Organizational Freak

I regularly tease my husband about being anal retentive. Sadly, I think I've lost the right to do that.

I'm getting ready for our California trip. I started packing yesterday. We're not leaving until Monday morning, but hey, it never hurts to be prepared. I spent the day catching up all of the laundry and sorting out little piles of clothes. 5 pairs of underwear each, 5 pairs of socks, plus extra socks for each girl in each of the two diaper bags I am pre-packing. The socks and underwear then went into gallon-sized ziploc baggies, one for each of us, so they don't get all mixed up. In each baggie is another baggie to put the dirty ones in as they accumulate. Next was the"outfit preparation phase" - colums for each day, rows for each of us. Each outfit was rolled neatly together to prevent separation of articles, then wrapped in a sweater, hoodie, or other "just in case" warm piece of clothing. I fought the urge to tie each day's clothing with bits of yarn to make cute little packages, but it was a struggle. Each stack was then placed neatly into the suitcase in order of which day it will be used. Pajamas, swim suits and other extra clothing filled the rest of the space, with shoes, sole-up, on top it all. Then I laid out hair accessories and jewelry, a set for each day, and put each set into a little ziploc baggie, then put all the little ones into one big one, then into the suitcase zipper compartment.

For our visit to Disneyland, which will cover two days of the trip, I downloaded a program called RideMax - it schedules an itinerary based on the rides you want to go on and the dates and times you'll be there. Supposedly, it tells you where to go and when so you wait in line no more than 15 minutes per ride. I printed up an itinerary for each day, scheduling in lunch and dinner for which I have already made reservations.

I intend to program each destination into the van's navigational system. Our tickets, hotel confirmations and Disney itineraries are all stored safely in a folder in the van, in order of intended use. I have extra batteries in the van and the diaper bag as well as an extra camera.

All I really need to do is pack toiletries, entertainment for the girls on the trip, and some yarn and patterns for myself.

I'll mop and vacuum on Sunday afternoon and wash all the diapers so none are sitting dirty for a week. The house is otherwise mostly clean.

I feel good about myself for being so organized, but I'm afraid my family will start calling me a schedule nazi. LOL