When I was in my teens and early twenties, most of my camping experiences were backpacking. I was used to packing light. Camping with kids is a whole different ballgame!
Kids are messy! They can have blowouts if they are in diapers, or accidents if they are working on potty training. If your kids are like my kids they love to get covered in dirt, probably will bleed at some point, and might get food all over their clothes. Realistically though, it's hard to pack enough clothes for a new outfit every day, and we have limited space to pack. The amount of clothes we pack depends on if or when we will have access to a washer or dryer.
As tent campers, we rarely stay in a location with access to a washer and dryer. Depending on how the trip is scheduled, I might try to find a location we can wash cloths, but we don't often have the time or location to do that.
We have two bags of dirty clothes. The first bag is for the 'these must be washed before warn again' clothes which includes underwear, socks, and any other items that are really dirty. The second bag is for the 'these could be warn again if needed' clothes. Each night, as the kids get in their pajamas I look at their cloths from that day and determine if they can wear them again or not.
If someone runs out of clean clothes and we haven't made it to a location to do laundry yet we break into the 'these could be warn again if needed bag.
Most often, the kids will wear their pants or shorts again the following day. They wear shirts again as well, but it tends to be less frequently. I find they feel better about wearing the same shirt again if there is a day or two between. Being able to wear clothes again is getting easier the older the kids get.
Now that the kids are older, they can help pack. I give the kids a gallon storage bags and tell them how many underwear to pack. Then I give them another storage bag and tell them how many socks to pack (depending on the length of the trip, socks and underwear can be in one bag). It's helpful to have their underwear and socks in these bags so that they are easier to find as they are smaller items. Then, I ask the kids to gather their other clothes by category, giving them the number for each.
The bags we use for our clothes are the Eddie Bauer Stowaway Packable 25L Cinch Tote (No, Eddie Bauer doesn't give us money. We just really like their products). We love this bag due to it's size and shape. The bag is easy to fit into places, it takes up less space as we empty it, and when we aren't using them, they have a small pocket they fold into. We also love all of the different colors! Each of us has a different colored bag. Since we each have our own color, it's easy to tell the bags apart. Towards the end of the trip, one of our bags might transition to another dirty bag, and we might condense the clean clothes to one bag for the way home to make our last night or two easier.
Below is a list of items we bring for the different age groups.
Note: When calculating, we round up on items, especially pants, socks, and underwear as they aren't usually as easy to purchase while out. Most places offer shirts and sweatshirts as souvenirs so I'm less worried about having enough of those.
Infants & toddlers not potty training
Keep 2 complete outfits easily assessable.
Diapers and/pullups. Make sure you check your location!
Remote locations = plan to bring all that you will need
Ability to restock = as many as you need until you plan to restock
Shirts = days before laundry day x 1.25
Pants/shorts = days before laundry day x 1.5
Pajamas = days of travel before laundry day x 1/4
Socks = days of travel
Swim suit = 1 to 2
Swim diaper
Cloth = 2 (can be hand washed and used again)
Disposable = swim days x 2
Sweatshirts
Warm climate = 2
Cold climate = days of travel before laundry day x 0.5
Sun hat
Winter hat
Winter mittens
Toddlers potty training to potty trained
Keep 2 complete outfits easily assessable
Underwear = days before laundry x 1.75
Shirts = days before laundry x 1.25 extra
Pants/shorts = days before laundry x 1.75
Pajamas
If they are still wet overnight = days before laundry x 1.5
If they are dry overnight: once they reach this point, our kids don't change their pajamas often as they only wear them in the tent = days before laundry x 0.25
Socks = days before laundry x 1.25
Swimsuit = 2
Swim diaper
Cloth = 2 (can be hand washed and used again)
Disposable = swim days x 2
Sweatshirts
Warm climate = 2
Cold climate = days before laundry x 0.5
Sun hat
Winter hat
Winter mittens
Children ~4 years old (potty trained) to 6 years old
Keep 1 complete outfits easily assessable
Underwear = days before laundry x 1.25
Shirts = days before laundry x 1.25 extra
Pants/shorts = days before laundry x 1.25
Pajamas = days before laundry x 0.25
Socks = days before laundry x 1.25
Swimsuit = 2
Sweatshirts
Warm climate = 1
Cold climate = days before laundry x 0.5
Sun hat
Winter hat (especially if traveling in higher elevation)
Winter mittens
Children 6 years old - 12 years old
Underwear = days before laundry + 1
Shirts = days before laundry
Pants/shorts = days before laundry x 0.75
Pajamas = 2
Socks = days before laundry x 1.25
Swimsuit = 2
Sweatshirts
Warm climate = 1
Cold climate = days before laundry x 0.25
Sun hat
Winter hat
Winter gloves/mittens
Children 12+ years old
Underwear = days before laundry + 1
Shirts = days before laundry
Pants/shorts = days before laundry x 0.75
Pajamas = 1
Socks = days before laundry x 1.25
Swimsuit = 2
Sweatshirts
Warm climate = 1
Cold climate = days before laundry x 0.25
Sun hat
Winter hat
Winter gloves/mittens
Note: we pack winter hat and mittens/gloves for everyone. We keep these in a small bag together. If we don't need them, great, they stay out of the way. If we do need them, we don't have to go through every back to get them.
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