Packing in Reverse - what did you pack that you didn't need

[HeyKoolaid]

Nice shoes. We dressed up for dinner a couple of times, but my feet were too sore to wear my dress shoes. I just dressed up and wore my comfy shoes to dinner.

 

[niffer5150]

moleskin. i've packed the same sheet of it for 3 trips and never used more than a tiny section of it and it didn't work. blister band aids are way better anyways.

 

[Stephanator]

Shoes - now I'm down to one pair of sneakers and my birkenstocks when packing, maybe a cheapo pair of flip flops for the pool since they're slim
Snacks - we gave the unopened snacks (along with our toiletries we didn't want to pack back like hairspray/sunscreen) to a family in the hotel lobby
Camera - we never really used it since everyone has a camera on their phone now

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

the only thing I take too much of is snack food. I drive down so take car foods and think I'll snack late at night in my room. Silly me, I hit the bed and I'm out. Otherwise I have packing down to an art, had to learn that years ago when we started diving. The equipment is so heavy we had to learn to go light with everything else.

I'm the same way. We travel a lot. I have packing the suitcase down to an art, as well as how to pack the car.

Everything I need during the trip is pretty much within arms reach. Stuff for our trip is in the trunk.

Like you, I pack too many snacks. But it is because I never know what people will want to eat. Some trips, it is salty food. Some, sweet. And others, they want mini meals.

I always pack too many first aid supplies. Pills, band aids, and the like. Most hotels have that stuff and Disney parks have it too.

 

[Dashzap]

We stay DVC so we have washer and dryer in the room.

I love staying places with a washer and dryer! We pack two outfits. I do a laundry each evening and get dressed out of the dryer each morning.

 

[berryinDC]

Our first trip I brought a plastic over the door shoe organizer b/c I'd read about limited counter space I'm WDW hotel rooms. There was plenty of counter space and it was ugly, so I folded it back up and never used it again.

Also, I agree on bringing too many snacks and breakfast stuff like oatmeal. We never eat them, because the Disney snacks are great, and I hate carrying them home again. Part of what we like about being at WDW is having access to so many good options b/c DW has food allergies. So now we just bring food for the airport b/c MCO's food options are pretty mediocre.

 

[PirateMermaid]

High heels, I always think I'm going to wear them to get dressed up one night but then opt for pretty sandals instead lol

 

[Sagginit]

Too many swimsuits. I rinse them out after the pool and could easily just use 2 for the week. Laundry supplies, we are never actually motivated to do laundry and we always have enough clothes anyway. Bug spray, we found it wasn't buggy anywhere and it stunk. I never used all the pennies and quarters I packed. Makeup- I now travel with a small z-pallette and 3 lipsticks at a max on top of my daily foundation/mascara supplies. For the sake of time I do the same eye look every morning so 8 eyeshadows is not needed. Pop Up hamper, a DIS board must have that we didn't use. Instead I use packing cubes/bags, dirt clothes go in the dresser draws and then at the end of the trip in the cubes/bags that are empty. Snacks- I never actually ate through most of them as we were on the DDP my last 3 trips.

Honestly I think I did pretty good with packing.

 

[Realfoodfans]

Always too many clothes and shoes! Only comfy shoes now. I like to draw/sketch but always take too much so I've made a little holiday pack now with simple crayons/pencils.

 

[MunchkinSweetPea]

Our soft-sided cooler, never used it. Anything that needed to be kept cool we usually ate in the room. Too many pairs of shoes, thinking I'd like the idea of having options, in reality I alternated between two the whole time. Too many costumes at my kids' request. This year they will pick two and I will fold them down into gallon sized ziploc bags and squeeze all the air out. I also agree with the other poster about the Brita bottles being a pain to carry, I like them but we may try to wing it without them this year. The cups of ice water from the QS should do just fine.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

For us, it was certain snacks (trail mix) and our ponchos. It didn't rain once when we were last down at Disney, so we left them in the room.

A power strip would have come in handy for us. Even though there were enough outlets, we had our electronics scattered around the room instead of being in one place.

But, you never ever know when you're going to NEED those ponchos. They are so small and take up so little room, far better to err on the side of caution, than pay $20 a poncho. Plus last year, they ran out of ponchos in the store across from FOLK in AK.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

We will be there a week. I'm planning 2 pair of shoes, a pair of saddles, 3 shorts, 1 pair of jeans, and adifferent shirt for each day. The shirts are custom for Disney so that is why one a day. We will have enough socks and undergarments for the week as well as backup in case we get soaked but we will have a washer and dryer as well so I can wash once mid point and again before we leave.

Our park gear will take up the most room but once distributed amongst the six of us, each person's haul will not seem like a burden. I have no problem wearing 3 pounds of gear to be sure I don't react negatively to the sun and heat.

We are driving and renting a uhaul cargo trailer to take the stuff. I'm taking an extra storage tote or two for souvenirs we bring home. Everything but what we need in the car and important papers will be in the cargo trailer. For us, it's $100 for the week and totally worth it since 6 people take up lots of space.

omygoodness!!! I don't envy you! But, it sounds like you have it down to a science!
BTW, when you say "saddles" you mean the shoes, right? We used to ride and carted our own saddles with us each time we went somewhere new to ride. lol

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Too many t shirts...way too many! I enjoy buying new ones. I do everytime. Plus we use the DVC laundry. Why after 10+ visits don't I remember this! No I still pack those ebag packing cubes to the max with all those t shirts I cannot possible leave without...

 

[EvilQueen2018]

omygoodness!!! I don't envy you! But, it sounds like you have it down to a science!
BTW, when you say "saddles" you mean the shoes, right? We used to ride and carted our own saddles with us each time we went somewhere new to ride. lol

Funny, yes. Sandals, autocorrect is not my friend. I'm spending 2 years planning this trip since there are so many changes since I was last there, many years ago, and so many people's interests to consider. Since this will be a surprise trip for the teen girls and birthday girl, and the men refuse to give me a helpful opinion, I've got to figure it all out on my own. I need to get the most comfort out of it for everyone so I had to figure out what is actually useful, what is unnecessary, and how to carry all of the stuff while leaving us all hands free in the park. I had to figure out how to make the road trip less miserable and that will include its own list of supplies to work around 5 adult sized bodies and a child piled into our car. It's like playing tetris with park gear as well as our non-park stuff. We might have a cargo trailer but it wont be big and there is enough necessary items that there just isn't room for things we can live a week without.

 

[MunchkinSweetPea]

Also I just remembered that someone on the dis advised me to bring a tarp for us to sit on during the parades. We never ended up using it. The kids sat in the stroller and we stood.

 

[dreiwhit]

But, you never ever know when you're going to NEED those ponchos. They are so small and take up so little room, far better to err on the side of caution, than pay $20 a poncho. Plus last year, they ran out of ponchos in the store across from FOLK in AK.

FWIW, we went at a time where pop up showers are rare. I checked the forecast each day before we left, and there was no rain predicted or any where near. At that point, I felt it was safe to do without and not carry them around.

 

[Brittni__duh]

We never used our travel first aid kit or our moleskin. However, those are things that I won't leave behind because you never know when you will need them. We also bought too much food at Publix! We had the dining plan but I still bought breakfast foods and some small snacks for the park and we didn't eat most of it.

 

[Canooknic]

I am a crazy organised packer - nothing gets in the case that isn't 100% necessary. If we really need something we can buy it there
I pack a regular sized case and put it inside a large one (with all our shoes around the inner case so our clothes don't get dirty!) so we have an empty case for bringing home whatever we buy.

The only thing we haven't needed yet is our medicines....but I'd rather take them than need them in the middle of the night and not have them! I only pack kids painkiller, adult painkiller and something to calm stomachs and they are always in my purse anyway so don't take up much room

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

FWIW, we went at a time where pop up showers are rare. I checked the forecast each day before we left, and there was no rain predicted or any where near. At that point, I felt it was safe to do without and not carry them around.

Understood for your park bag, but won't you continue to bring them in your luggage?

 

[dreiwhit]

Understood for your park bag, but won't you continue to bring them in your luggage?

Yes. We'll pack them in our luggage, but if we don't need them in the park, we'll leave them in the room.