Have kids. Will travel. Will also pack 15 bags worth of clothes, toiletries, toys and snacks every single time.
But not anymore! You can stop bringing your entire house with you every time you leave the house thanks to these clever mums and their super cheap Kmart travel hacks.
Going bag-free when you have kids is impossible. You’re always going to need to bring the basics and the bare essentials – water, nappies, sunscreen, hats, extra clothing, snacks. When you’re going away for the night, you can add a few more things – toothpaste, shampoo, soap, pillows, blankies, stuffed animals….
But these Kmart travel hacks are designed to make travelling, whether going out for a day or a month, SO MUCH EASIER. And, best of all, they cost pretty much next to nothing.
For your toiletries
The latest Kmart hack to hit our social media feeds is the $3 Kmart travel bottle hack. Gone are the days of re-packing your bag every time you leave the house and digging inside your bag for 15 minutes (and pulling out a handful of tampons while doing so).
All you need to pull off the travel bottle hack are a few empty travel bottles ($3 for two at Kmart but you can pick these up basically anywhere) and some lanyards. Simply fill the bottles with your everyday outing essentials like sunscreen, hand sanitiser and nappy cream. For weekends away, camping or swimming lessons even? Shampoo, conditioner and shower gel.
But the ideas don’t end there – you can fill these bad boys up with pretty much anything – Aloe vera, medicine, hand cream, band-aids, itty bitty snacks, a shot of vodka even! Oh, and tampons.
For your passports
Fishing through your bag looking for your passports is pretty much standard at the airport. But it doesn’t have to be!
Sure, you can purchase one of those bulky overpriced passport holders. Or, you can use a pencil case and save a small fortune. Another brilliant Kmart loving mum opted to hack the Kmart Zip Pencil Case into a passport and document holder.
“The front section fits five passports and the back section I sewed elastic strips to hold all of our paperwork,” Chelsea Ekonomopoulos explains.
For your clothes
If you’re heading out of town for a night or more, then you will be packing extra clothes. And probably preparing for a massive mess every time your child needs to get dressed.
Enter the Ziplock bag. That’s right – a pack of $2 Ziplock bags will save you from this disorganisational nightmare.
Simply place each outfit in its own Ziplock bag (and add a label if you want). That way you can keep track of what’s clean and what’s dirty. Rachel from Small Notebook came up with the idea and we are loving it! Sure beats watching the kids dig through the suitcase every morning and complain about not having any jocks.
Want to take this Kmart travel hack up to another level? Add a dryer sheet to each Ziplock bag. It will keep the clothes smelling fresh, even if you’re sleeping in a rain-soaked tent.
Looking for more mum hacks? We have you covered! Check out this easy way to get babies to take their medicine, and this simple solution for scream-free splinter removal. And, because it’s impossible to go into Kmart for just one item, have a look at these other 7 clever Kmart hacks every parent needs to know.
