One of the biggest struggles that parents have when they’re traveling with their kids is the number of items they pack in their luggage and carry-on.

Traveling is especially challenging if you have smaller kids with you since you want to be able to get a hand on them at all times. When you’re carrying your items with you, it’s even more difficult.

Your kids are going to need specific things to travel comfortably, so you’re going to be lugging around a big bag for their needs alone.

As parents, you’d want to make your life a lot easier all the time, especially when you’re somewhere far away from home. Hence, these seven carry-on hacks for your travel with kids should help you have an easier time:

Pack only a week’s worth of clothes

One of the reasons it’s so difficult to travel with your kids is because you have to bring a lot of items with you. Most of them will be all the variety of clothes and other baby clothing that you’ll need.

Therefore, the only way to have a manageable number of clothes with you would be to pack only a week’s worth of clothes.

If you want to make it easier for you, you should start by looking for ways to remove the number of clothes you bring with you. You should limit yourself only to a week’s worth of clothes.

You can always pay for laundry service or book a place that has a washing machine and a dryer. Instead of bringing your entire wardrobe with you, reduce your stress by limiting your packing to one week’s clothes.

Use packing cubes

When you’re traveling with your kids, you want to access the items that you need at any time. Therefore, you should be more deliberate and organized with how you pack your items, even in your carry-on.

One thing that will help you pack well would be by using packing cubes to help you pack your items.

Packing cubes are especially helpful for keeping and adequately compartmentalizing your other smaller things. You can use packing cubes to separate items based on which items are for which people.

Having one large compartment makes it a lot harder to organize several items that come in different sizes. With the help of packing cubes, you can have smaller compartments for your smaller pieces, and they’ll be easier to access and find because of that.

Travel size your toiletries

Travel-sized toiletries are something that you should already be doing in the first place. One tip to be able to have more toiletries is by using solid toiletries instead of liquid ones. There are even shampoo and conditioner bars that both won’t count as a liquid toiletry.

If you don’t have any specific concerns or needs, you might also want to consider not bringing toiletries with you. Instead, you can buy your toiletries at your location.

Wear bulky clothing items

One way to reduce your luggage’s weight is by wearing your bulkiest clothing items when you go on a flight.

Once you’re properly seated, you can start removing the bulky clothing if it’s bothering you. Doing this will help you reduce the weight of your luggage. That way, you won’t have to rush through the entire process of boarding a flight hauling a big suitcase.

Bring three pairs of shoes at most

Aside from limiting your clothes, it would help if you also restrained yourself by bringing only three pairs of shoes at most. Please limit that to two, if you can. Also, try and wear your bulkiest shoes on the flight.

Limit electronics devices

You don’t need to bring all your electronic devices when you’re traveling with your kids. You don’t need those camera lenses as much as you thought you did.

Having a tablet and a portable power bank can provide you with all you and your kid’s needs.

Give your kids their bag

If your kids are a little older, you should consider getting them their bags. That way, you’ll have a new place to store the items that your kids would want to access.

You can store their toys, snacks, blanket, and more. Plus, it will get your kids to feel more independent.

Over to You

All those horror stories that parents have when they travel with their kids might intimidate you when the time comes for you to do the same. However, the simple act of preparing beforehand will do wonders for reducing your stress on the day of your trip.

These seven carry-on hacks are just a few of the things you can do to ease some of the load that comes with traveling with kids.

As you continue to go with kids, you might find more methods that work best for you. Also, remember to have fun during your travel and to have patience with yourself and your kids.