Packing list...bikini , credit card , passport, Cravendale .

For me half the fun of a summer holiday is the looking forward to the summer holiday. When I can’t get to sleep at night instead of counting sheep I think to myself….what do I want to do when I get on holiday and more importantly what delicious foods can I eat when I get there. 

If I could pack a bag just for myself it might look something a bit like this…..and yes I would get use out of all 3 itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikinis.

But long gone are the days when I could book a last minute £79 deal, come home from work, throw a few things in a bag and be gone the same night. Nowadays the chickens need booking into a hen hotel, prescriptions need ordering in advance and the childrens luggage needs organising with military perfection. Forget a friendly dinosaur cuddly toy or a favourite book and my two weeks of heaven will descend to hell.

So seeing as a happy Mum generally equals a happy family I have come up with a few handy hints to make sure the start of the holiday runs smoothly.  

First off instead of writing out a new list of packing essentials every year I have done something very boring but useful. I spent ten minutes a couple of years ago and wrote them all out onto a Excel spreadsheet.  So now, as soon as holiday time approaches I simply print out the spreadsheet and tick off the various items as I pack them. Never again will I forget the camera or the armbands and best of all if something new becomes essential (Yes, that would be you friendly dinosaur) I just add it to the worksheet and it’s there forever (or until something else becomes toy of the moment).

Tip two is to buy air saving zip lock bags whenever you see them on sale. Poundland have a set of 3 for a pound at the moment. Their purpose: when it’s time to come back home and you seem to have tripled your luggage put everything into space saving bags and your suitcase will do up like a dream. Plus if you put all the dirty laundry into one / two you just need to pop the contents straight into the washing machine as soon as you get home.

Tip three is an obvious one: have clean work clothes / school clothes ready and laid out to save on last minute washing and ironing. But the first thing everyone wants to do when they get home is to put the kettle on for a cup of proper British tea. So tip four is to make sure that you stock up a bottle or two of Cravendale milk. Pop it in the fridge before you go and because the clever people at Cravendale spend the time to finely filter their milk, taking out even more of the bacteria that can turn milk sour, your Cravendale milk will stay fresh for a full 3 weeks if kept in the fridge unopened. And if you've already opened your Cravendale, it will be fine when you get back from holiday if you've only been gone for a few days as it keeps fresh for 7 days if opened. So pop the kettle on and make a big cup of tea before you set about opening the huge pile of post that has arrived while you've been gone.

This has been my entry to the Britmumsblog Come Home to a Cuppa Linky Challenge, sponsored by Cravendale. Five people will get to win a years supply of Cravendale and everyone who enters will get a voucher for a free 2 litre bottle of Cravendale.....lets just hope we all get to go on holiday somewhere with blue sea and palm trees just like in the Cravendale picture above.