Packing for an extended road trip is always an adventure, especially when you’re camping. There are clothes to be packed (how many pairs of socks and underwear do I pack?), the tent and sleeping bags, the cooking equipment, food, and of course stuff to keep the kids entertained in the car. I can only share what’s working for me.

1. Pack about a week’s worth of clothes for everyone. You can stop and do laundry along the way. Most campsites and hotels have coin-operates washers and dryers (remember those from college?!). There are also laundromats in nearly every town. A weeks’ supply of clothes keeps you from stopping every couple of days, but is not too much to cause you to spend a day doing laundry, either.

2. Pack in containers. Put all the cooking stuff in one box, all the non-cooler foods in another, the cleaning supplies in a separate one, and of course everyone has their own small bag for their clothes. This will save you from having to dig through countless items to find a specific one. You simply need to pull out that particular container and grab it. And yes, I have boxes IN my boxes to help keep them organized.

3. Avoid uni-taskers. These are items that have one purpose only. It especially applies to your camping cook kit, where it’s easy to try and pack everything but the kitchen sink (and even then, I’ve wished I could bring that!). Single-purpose tools and items only take up space, and often aren’t used more than once or twice- if at all.

4. Use space savers such as small packages of food, dish soap, laundry detergent, and so on. You can easily stop along the way and re-stock your supply, so there is no need to pack the Costco size of everything. You can also use tools such as space bags (I found a re-chargeable mini vacuum cleaner at Walmart for $20, and it works great!), compression sacks for sleeping bags, and good, old-fashioned stuffing.

5. Get really good at playing Tetris. No, seriously! If you can play Tetris, you can pack any thing into any car. It’s all a matter of seeing what will fit where. However, I highly recommend starting with the biggest pieces first, and fitting smaller ones in and around those.

It takes time and practice to learn how to efficiently pack everything you need, but once you figure it out, it becomes a breeze!