Insanely Crazy Hack for Road Trips with Kids

By now, it is no secret that we are planning an epic vacation and we are looking for any and all road tripping tips we can find. In fact, we’ve decided to create this awesome Guide to Road Tripping with our awesome friends. Today, Jamie of The Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide is sharing the most amazing hack for road trips with kids.

Crazy {but Amazing} Hack for Road Trips with Kids

The number one way to keep everyone enjoying a family road trip with kids is to keep the car comfortable for those long stretches of time on the road. That means keeping it clean (relatively speaking) and organized.

As a family, we have traveled by car with our kids on many occasions. We live far from family due to military life, so I am always looking for new ways to keep our road trips fun. Knowing where the important items are at all times and keeping things relatively clean helps everyone stay in a better mood, in my experience.

Simple Hack to Get the Kids to Clean their Space

We know the car gets dirty with kids riding in it day-to-day. Then you add the extra time spent in the car on a road trip and we are talking about a lot of crumbs! (How do they get crumbs in the hardest to reach corners?)

This tip is one that will keep the car cleaned up so everyone can be comfortable…and the kids do the cleaning. (Bonus!)

All you need for this activity/cleaning tip is duct tape.

Take a roll of duct tape, and rip off two pieces that are about 12 inches long.

Wrap the duct tape strips sticky side out around your child’s feet. (Pretty silly, but it works.)

Then let the kids jump and dance in the car!

The duct tape acts as a lint roller picking up all the little crumbs and fuzz that accumulate on the interior of the car when traveling with kids. In fact it picks up the fuzz that even a vacuum can’t get.

My kids had fun with this one trying to get as much stuck to their tape as possible. It helps to pick up any wrappers or other garbage first.

This activity was great even for my child who is allergic to cleaning up. (Ha!) Even she was eager to try it again.

More tips to keep the car a comfortable organized space while on a road trip with kids…

Stay Organized

Even though the family in the following article travels larger than many of us, these 4 tips for organizing the car shared at I’m an Organizing Junkie are great for road trips (and moving for military families). Her tip to bring in only one bag for the whole family at hotel stops is what we do on our long trips so we do not have to empty the entire car each night.

This list of 17 Traveling Tips includes 7 that are all about organizing the car, snacks and packing when traveling with kids. Snacks are such a helpful addition to a road trip-you can pack the favorites for your family, saving money and eating healthier.

Be Flexible

The best travel tip when on a road trip with kids? Be flexible! Slow down, enjoy your time and make those rest stops a little longer to save everyone’s sanity.

It helped us so much when we traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast with 4 kids (and 2 of them were breastfeeding). Sometimes you literally have to slow down and let the kids’ needs dictate the plan.

If you want to bring some easy-to-prep activities for the kids, here are 10 road trip activities with no electronics that we use on our road trips.

Did You Miss Yesterday’s Tips in the Ultimate Guide to Road Tripping?