasses for a laid-back look and in the evening with a necklace for a more glamorous evening vibe.
Summer Holiday Packing Guide
What you pack will, of course, depend on your little girl and her taste.
- Bag to take out and about
- Day and night dress
- Special Occasion Dress
- Shorts
- Skirt
- Top
- Swimming costumes
- Sandals
- Sunglasses
- Scarves
Don’t Forget to Weigh Your Suitcase!
Keeping up to date with the ever decreasing airline baggage allowances is a full-time occupation. But failure to abide by their weight restrictions makes for a terrible start to your holiday. No one wants to be that person who is frantically putting on all their jumpers and throwing away books to get their bag on the plane. Nor do you want to be hit with a fee for the sake of slightly overweight luggage. So be prepared.
If you’ve followed all the tips above, your suitcase is probably well within the weight restrictions. But there’s no harm in checking. Before you leave home, check what your allowance is and then weigh your suitcase. You can use your standard scales, just be sure to keep the bag off the ground. As you breeze through check-in, you won’t regret your planning.
Browse our full summer collection of girl’s dresses and get your little angel some summer staples.