How do you pack for five weeks?!

In exactly three weeks, we're going to Australia. For just over five weeks. Gulp. After countless holidays, to different places and of different durations, I like to think of myself as a bit of an expert on packing. But this one is going to be tough. Here's a few reasons why:

1. Duration
Okay, this one's a no-brainer. A week is easy. A fortnight's no problem. But five weeks is a different matter entirely. Obviously, we can't take five weeks' worth of clothes. But we still need enough to last us...

2. Weather
If we were going for five weeks in the Caribbean, it would be easy. You could pack a bikini for every day of the holiday, plus a few summer dresses, and still have room to bring back a pineapple and a bottle of rum. But when we go, it will be winter in Australia. Obviously, an Australian winter is nothing like a British winter. But it does match our autumn. The temperatures in the north of Queensland are likely to be in the mid to late 20s (Celsius for those who think in Fahrenheit!), but temperatures in Melbourne may go down to 10 degrees - and let's not mention night-time temperatures. When we visited Sydney ten years ago, it was so cold when we arrived that I went out and bought a hat and scarf! Yet two days later, it was warm enough to be wearing shorts and T-shirt. Plus we also spend a few days in Hong Kong, where the weather will be hot and humid. Basically, we need to take winter and summer clothes and something in between. In a nod to Antipodean talent, I keep finding myself adapting Crowded House's song and singing 'Four Seasons in One Holiday...'

3. Weight
Lugging suitcases around is hard-going at the best of times. But this holiday, it's going to be made extra difficult due to Lee's fractured spine. All is nearly recovered, and the specialist said Lee should be able to resume normal 'sporting' activity (ha!) around now. 'Great,' said Lee, 'does that mean I'll be able to carry the cases on holiday?' 'Oh no,' was the reply, accompanied with a grave shaking of the head. This means, of course, that it will be yours truly hefting cases on and off trollies and conveyer belts, and in and out of cars, trains and coaches. Our hold luggage limit is 20kg per case - several people have already been horrified that it's not the usual 23kg. Sod that - I'll be the one carrying it! Not only do we have to pack five weeks' worth of stuff into four cases and four hand luggage bags, but those cases need to be light enough for Lee and the boys to pull, and light enough for me to actually lift! And who cares what the hand luggage weight limit is - we have to carry those bags!

4. Living out of a suitcase
Normally when you go on holiday, you unpack when you get there. It doesn't matter how things fit in the suitcase - as long as they actually do fit - because once you get there, you're going to unpack them all. Shoes tend to go at the bottom of the case, followed by clothes and then anything else. It doesn't matter if you don't know where things are, 'cos they'll all come out of the case when you reach your destination. Clothes aren't kept packed for long enough to crease much - and hanging them up in the wardrobe when you get there means that most of the creases will drop out anyway. Travelling around, however, makes things a bit more difficult. When you're only in one place for a night or two, is it really worth unpacking everything? It would be easy enough if you only had one or two nights' worth of stuff, but unpacking five weeks' worth every couple of days is a hassle, and takes up a large chunk of what little time you have at a destination. So you leave most of your stuff in the suitcase - which brings a whole host of problems. Clothes end up creased from being folded so long. Trying to get shoes from the bottom of your case means the clothes on top get messed up - and how the hell do you put them back again?! How do you find the dress you want in amongst all the other clothes? And how do you separate out the dirty clothes?! Help!

Of course, I refuse to be defeated, and I'm nothing if not resourceful (ahem!). My first weapon is, unsurprisingly, The List. This doesn't apply to this holiday specifically, of course - I have made The List for every holiday I've been on since the age of about 17. It started off as a list in a little notebook - the clothes I would take and all the other important bits like toothbrush, sun-cream, books, etc. Each time I went on holiday, I would dig out my notebook and look at my most recent list and then write a new one, using that for inspiration. It was invariably the same but with slightly different clothes, depending on what I'd bought in between holidays. It took an embarrassingly long time to realise that the computer was actually a far better option than a notebook. I now have a 'Holiday Packing Lists' folder on my PC, with lists for every holiday I've been on for the last five years (which is quite a lot). Each time I go on holiday, I look through the files to find the previous holiday that matches most closely. Is it a few days, a week, a fortnight or the whole summer? Is it UK, city break, beach or camping? You get the idea. Then I read through the list, make a few alterations (don't think we need nappies or a dummy anymore, but the iPhone has now been invented...) and save it for the current holiday, to be used again in the future. Anal, I know. But it's much safer (and easier, of course) than making a list from scratch each time, let alone (shudder) not making one. It's very unlikely that I'll get to my destination and suddenly realise I've left behind something vital, or even something completely unimportant.

Anyway, this will be my first step towards this summer's packing. But what are my plans for dealing with the problems above?

1. Washing
Yup, also a no-brainer. We simply can't take five weeks' worth of clothes - fact. And I refuse (as some people have seriously suggested) to throw away the dirty clothes on holiday and buy new ones as we go - wasteful and expensive! Which only really leaves washing. It's what you'd do at home! We're pretty used to this from our camping extravaganzas - we usually take enough clothes to last around ten days, and then make sure we stay at a campsite with a laundrette. This time we're staying in a few apartments, as well as with friends, so hopefully we'll be able to do a few loads of washing there while we're away. If necessary, we'll trawl the streets of wherever, looking for a laundrette (as we did once in Spain - an interesting experience!). Other than clothes, the duration isn't really a problem. You'd take a toothbrush, phone and camera whether you went for three days or three months. And it's not as if you can't buy things that run out while you're away, like shower gel and toothpaste. The only real problem is books. We're all readers in our family, the kids included. And we read more on holiday than at any other time. Normally it'll take me a month or so to finish a book, but I'll easily get through a couple a week on holiday. Yes, I know, Kindle, blah blah blah. I know it's the solution. But I like books. Hey, something's gotta give.

2. Um...layering?
There's no great answer to this one, really. There's no getting away from the fact that we're going to need swimsuits for the beach, shorts for Hong Kong, raincoats for Perth and jumpers for Melbourne. Not to mention walking boots for Ayers Rock, flip-flops for Queensland and comfy, waterproof shoes for most other places. The only thing we can do is take a few staples in neutral colours and layer them up in the colder weather. Forget pretty dresses and colour schemes - this holiday wardrobe is all about practical, comfortable, non-crease and tumble-dryable (is that a word?!). Denim goes with everything, so jeans, cropped jeans, denim shorts and denim skirt make life easier, as all tops will go with them. Vest tops, T-shirts and a couple of hoodies should see me through all weather, plus a couple of dresses just in case. (You may notice I'm not speaking from a male perspective here; shorts, jeans, T-shirts and hoodies will suffice there - easy!) We've bought light waterproof jackets for everyone - warmer than cagoules but small and light enough to fit in the front pocket of the cases. Plus we'll pack a hat and scarf for everyone (I learnt my lesson in Sydney last time!), which should be enough to keep out the wind. Sorted (hopefully)!

3. New cases
Our old cases are - well - old. They're heavy, they fall over if you attempt to stand them up, and - the most important bit - two of the handles have jammed, meaning they're pretty difficult to pull unless you're four-foot-nothing. Yup, we needed new cases. And this time we needed cases that were light and easy to pull. Obviously, we'll need to pack as light as possible, because I'll have to lift these cases frequently, but the weight of the cases themselves plays a big part in that. I keep seeing these 'lightest suitcases in the world' in shops. Given that they're all made by different brands, they can't all be telling the truth, but they certainly are light. However, they also look very flimsy, and I'm not convinced they'd do a good job of protecting everything inside. So, it was off to my tried and tested friend Amazon, where at least I could read some reviews and work out which cases were likely to survive ten flights (and preferably more after that). I eventually settled on Aerolite cases, which were light, had four wheels and, most importantly, had good reviews. Actually, scrap that - most importantly, they were really reasonably priced. The price seemed to depend on the colour and the availability - the most expensive was £129 but, by choosing the cheapest colours, we were able to get the largest one for £40 and the others (two small and one medium - although it's actually pretty big) for £20 each. They arrived last week, and so far I'm pretty impressed. The handles extend to varying heights, making them easy for everyone to pull. The four wheels mean they can stand alone - particularly vital for the kids, who always let go of the handles when they stop pulling, only to see the cases fall to the ground. The four wheels also mean that the cases can be pushed, pulled or just rolled along next to you. Even a five-year-old and a man with a fractured spine should be able to manoeuver these. And I realised how light they were when they arrived and I lifted the biggest case out of the box, thinking how much lighter it was than our old one. I then searched the other box for the medium case, wondering where it was, until I realised it was actually inside the biggest case - yup, both cases combined weigh less than our old case! They even each came with a combination lock - bargain. Obviously I haven't yet put them through the rigorous testing of our holiday, but so far I'm impressed. And no, I'm not on commission - although maybe I should be...

4. Clever packing
I've had a certain amount of practice at this during our camping holidays, where you certainly don't get to unpack. I've now developed a rigorous system for camping packing, which has worked really well so far. We have the overnight case, which has everything we all need for night-time - toothbrush, PJs, shower gel, book, etc. - and this comes into the tent as soon as we've put it up. We have a bag each for clothes, which stays in the car and gets accessed in the morning when we're getting dressed. We have a bag for toiletries, medicines, shower gel refills, sun cream, etc. A bag for books, toys, board games and other miscellaneous bits. A bag for shoes and a bag for beach stuff. And of course we have boxes for food and cooking utensils - plus sleeping bags, camping stove and so on. Okay, this won't exactly work for flights - plus we won't be needing airbeds and camping chairs - but I can certainly borrow from it. The first thing is the overnight case - this will be what travels in our hand luggage. We'll all take what we need for a night in our own hand luggage - even the boys should manage to carry PJs, a toothbrush, a book and a teddy. This way, if we arrive somewhere late at night, we don't even have to open the cases to find everything we need to get ready for bed. The second thing is rolling. I wasn't convinced initially when someone suggested rolling clothes for packing instead of folding them. I'm still not 100% convinced that it takes up less space or stops creases. However, it does make it an awful lot easier to locate and remove items of clothing without upsetting all the other ones. The final thing is separate bags for different things. I did briefly wonder about using one case for clothes, one for shoes, one for books, etc., but quickly realised the uneven distribution would make this a problem. So my solution is dividers: I'm going to make cardboard dividers to stick in the cases and separate them into different compartments. Yes, I really have no life. Shoes can all go in one compartment, preferably at the bottom of the case when it's standing, to help stabilise it. Clothes will go in another compartment, rolled of course. Everything else will go in the other compartment, probably in the middle. That way, everything should be easy to find and take out without upsetting everything else in the case. I'm even going to have a divider ready to make up a dirty-clothes compartment. Oh yes, I know how to live.

So that's the plan. It's by no means fool-proof, but I'm hoping it will help to reduce some of the potential problems with this mammoth packing task. I haven't even written the packing list yet, let alone made the dividers, but I have been planning this for months. I will let you know if it works...!