Today I’m detailing travel essentials for toddlers, and how to build a travel bin!
We recently got a minivan just in time to take our first family road trip! Both of those milestones lead to me getting our kids’ prepared for some serious driving time. I created a “travel bin” for each kiddo that we keep in the stow-and-go receptacles of the van.
Travel bins can serve multiple functions depending on your needs. While we (thankfully) didn’t have to rely on these a whole heck of a lot during our trip, I’m so glad to have them (still sitting there currently!) created and ready to use at a moment’s notice.
Whether you’re traveling long distances, or just running around doing everyday errands, having one of these kits built is a great idea. I don’t even carry a diaper bag anymore! Let’s dive in so you can see my thought process and build your own (I’ve even included links for you!).
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Travel Essentials for Toddlers
First, it’s important to make sure you know what the travel kit needs to do for you (this may look different for you than for me). Make a mental note (or jot down) your main purposes for the bin before you start gathering items. This will help you categorize your items and keep things simple.
For me, my main goal in creating the bins was to house all entertainment sources for our road trip. Things can get cluttered quickly! My second purpose was to house an extra set of clothes and diapers, etc. in case of an emergency. I also use the bins (and stow-and-go areas) to house our more general emergency necessities.
Overall, I wanted the bins to contain the madness for each child, and yet still be accessible when we need it.
Travel Essentials for Toddlers – Build a Travel Bin!
I started gathering items leading up to our trip, knowing we’d need a few new items to keep the kids engaged. We were heading to the Smoky Mountains, so I got some items that would provide talking points to learn about our destination on our journey.
Important Note: a lot of the items I used were already in our house. I think it’s very smart to “shop your house” first. You have more than you think you do to keep kids entertained.
Sometimes it’s as simple as removing items from their day-to-day to give them new life and inspiration when you pull them out again! Pulling from toy rotations work great for this, as well!
items that I purchased new:
- Who Pooped in the Park Book – to learn about tracking wildlife on our trip!
- Melissa & Doug Shimmy Snake Magnifying Glass – for our hiking and camping adventures!
- Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles – to keep #2’s short-attention-span busy and intrigued!
- 6-in-1 Fun Pack Card Games – to play with #1 at the campground.
Target had an entire endcap dedicated to outdoor fun, so I got sucked in (of course) and got this really cool set from Melissa & Doug – Let’s Explore Seek & Find Bingo Play Set. Both kids really enjoy this and it’s something we can use for many years here around our home, too!
I also got quite a few cheap, knick-knacky items from the Dollar Section at Target. They were perfect little surprises for the kids.
Keep and eye out at the Target Dollar Section for items like these:
- Opposites two-piece puzzles
- Magic Marker coloring pads
- Sticky light up/stress balls
- Grab and Go Kit (included a few crayons, coloring sheets, and stickers)
- Foam jigsaw puzzles (#2 loves playing with these!)
Travel lap Desk
One other item that I grabbed at Sam’s Club that is the most used/liked item by both kids is an Activity Lap Desk. It has a huge pad of activity/coloring sheets, five markers, and a sticker pad. Both kids still love using it here in the house. It even has a zipper pouch to store everything! This is sold out, so keep your eye out for something similar.
I was able to find this Disney Lion King one on Amazon (see below), but it’s low in stock so get it quick! This is the exact thing I got at Sam’s Club except ours is Paw Patrol. This is even cheaper than the one I got. I also just saw this one at Ikea that would be great, too!
Items we already had:
- Coloring/Activity Books
- Crayons and Colored Pencils that I put in a camo pencil pouch
- Functioning kids sized lantern
- Spot It! games from Chick-Fil-A meals
- Write and Wipe Pre-K Board Book
- This awesome portable sound machine – I like it better than anything stationary we have!
I got a two-pack of these Sterilite Tubs to house everything. They work great! I love and prefer clear tubs with the latch handles. I specifically wanted to buy these because they were bigger than anything I already had, and they fit in our stow-and-go perfectly!
Other Travel Essentials for Toddlers
Extra Set of Clothes
I used a couple of jumbo-sized baggies to keep a full set of extra clothes for each kid. I packed an outfit and placed everything (including diaper and pull-up) in their respective bin.
In order to use this as a general “car bin”, you’ll need to regularly check and replace clothing with more seasonally appropriate items.
Emergency Supplies
These items aren’t necessarily stored in the bins, but I do keep them with the bins in our stow-and-go compartments. These are also items that all of us could use, not just the children.
Here are items I have for emergencies:
- Blankets
- First Aid Kit (see below)
- Seasonal Essentials (mittens, hats, ice scraper, etc)
- Bottled Water
- Jumper cables
We put the top bin on the other side, obviously, but they fit in the stow-and-go
compartments with room to spare!
Other Tips for Traveling with Small Children
- In packing the travel bins, I was particularly insistent on only including items that were mess-free, didn’t have many small parts, and were quiet.
- The number of items that I included for our road trip is a bit much in hindsight. haha! The kids barely needed to crack them open. In my defense, it was our first time on a long car ride, so I wanted to be as prepared as possible. I’ve heard horror stories of kids that just can’t handle it and wasn’t sure if either of ours would be one! Just know, you can probably tone down the number of items used.
- Use Redbox! We do not have any DVDs in our house anymore because we solely use streaming services. But, our minivan has dual DVD players in it. We’ve got just a handful of DVDs that we keep in the van, but they’ve been watched a lot. Redbox is an awesome and very affordable option when the kiddos just need something to keep them from asking, “Are we there yet?!”, a million more times! You pick it up in one city, drop it off in another. So awesome!
- Be prepared to make stops along the way. Kids need a break to burn off energy. This can be a fun part of the journey, though! When we needed to stop to eat or whatever, we looked up the nearest park or attraction. This was a fun way to break up the drive, see more, and enjoy the journey! We’d have a snack lunch/picnic and take a hike, or go through a drive-thru and hit up a playground. These are simple things that really make it special for your little ones.
- I stashed plastic trash bags in our smaller snack cooler that sat between our seats and the kids’ seats for the drive. We always had a couple of bags hanging out to collect trash.
- We took our potty training toilet for the long car ride and kept it in the back of the van. I think this could be very useful for some families, even though we didn’t end up using it. I thought it was an excellent tip for road trips with toddlers!
- You know those diaper caddies you use when kids are itty-bitty? I keep one of those in the back of the van now to house diapers, wipes, butt paste, and a few pull-ups. Instead of carrying a diaper bag, I just use this. If there’s a need, I’ll toss a diaper into my purse for our outing. Otherwise, we work out of the diaper caddy! It’s so simple, and I love not lugging around a diaper bag anymore!
Whew. I hope this post was helpful for you in thinking about things to have in your car. Whether it’s for everyday running around or long road trips, having these travel essentials for toddlers (including the travel bin!) will be super handy and make mom life a bit easier!
What tip or hack do you swear by when traveling with toddlers?! There are so many good ones, please share yours in comments so we can benefit!
To the Chaos!
-MG
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