Grandma's pack for the beach space savers

Beach Ball (public domain)

Packing the family up for a day at the beach can take hours. When you finish packing there's another problem. There's so much equipment, where do you put the kids? Here are some simple tips that I use to get my gang off to the beach sooner, with more leg room. Most of this stays packed and ready all summer or gets packed the night before. Beaching it becomes a "grab and go" proposition.

Lunch

Lugging around the grill, propane, charcoal, gas tank, and utensils takes up a lot of packing space. Pack a picnic cooler lunch the night before. We keep it simple. We make sandwiches and pack them right back into the empty bread bags. Then we twist them shut. We pack chips and drinks. We're set. Best of all, the grown-ups get to enjoy the beach without pulling cooking duty.

Pack ahead

I keep a washable bag full of rolled beach towels and a beach blanket packed at all times. I skip the beach chairs. They take up too much space. Plus, nobody wants to lug them around. When I arrive home from the beach, I shake the bag, towels and blanket out before bringing them in the house. Then, I wash everything up and pack for the next time.

Beach toys

Packing a small air pump and inflating any toys right at the beach saves us space. Blow ups take up too much elbow room. Inflatables and other beach toys can be packed in a bag with the pump. We keep this bag packed and ready too. I keep sand toys minimal. Several stacked buckets with a few shovels inside leave room for more imaginative play.

Swim suits

One might think you have two choices. You can wear the swimsuits and pack the clothes or pack the swimsuits and wear the clothes, right? Wrong! At grandma's house, we wear swim suits to the beach and skip the extra clothes. Boys wear swim trunks and t-shirts. Girls wear swim suits and wraps. We rinse sand off at the beach after swimming. We lay blankets or tarps across the car seats and wear our suits home.

First aid plus

I keep a small beach bag with first aid items, a hair brush and sunscreen in the car at all times. Sunscreen is rarely used in the house. If you need it on a regular basis, keep one in the car and one in the house. Rather than bringing bottles of alcohol or peroxide, soak some cotton balls in either and place in a zip lock bag. Ice from the cooler makes a great bee sting soother. Don't forget the tweezers!

Portions of this article were previously published by this author on a closed Yahoo! property.