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Time is one of those assets that we always seem to juggle.  Between work, school, family, sleep, and general life tending, a person can begin to wonder… what about all that stuff I used to do?  If you get to the end of the week and find yourself wanting to head outside for some type of adventure, but feel hit by the exhausted-stick when you even think about pulling everything together to go, we understand.  It’s much easier to stay home than dig through the gear boxes, run to the grocery store, and motivate the kids to pack what they need. 

But then, that means you’re not going camping in that place you’ve always wanted to see, paddling that favorite river, or introducing your kid to the first rock wall you ever climbed.  

We also reached a point of feeling like we were missing the activities we once did every weekend because the other days of the week weren’t allowing us time to make it happen.  After a while, though, enough was enough.  So we organized!

Here’s how we set up our planning and our gear closet to make our outdoor adventures as a family more likely to happen.

1. Get organized. Sounds simple enough, right? But is your current organization working for you? We started with like items in the same bins or shelves. It was nice to know that if we were looking for a specific backpack, we could dig through the backpack bin. However, when it came to packing for a weekend trip, if felt like there was so much more work to do. After all, when we take our 30L backpacks somewhere, we’re most likely camping. So, we started grouping gear by what activities they shared: backpack plus tent; sleeping bag plus sleeping pad; a cookware bin for car camping and a cookware bag for backpacking, and so on. If you know you want to go climbing for a day, consider putting all of your climbing equipment in one or two bags. Mountain biking, same thing. This way, you’re not wasting time digging around for that one item that you “know is around here somewhere.”

2. Use checklists. (Signing up for the Newsletter delivers a free one to your email box). Keeping a general checklist for what you’re planning to do is huge time saver and it helps you not forget something essential. I can’t tell you how many times I forget my headlamp if I’m scattered and trying to pack quickly.

3. Start pulling things together the weekend before. If you know that you’re planning to go somewhere and do something specific the following weekend, don’t wait. Make your life easier by gathering things into a staging area the week before. Items like backpacks, sleeping bags and pads, tent and accessories, cookware, lights, even shoes can easily be brought out and ready. This also shows you ahead of time if you’re missing anything or if any gear needs to be repaired.

4. Do laundry early. The weekend before is also a perfect time wash the clothing items you will need for your trip. Don’t wait and try to get things to dry in the 30 minutes before you want to leave. Go ahead and wash all the socks, underwear, and apparel that needs to be, then put them in a stuff sack like this one in the staging area so that nobody pulls from that clean laundry during the week.

5. Meal plan ahead of time so grocery shopping is a breeze. While you’re waiting for the laundry to dry, think about what you’d like to eat while you’re out for the weekend. Whether that means a grocery store run or stocking up on freeze dried meals from your gear shop, knowing your meals takes the guesswork out of your shopping list, and also makes the shopping quick. Here are some camping meal ideas. Don’t under estimate how little you’ll want to cook the night that you get back home, too, so throw an extra meal on the shopping list that’s easy to create and practically cooks itself when you settle in. This is one of our favorite, one-dish meals for nights like this.

6. Pet plan the week before. Are the pets going with you? If so, go ahead and pack their gear and food in their backpack (we love this one by Ruffwear) to put in the staging area. If not, reach out now to that friend, neighbor, or petsitter who always helps you out to be sure they’re available to take care of Fido and Fang (that’s the cat) before your leave time is approaching. Not having reliable care for your furry family keeps you from enjoying your adventure, but it also stops trips completely.

7. Put it on paper. What we mean by this is, if you have a bunch of stuff swirling in your mind from the work/school week that you don’t want to forget or it’s going to steal your sleep, write it down. Put it on paper so that you can let your mind focus on the weekend away that you’ve planned. Then you can rest assured that you won’t forget and it’s there to pick up after you’ve returned. And since you’ve gotten everything else ready early, consider what you might need to do on Sunday evening to be ready for the week ahead. That takes the crunch and stress away from Monday morning. Homework? Phone calls to make first thing Monday? Gym clothes in the school bag? Write it down and leave it on the table so it’s easy when you return.

8. Stay organized. It doesn’t do much good to spend all that time sorting things into activity grab-bags if the organization doesn’t stay that way. After your weekend adventure, when you’re just home, dirty, and pretty tired, give one last effort to unload the car, clean up the gear, and put things away in your awesomely organized fashion so that it’s just as easy the next time you want to leave for a quick trip. Bonus points if you get all those dirty clothes into the washing machine, too.

A Little Extra Prep Offers a Lot of Extra Time

This might seem like it’s overly planned out.  But honestly, once you have your “system” in place, it becomes second nature to plan for a family weekend outing.  Fun outdoors doesn’t have to wait until spring or summer breaks and by working ahead, you’ll feel like you’ve created extra time in that day or two before you go.  Whether you leave Friday night or Saturday morning, you can drive to the trailhead, campground, crag, or put-in knowing that you’ve thought through your packing thoroughly and done everything necessary to have a great weekend.

How do you make time for your weekend adventures during the busy work and school year?  Do you organize similarly to this or have you found a better way that works for you?