You’ve expended great effort to plan your family trip and even managed to keep much of it under wraps from the kids. Now it’s time to share it with this excitement-building RV organization hack.
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My general M.O. is to plan week by week, after figuring out my overarching plan. This works whether it’s a one week trip or the whole summer. It is important that you and your family always remember that nothing is written in stone. Until we are back home, my trip calendar is a work in progress. Period. And always in pencil!
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The week by week planning works well for several reasons. One of which is that, while on the trip, I share the plan one week at a time with this RV organization hack.
Why?
You want your kids to look forward to what you have planned, but you also want them to live in the moment. You know that as you plan your trip, you re-work it multiple times. So, you don’t discuss all the permutations along the way since that could be overwhelming or disappointing.
Now the trip is finally underway! The small things may still change, be eliminated, or remain unplanned. Nonetheless, the big things are happening. In our example below, we had booked and paid for dated tickets to two of the activities (one of which the kids knew about and one they didn’t), made a reservation at a third, and really hyped up another two. So, we knew that at least these were going to happen at some point in the summer. Now the kids knew when too.
Posting the plan in a prominent location has several benefits:
Conversation: Everyone can talk about what they’re looking forward to. They can ask questions and share what they have learned about the various destinations. They can contribute to the planning for the various points of interest. For example, my 15 year old talked about the development of the union movement commemorated at Keweenaw NHP and my almost 5 year old was looking forward to cliff-jumping at Presque Isle Park.
Preparation: Busy and less busy days don’t surprise your kids. If they need/want to do something ahead of time, they know when it’s coming and in what order to be prepared. My kids love participating in the National Park Service’s Junior Ranger Program and are able to work on the books ahead of time as much as possible.
Junior Ranger Program-Best Free National Park Souvenir
Anticipation: Looking forward to what’s going to happen is by definition anticipation. Anticipation leads to excitement; so if everything is a surprise, this limits excitement. However, when it is too far in advance, it is very theoretical and the excitement can easily wane by the time the event actually arrives. Looking at only several days in the future seems to be the right balance.
Balance: Since you know that not all your kids enjoy or appreciate the same activities, they can see that they are all taken into consideration. Your plan is balanced. It considers their interests, abilities, ages and stages; it also includes things you want them to learn or be exposed to.
Independence: Are we there yet? What are we doing next? Where are we going tomorrow? I’m sure these are your favorite questions to answer on your family RV trip. In case they aren’t, this is a simple way to allow your kids the independence of answering those questions on their own. There are times that I would write in “surprise activity” and it was cute to hear the discussions as they tried to figure out what it was. The older kids can read for the younger kids and still leave you out of it!
Appreciation: OK. So this one might be a stretch since your kids may never appreciate all the time, effort, and energy that you put into planning your family trip. But you never know…
read about 7 inspiring benefits of family travel experiences
You can also send pictures of your posted schedule as an easy way to keep your friends and family updated.
What?
Once a week, usually Saturday night, I “update the refrigerator”. This has become the place we post our plan. It’s prominent and accessible to all. Bonus RV organization hack: for a destination specifically geared towards a non-reading child, I have one of the other kids draw a picture.
They are able to see what some of the plans are for each day of the upcoming week. However, they also know that it is all subject to change and it is not the entire plan.
The above pictured calendar represents one week of a seven week RV trip. It is just a general overview. It does not include where we were planning to sleep, for example. Nor does it include any information about what we were planning to do in any of those places or smaller “destinations” like going out for pizza one of those days (keeping kosher, it is a rarity for us while on the road) or activities like swimming in Lake Superior. The unplanned along the way are also not included–the great park we found to stop for lunch and then ended up spending hours in.
It is important to note that these are the “plans“, not what actually happens. You could update your posted calendar as you go, but I personally choose not to do so. I think it’s good for kids to reflect upon the fact that things don’t always go according to plan.
these 5 disaster-preventing road trip essentials will help you stay on track
This was a pretty accurate week. We did make it to all the planned points of interest, however not necessarily as scheduled. My penciled in calendar is a more accurate reflection of reality, it is more updated, and detailed. I keep this for future reference, both during and after the trip. (A future post will go into this.)
How?
There are many ways to post your weekly family trip itinerary. You could do something as simple as a handwritten piece of paper taped to a wall. You could use dry erase markers on a bathroom or full length mirror. (I would be hesitant to do so on a window, thereby advertising your plans to all the strangers on the road.) You could use a plastic sheet protector attached to the back of the front seat for a car based road trip. It’s up to you how to implement this RV organization hack.
But, the method I use is fairly simple. I attached magnetic chalkboard contact paper to our RV refrigerator and freezer. As you can see in the pictures, our fridge happens to be double the standard. But, you can also see that our schedule really only occupies one door.
The one pictured is also available in a whiteboard version. I prefer the black chalkboard version since I think the colors stand out more and it is less likely to get erased accidentally by someone walking by. This one also includes chalk markers in 10 different colors (the whiteboard version includes dry erase markers). The fact that it is magnetic is a bonus. (Here is a more budget friendly peel & stick version.)
I like to do each day in a different color. It makes it easier to look at and visually know what’s planned for each day. And, for non-readers, they can at least know that today is the pink day and tomorrow is the green day. It is also a visually stark way to realize if you have overscheduled any given day.
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The key to any well executed family travel is anticipation tempered with reality. Sharing your itinerary with this RV organization hack is a surefire way to build that excitement.
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