One of the biggest things people commented on with our recent Walt Disney Trip is how we were able to only check one suitcase for four people. I’m giving you all our packing tips so you can pack light for your family on your next trip!
I am NOT a light packer. Our family spends time at the cabin for the weekend and I pack more than I did for this trip! However, it can be done! We all had everything we needed in only one bag for the whole family of four for a week!
You can do it! These packing tips will get you on the right track!
When I booked our recent Walt Disney World vacation as a surprise for our kiddos we tried to save money wherever we could. This was our first big family vacation as just a family of four. We knew it was going to be tight, so we saved where we could and came out spending under $3000 for the 6 day trip.
One way we were able to save money is to fly a budget airline and only check one bag. On Spirit Airlines you pay for each checked bag, and you pay more the longer you wait to decide. When I purchased our tickets, I selected one checked bag. I knew this would be cutting it close. In fact, I thought about adding another bag later on but didn’t want to pay the higher price.
I knew we could do it!
Wear your bulkiest items for travel
As hearty Minnesotans, I knew the kiddos and husband would be easy with shorts and t-shirts no matter what the weather was. Actually, it was a little chilly during our first few days, but they were all still in shorts! I also knew we would be wearing our bulkier, warmer clothes both on the way there and on the way back.
Everyone wore an outfit with pants, shirt, hoodie, sneakers, and a jacket. This way, we would have all these layers while on our trip, but wouldn’t have to pack more in the suitcase.
Things NOT to put in your checked bag
I’m going to mention this now because it was part of the planning process, but I’ll also get into the specifics of what we packed in our carry-ons, or “personal items” later.
I haven’t actually checked a bag in years. However, with the recent changes of charging for larger carry-ons, traveling with multiple smaller suitcases was going to be a hassle and wasn’t going to save us any money. One of the most important packing tips when checking a bag is to keep some essentials with you.
It’s always smart to carry a few things in your carry-on just in case your checked bag gets lost. In our case, that would have meant everything for our entire family might not make it! So, we all saved space – and a potential crisis – by carrying a few items in our backpacks.
We each had a bag with our socks and underwear, pajamas, and swim suits. The swim suits are always nice to have for earlier check-in since checked bags will be delivered by the Disney Magical Express. Our bags arrived a couple hours after us, but the kids were already swimming!
Also Read: 7 Overlooked Items You Should Have in your Disney Bag
Marie Kondo folding
I don’t know if I could have done this without inspiration from Marie Kondo! Her Neflix show is such a popular thing right now. Although, we haven’t removed everything that doesn’t spark joy from our house, we did utilize her folding methods to get everything in one suitcase.
One of our biggest packing tips is to use the type of folding Marie Kondo teaches! Everything fit like a glove and we could see most of our items very easily! In fact, with this folding, we had A LOT of extra space in our suitcase and never even had to expand the extra zipper. If it weren’t for the 40lb restriction, we could have fit a lot more in there!
Packing cubes
Packing cubes are so nice because they help keep everything together and compress your items just a bit more to fit in the suitcase. If I could have found all of our packing cubes, I would have used them for everyone.
I had one packing cube that fit all the clothes for both kids (6 and 7 year olds) for a week! I folded their clothes tight and each kid filled half of that packing cube with enough outfits for 6 days and an extra dress or two for Little Lady. It was tight, but the bag helped everything fit even tighter.
What I packed for our family of four… in ONE suitcase!
Besides the pajamas, swim suits, socks, and underwear I mentioned, everything we needed for our family of four fit in one suitcase!
Here’s what I packed…
- 5 pairs of shorts and 5 t-shirts for Hubby
- 5 pairs of shorts and 6 t-shirts for Little Guy
- 4 shorts, 4 t-shirts, 2 dresses for Little Lady
- 2 pairs of Crocs, 3 flip flops
- 5 pairs of pants, 7 shirts, 5 tanks, 2 bras for me
- Plastic bag with lotion, sunscreen, and other liquids
- Even food! – 4 Easy Mac cups, 2 noodle cups, nearly 10 bags of chips, 1 bag of teddy grahams. We packed the rest of the food in our lunch bags and I even had enough room in my backpack for an entire bag of apples!
Laundry option
Part of the reason I felt so comfortable packing an exact number of outfits for most of the family, is because I also brought a couple laundry pods and dryer sheets. So, one of our packing tips is to find out if laundry is an option at your destination.
We’ve done laundry at Disney Resorts before. I even wrote about the laundry facility at the Art of Animation Resort. I figured, it was better to fit everything in one bag and do laundry there, than to pack extra clothes we might not use.
Our room at Coronado Springs was right around the corner from the laundry center. We thought about doing laundry and returning home with clean clothes, but in the end we had packed just the right amount.
Plastic bags
Extra bags are always a good idea! It’s also one of my packing tips for your Disney bag.
Just like with the packing cubes, plastic bags are a great way to keep everything together a little bit tighter. I love a plastic bag for keeping items together and visible. My husband and I used gallon storage bags to pack our extra clothes in our backpacks. I also used them for the kids’ travel activities, and we all had smaller sandwich bags with our travel snacks.
The reason I say to pack extra plastic bags is because they will come in handy for so many things! We used them to pack our park bag, store extra items in the room, pack our dirty laundry tight for the trip home, etc…
Packing Tips for your personal item
Since personal items (purses, computer bags, or backpacks) are free, one of our packing tips is to make sure everyone carries a backpack! In addition to the one checked suitcase, each of us carried our own backpack as our personal item. I’ve talked about a lot of the things that were in our personal items already, but I might as well tell you exactly what was in there.
My husband an I each had backpacks with a good number of pockets. He had this KAKA backpack we like because of the pockets, comfort of the straps, and the heavy duty top handle. I carried a bright red Under Amour backpack from Kohl’s. I saw a lot of people around the parks with this same bag, so it’s pretty popular. We used our KAKA backpack for the parks because it has more pockets.
For the kids we have the cutest backpacks! I listed a bunch of them below because they have the cutest characters! Our kiddos are old enough to carry their backpacks themselves, but we often carried them just in case they got too heavy.
Little Lady has an adorable Minnie Mouse bag and Little Guy has Spider Man. The best thing about these backpacks is that they come with an attached lunch box. We kept this attached to the kids’ backpack at the airport to count as one personal item. *wink, wink* For the parks, we used the Minnie Mouse insulated bag and just stuck it in our larger backpack full of our snacks for the day.
Packing tips for your personal item
- Pack the essentials in your carry-on in case your checked bags are lost.
- Pack underwear, socks, bathing suit, and pjs (shoes if needed) in a bag at the very bottom of the backpack along with anything else you will not need on the plane.
- Store activities in plastic bag on top so the kids can easily grab them and see everything inside. For many of our activities, see our Surprise Disney Vacation post.
- Also place snacks in a plastic bag near the top, or in an outside pocket.
- You are allowed to bring food with you on the plane. Just make sure it follows the rules. We brought string cheese, apple sauce pouches, apples, granola bars, etc.
- Ice and ice packs are ok as long as they are frozen! One of my biggest packing tips is to bring your water bottles full of ice (no water) and you’ll have cold water for the plane once you fill them with water. On the way home, our ice packs weren’t frozen so we packed them in a plastic bag in the suitcase.
Backpacks for the kids
Hopefully these packing tips convinced you it IS possible to pack a family of four in one suitcase! With the prices of checked bags these days, this is definitely a great skill to have. Plus, you don’t have to lug around a lot of luggage on your trip. Not that we had to do that anyway because Disney is amazing and the Magical Express took care of everything.
Are you a light packer?
I am NOT, but for this trip I reigned it in!
Do you have a family trip coming up? Tell my wanderlust-heart all about it in the comments!
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