129: ADHD Friendly Packing Tips For You & the Kids (So You Don’t Overpack!)

ADHD-Friendly Packing Tips for Family Vacations

With spring break and vacation season approaching, let’s talk about packing, one of those rare tasks where I willingly turn into a very linear, type-A monkey brain, and where a little upfront work genuinely pays off every single time you travel.

Let your kids be autonomous, sooner than you think possible

Kids are capable of more than we usually give them credit for, and packing skills are worth building early since travel repeats itself over and over throughout their childhood. Rather than shouldering the entire responsibility yourself and then getting blamed for a forgotten item, give them a framework that sets them up to succeed on their own.

Build a simple checklist system

Even before my kids could read, I made a picture-based checklist for packing. Once they could read, or once they had phones, I’d send it as a group text instead. At a family dinner before the trip, we’d talk through the basics: how many nights we’re gone, whether we’ll have laundry access partway through the trip (which determines how many outfits they actually need to pack versus one per day), and any special clothing required for specific events, a nice dinner, a service, cold weather, rain, whatever the trip called for. Being descriptive about the why behind each item helps kids take real ownership of the decision instead of just following orders.

Let them build their own outfits, with veto power reserved for you

Have them lay complete outfits out on their bed rather than just piling clothes into a suitcase. It’s genuinely fun watching younger kids develop their own logic for what “matches,” my boys used to consider anything with matching team logos or the same color family a perfect outfit. Let them pick their favorites, but reserve veto power for anything too ratty for the destination, unless it’s a beach trip where nobody cares anyway.

Three simple categories cover almost everything

Clothes, bathroom and toiletry items (let them choose their own toothbrush, vitamins, and basic toiletries), and extras, electronics, a favorite book, a game, chargers, whatever falls outside the first two categories. Once everything is laid out, you can do a final check and help load the suitcase, building on their effort rather than starting from scratch yourself.

Add a household-wide list for shared items

A few days before departure, set up a secondary list, a clipboard works great, along with a centralized laundry basket, for family-wide items: snacks, shared games, special equipment like winter gear or beach chairs. Have everyone drop their contributions into the basket, then do a final review together the night before, if someone tosses in fifty toy cars, that’s the moment to ask them to narrow it down to three for the car ride.

Keep the list reusable

The beauty of this system is that most of it stays the same trip after trip, underwear, pajamas, basic clothes categories. The only things that actually change each time are the number of days, expected weather, and any special events or equipment needed. Once you’ve built the basic checklist once, you can reuse it indefinitely.

Your practical, actionable step

Before your next trip, sit down at a family meal and talk through the number of nights, expected weather, and any special events, then hand your kids a simple three-category checklist, clothes, toiletries, extras, and let them lay out their own outfits before you step in to help finalize the suitcase.

Until next time, continue to choose joy and happy vacationing.