Bags, Bags and Bags!-Travel Tips and Bag Essentials with Morgan and Casey

Dive into this informative episode of Coffee in The Barn, where hosts Morgan and Casey exchange their top tips and personal preferences for managing luggage effectively while traveling. Whether you're heading out solo or with family, this discussion covers everything from strategic packing to handling your gear at airports, making sure your travel is as smooth as possible.

What You Will Learn:

- Packing Strategies for Souvenirs: Morgan shares her hack of packing a collapsible bag within her main luggage to accommodate any souvenirs or extra items acquired during travel.

- Choosing the Right Bag: Learn about the benefits of having a bag with multiple pockets for organization, and hear Morgan’s personal passion for such bags stemming from childhood.

- Alternative Organizing Techniques: Casey discusses her preference for using Ziploc mesh bags to segregate items inside her luggage instead of multiple pockets, which helps her quickly locate essentials like Chapstick without fuss.

- Family Travel Considerations: The conversation turns to the challenges of traveling with children, highlighting how kids enjoy rummaging through bags, often turning tidy packing into disarray, as shared by Morgan from her experiences at church with family.

- Airline Baggage Tips and Tricks:  Casey offers insights into utilizing perks like free checked bags available through airline loyalty programs, and shares tips on how parents can ease their travel experience by checking car seats at ticket check-ins instead of carrying them through the airport.

- Simplifying Travel with Pre-planning:  Casey reflects on her experiences traveling with her child, Arthur, discussing how investing in the right gear and planning effectively can significantly reduce stress during travel.

This episode  is packed with practical tips and lively anecdotes that will benefit anyone looking to optimize their travel experiences, especially parents navigating the logistics of flying with children. Morgan and Casey’s diverse preferences and experiences offer a range of solutions that listeners can tailor to their own travel needs.

Transcript

Casey
 0:00:00
 Welcome to a special episode of Coffee in the Barn, where we discuss exclusive content featuring our captivating guest speakers. Today, prepare to be enthralled as we dive deep into the minds and hearts of our extraordinary guests, from pioneer figures in the world of agriculture to trailblazers pushing the boundaries of innovation. Each speaker brings a unique perspective and a wealth of insight to share. So grab your coffee and settle in to learn more about our incredible guests.

Casey
 0:00:29
 Welcome to the exclusive content. So as a woman, it's kind of like being a man in my house. I have just as many bags as my husband has guns. And I have been threatened, Morgan, if I buy another bag, he gets another gun. But I thought this is a really good topic to put out there on exclusive content. And I think you've got a great example to share of why we need so many bags. 

Morgan
 0:01:09
 Well, we have so many activities and things that we need to plan for as moms, but to make sure that we're organized and staying sane and we know where everything is, we need to have everything in their proper place. 

Casey
 0:01:24
 Well, that's a great example. I have a baseball bag now. It's got all my son's baseball stuff, and he has his dance bag. I get a nasty gram while I'm in a customer meeting. Where is his dance clothes? Like it's in his bag hanging up on the coat rack with his other bags and coats. 

Morgan
 0:01:41
 Do you have everything labeled? Have you gotten to that OCD level yet where you have to like label everything like water bottles and Things for like school and activities yet 

Casey
 0:02:09
 Always had a you know water bottles forever, but I guess I'm not so OCD with like fancy labels 

Morgan
 0:02:39
 Well, we haven't gotten there yet but from what I've heard from other parents that have like multiple kids as they have you know, if their kids are all in the same sport and you have five different pairs of black pants for baseball, how do you know which one belongs to who? So you just put either like a one on the tag for the first kid, a two on the tag for the second kid, or actually I saw tallies. So like the first kid would get a one, the second kid would get a two, but then as the pants get handed down, or the clothes get handed down, you add a tally to it so you know that like the third kid, all of their clothes have three tallies. You know that it's been used three times.

Casey
 0:03:12
 And that is called sustainability. Exactly. So, Dennis, what are some of your tips and tricks for packing for a family of four and I don't know if it's okay to announce that soon going to be a family of five so when she's talking about that third tally mark, yes, she's going to have a third tally mark.

Morgan
 0:03:52
 Yep, we will shout out, exclusive shout out, we will be having a third in October and my sister is also due in September so my mom is very like I'm gonna have five grandkids under the age of four and I'm like mom you raised four kids in six years I'm like it's pretty close I mean we never had twins I mean we'll have newborns six weeks apart but no it's it will all be fun and crazy and loud and just everything that goes with it. But we'll figure it out. We aren't finding out the gender, because we didn't with our other two, but I kind ofwas like hoping that we... Not hoping, thinking that we might, because I have my daughter, she has probably an entire closet full of boxes of baby clothes from her first year of life and my son has two. Because you know, with girls, everyone is like, oh, this looks so cute, this looks so cute, and then they just buy you all the clothes. So I have a full closet of baby girl clothes that I have to hold on to until October, until we know if my sister or I are having a girl or a boy. But I'm hoping after that, we might be able to purge a couple things to make room for other things.

Casey
 0:04:39
 Has your diaper bag changed since your first versus second and now going to third 

Morgan
 0:05:22
 I have looked at buying a new diaper bag just because the one has, you know, been used for almost four years. But it really hasn't changed. Like, after, when we had my son, we always had extra, like, underwear and pants and, like, extra clothes for my toddler who was, like, in the process of getting potty trained. So during that phase, we had, like, an extra Ziploc bag of clothes in there for my daughter during her potty training phase. But since she's successfully became potty trained, I don't even like, I'll have my diaper bag in the car but I don't bring it with me everywhere now.  

Casey
 0:06:09
 So tip number one, new parents, male or female, whoever's listening to this, mesh bags are great for certain things but in diaper bags, 

Morgan
 0:06:38
 ziplocked bags, especially for soiled clothes. Or what I've also found that works good is doggy bags. Yes. Like doggy poop bags, because we take our dogs to the park or for walks or wherever and so I always have a roll of dog poop bags in the car and so if for any reason we don't have a Ziploc bag I use a doggy poop bag.

Casey
 0:07:17
 But I was also going to say when I used to pack my bag and this is something to think of we're talking diaper bags and we'll work our way up to travel bags and vacation bags but in a diaper bag I always like to have those clothes I obviously only had one but one outfit one back because if you had an explosion which happens we could Arthur loves to tell his story of the explosion when he first came home and his dad on the couch But it's like you're not gonna ruin your brand new pair of clothes by grabbing a plastic bag. Then if you were just going in there Because sometimes bathrooms on the go are not very handy 

Morgan
 0:07:44
 And when it's how many bathrooms that don't even have changing tables. 

Casey
 0:08:13
 Oh yeah, but like those instances you're like grabbing them out of the car seat and putting them in the back and trying to you know navigate that because it's like oh wow we can't drive anymore. Nothing has happened you know. Yeah. So Ziploc bags are your friend. I know mesh bags are kind of nice and fun but waterproof lots of things in the diaper bags. 

Morgan
 0:08:40
 Yeah I would say like newborn essentials always at least extra change of clothes, a changing pad until they're like standing and you can like change your diaper standing up. And then now we just always have snacks. Sometimes like I would say weekly I have to go through the diaper bag and because I sound I'll just like if we're leaving the house I'll throw snacks in it and then by the end of the week I forget how many snacks I actually have in there. I mean it's actually been convenient because now that I'm pregnant I'm also hungry all the time so I know as a fail safe there's always extra snacks in the diaper bag. 

Casey
 0:09:16
 Kids don't grow out of snacks. That's a must-have for everyone. There's a snack bag on road trips especially.

Morgan
 0:09:46
 What I found was like really handy is like or like just snacks that you can just keep in the car like freeze-dried apples like trail mix or like dried cranberries Like just your pantry staples of things that you can just have in the car just in case Because you know a kid is always hangry at 430 on your way home from daycare So always making sure that you have snacks, I would say is number one. 

Casey
 0:10:34
 And hopefully you don't have a goldfish snob child either. We had to have the official goldfish. They had to be shaped like fish when they were younger. 

Morgan
 0:11:29
 Could you use the pretzel cheddar combo or did they always have to be cheddar? 

Casey
 0:12:05
 They always had to be cheddar. But he's grown out of that. But yes, fish shape and cheddar and he's slowly working to other graham crackers in his life. But there you go. Well, that's a diaper bag essentials. I think that's really important to note. Ziploc bags for your friend. Waterproof. Yes. Always be prepared for every worst case scenario because it will happen. 

Morgan
 0:12:42
 Yeah, but I feel like once you go over that like six-month phase it seems to happen a lot less.

Casey
 0:13:21
 Change of clothes for you, like a shirt sometimes because...

Morgan
 0:13:47
 Especially if you're nursing. Yes. We always have extra wipes in the car. I'll have a thing of wipes in the diaper bag but I also have a container of wipes in the car because you Because you never know when somebody's going to find some M&Ms or Skittles or... 

Casey
 0:13:48
 Eight years old, I still need wipes. What are you talking about?

Morgan
 0:14:29
 I know, they're very versatile. And you can use them for dusting the car, cleaning, lots of different things. 

Casey
 0:15:08
 So, a working person's travel bag, and I think I'm going to speak from a woman's perspective, this may be one of the hardest things for us to learn to downsize on when we travel as a female because a lot of us want to, I'm speaking from experience ladies, I'm not speaking and judging anybody, but I had to have three different pairs of shoes for the three different outfits I used to wear. I had to have all my makeup, I had to, if I need a jacket and a sweater and how do you fit it into a carry-on luggage for a plane deal? And I quickly realized the philosophy of my international colleagues who they may have worn different shirts but their pants were the same. Yeah and I think in that initial year I had to really, and they call it like a, is it like a wardrobe type of, not a wardrobe, but what do they call that? A capsule wardrobe where the- Middle-less. Well, it's middle-less, but they call it like a capsule wardrobe where you buy like ten pieces and they all go together. 

Morgan
 0:15:40
 I wish I could get there I have been trying to get there but I'm I have no fashion sense so  Emma picks up all my clothes 

Casey
 0:16:16
 You should pay people to make you a capsule wardrobe Morgan 

Casey
 0:16:55
 My three-year-old picks out my clothes I got with two sisters so one of us was always picking out each other's clothes and now my three-year-old has gotten to the phase where she just loves picking out my clothes. She says, OK, mom, let's go get you dressed and then we'll get me dressed. 

Casey
 0:17:29
 But I had to learn that I do have a specific bag for travel. I have a trunk in my room or you can have a bench and my travel bag sits out on it. It has its own bag of 12 trees It has all  the essentials I need that's in that go bag. And I know I'm not in the military so the military guys would call this a go bag, right? Like I'm ready I just usually have to change my clothes out and go. And that's what I call my go bag. It's there. I know I'm not like as cool as like a special ops guy to get a phone call that we gotta go rescue somebody in the middle of the night but I still can easily in five minutes have a go bag out the door if needed and yes I've learned to cut it down to one to two pairs of shoes usually some tennis shoes and my dress shoes that I usually wear with me and then I may wear the same pants depending on how long your week is. 

Morgan
 0:17:59
 Yep, I've gotten to that point too. When I first started traveling more frequently, you know, I unpacked my bag every single time I got home and then I would just cycle through everything and now my bag just sits in my closet. It's ready to go whenever I need it. It takes me five minutes to pack. I leave my, you know, the clean clothes that are in there, I just leave it in there, take inventory, see what I need to add, take out, and five, ten minutes, I'm ready to go. 

Casey
 0:18:33
 Exactly. One of the things is I brought up mesh bags, and hopefully, if we get our app together and we have a sign-up link, we want to give away Amazon gift card for people to go buy some mesh bags. And there's so many out there now that I can't recommend what might work for you, but we're going to give away a $25 Amazon gift card if you're listening to this to go buy your mesh bags. But to me, absolutely essential for a good go bag is having different mesh bags. So like I have my computer cord bag, I have my business cards, ink pen bag, I have my walking first aid kit as I call it because you know it's funny men at meetings do you have any Advil do you have this I'm like oh I sure do let me pull it do you need a band-aid because you've got a blister walking too far oh yes I sure do so I call it my walking first aid kit bag. 

Morgan
 0:19:07
 That's where my my mama Morgan nickname came from growing up because I always had a bag of band-aids and things in it I've got I need to get I need to get back at that but I have one in the car I have one in the house I have the essential places but well 

Casey
 0:19:44
 Any other tips traveling because we got one more and we're supposed to make these short tips of the week but it's getting long. Yeah. Any other bag tips? Like for travel, like work travel. You don't need as much as you think you need. I always overpack, amen. 

Morgan
 0:20:16
 I always overpack and then I'm like I definitely did not need all that and then I like I'm like okay next time I'm not gonna pack that much but then I think just that I default. I just pack. I mean I'm trying to pack all of us for an eight-day trip to Florida and My son is like, you know, there's we'll have a washer and dryer so I'm like I only need like four shirts a couple pair of pants swimsuit and Then that's my son's side of the suitcase and then my daughter's side of the suitcase is like all her dresses and then we have shorts and shirts and I'm like I way over packed for her and now I'm trying to pack for myself. Also, knowing that I'm going to be traveling for work four days before we leave. So I'm like, okay, I need to make sure I have all the clean things that I need. And then I hope I don't need to do laundry, but then we have to pack my parents' car up before we even leave because my dad's driving down and the rest of us are flying. So there's a lot of coordination going on. 

Casey
 0:20:37
 Oh, wow. I was going to say, I'll give you one thing about business travel I didn't think of. I traveled right before Christmas, and I was in Europe an extra weekend. And I did think about having space for all the souvenirs and Christmas gifts I bought in Europe. So I had to buy another suitcase while I was in Europe. Oh no. And then I had to navigate having these multiple suitcases on a train. So lesson learned. I mean either pack for room for souvenirs or limit. 

Morgan
 0:20:38

Or pack an extra bag that you can use as a carry on. 

Casey
 0:20:38

Yes. I'll use a lot of those. I'll do that. 

Morgan
 0:20:40

If I know I'm traveling somewhere where I might be bringing back souvenirs, I'll pack just like an extra like collapsible bag that I can use as a carry-on if need be. But also when you're bag shopping, make sure that the bag that you buy has lots of pockets to keep things very organized. That was – I had a bag fetish growing up, and I always loved bags with lots of pockets.

Casey
 0:20:41

 I don't like lots of pockets. I prefer to have lots of Ziploc mesh bags because then I know what kind of bag goes with what. I'm not searching through all my pockets for my Chapstick. 

Morgan
 0:20:41

Well, you just make sure that the Chapstick goes in the same pocket every single time. Except then you have kids, and then they just want to go through all of your pockets and take everything out. And then it just kind of all goes back in one. I mean, during church, that's literally how it goes. So it's like my mother-in-law's purse just gets emptied out and then just put it back in so it doesn't stay organized.

Casey
 0:20:42

 I was going to say, traveling with a family and you don't have miles or something like I do with the Delta card, like I get two free checked bags, so it's nice if I fly Delta, but other airlines I don't. upgrade or bag fee and check a big bag for all your clothes. Don't be trying to now Morgan's gonna have free and I see parents struggling all the time through the airport everybody has their carry-on they got the stroller they got the car seat they got all the backpacks and I'm just like did you know you can check for free your car seat at the gate or not at the gate but at the ticket check-in?

Morgan
 0:20:45

 No, I did not know that you could do that. But I have found, so last year we flew with a six-week-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old, and they make these, like a carry-on bag with like the extendable handle of a carry-on with like, it looks like a little dolly cart for a car seat. And you can strap the car seat to it and wheel the car seat around with you because we wanted the car seat in the plane with us. Well, my husband was like, I'm not buying one of those things. So he just ratchet strapped the car seat to the outside of his carry-on bag. So we didn't have to carry the carry, or we didn't have to carry the car seat we could just you know wheel it around with carry-on bag and it actually worked out very well and then I didn't realize it was actually so it was my first time flying with everyone and a car seat and stroller and whatever and the so our son was on my lap but his car seat that clipped into the stroller you just check that at the gate and it's sitting right there when you get out of the plane and it was a lot smoother and easier than I thought it was going to be. 

Casey
 0:20:48

Oh they make it easy I'm just saying I got to the point I when Arthur was mobile that I couldn't keep up with Arthur at all my bags so I just got tired of it, right? Because we used to fly a lot. Arthur flew a lot with me. And, you know, and I invested in some other gear and different things and I'm just like, I probably spent a lot of money on mama gear that I didn't need. But it's really like it's free planning. It makes your life a lot easier. So that is our bag tips of the week. It's exclusive content on the Coffee in the Barn. And if you like it, we'd love you to help support the show, everyone. So just $3 a month would go a long ways in helping me keep this processing, feeds, and all that alive for Coffee in the Barn. Great. Thanks. See you next time. Great. Thanks. See you next time.

Morgan
 0:20:50
 Thanks! See you next time!