I pack waaay too heavy most of the time since I come prepared with so many things... I shouldn't be giving advice on this but I like the footlocker idea personally. What I do is since I don't do laundry when on trips, as dirty clothes accumlates, I put them in plastic bags and put them back in the car. So you can keep extra clothes in the car and use smaller suitcases to bring in only what you need. Just hope your car doesn't get broken into or you're in trouble.

On similar trips, I've packed the clothing needed for each person for each day in a gallon zipbag. A collection of each day's bags was gathered into one group bag (I didn't think of a pillowcase, but that sounds good). One large suitcase held all the socks, shoes, sandals, etc needed, and then the appropriate day's groupbag was put on top of the shoes to carry into the hotel. Each person had their own small bag with hairbrush, toothpaste etc [and an emergency change of undies packed in a small zip bag] - the kids got their stuff in a gallon bag that fit into a colored paper bag (A had red, B had blue, etc) and each was responsible for carrying their private bag. Special events had a group bag, such as one holding everyone's swimwear and towels; and another with "nice" clothes for dinner out, and another for rainy days that had umbrellas, raincoats, ponchos, an extra towel, and a special game to played only if it was too stormy to go out. Otherwise, toys, books, and games were limited to what could be fit into a gallon bag and each child was limited to [and responsible for] just one 'toy bag'. The times we jumped around climates required packing bulky clothing in a special events bag, but that worked well -we may have dressed for 90 degrees in the valley, but it was easy to grab the sweatshirts when we were in snow at the top of the Rockies.

I've had that kind of trip - your group-pack idea might work.

Gallon ZipLocks with one stay's worth of clothes can also work. Each person has a small duffel with shoes and grooming, and they stuiff the ziplock into the duffel at the hotel.

When my husband was stationed in El Paso and we drove to Alabama with babies 6 months and 18 months old, we did the plastic bag idea (no such thing then as zip-locks). I put a night's supply of diapers, PJ's, and an outfit for each child in a bag and stacked each child's bags in a cardboard box (couldn't afford suitcases) with the top cut off. Each box also contained age-appropriate food, formula, toys, etc. which I could grab as needed. These were put in the trunk and we just grabbed a bag for each child each night when we got to the motel. Dirty clothes went into paper sacks in the trunk each morning. It worked for us and could probably be adapted for larger children and a longer trip.

Maura,

It really depends on how the 4 of you feel about not having your personal bag. I used to pack the kids clothes with mine because it was easier, until they got old enough to want to choose their own clothes (then they got their own bag).

The 2-gallon ziplock bags do work great. We use them for camping to keep our clothes dry in wet weather. I find it's easy to pack that way in "outfits" because you know you have enough of everything.

I wouldn't share a bag with my husband on a dare. I like my clothes tidy and wrinkle-free, he just stuffs his in any-old-which-way.

Back from our trip :-)

We ended up packing all of our stuff together, in multiple bags. Was a little nervous about this since I do prefer a personal bag for each person and it limited options for each place, but it worked out.

If I had really planned ahead (instead of waiting until the last minute) I would have grouped outfits together and done the plastic bag method. (Would have needed the two-gallon size, for sure). I didn't feel like emptying the trunk with my off-season clothes, so we went with three duffle bags and an overnighter.

Toiletries and bathing suits went in a laundry basket which came into each place, as did a basket of shoes.

Dirty clothes went into duffles and into roof storage.

Catbird, your post brought back memories of family vacations when I was traveling with my family of 7....cardboard boxes and all.

Thanks for the input everyone!