Have you been following our recent series, The Diva Move South, on YouTube? In today’s episode, we start our trek across the country…for the third time!
Yep. I can’t believe I’m even saying this – but we’ve now moved cross country three separate times! No, we’re not in the military. No, it was definitely not our plan. But we told God we were up for an adventure and boy, did He take us on one!
That being said… We’ve had just a wee bit of experience in the family road trip department and thought we’d share some of our favorite Amazon essentials (as well as some we wish we would have invested in) in case you find yourself up for a family road trip this summer!
- CAR ORGANIZER
While we didn’t purchase a particular organizer for our car (we just made do with one from our house that otherwise would have been packed in a box), this was one I was considering. I liked that it was easily collapsable and had lots of pockets. I could see it being useful outside of just a road trip, which is important to me when I’m making an investment. - BACK OF SEAT ORGANIZER
We used the heck out of these for two of our three road trips (it broke before our third and I forgot to buy new ones before we left) and they helped soooo much! There are a lot of different styles on the market, but I chose these for the iPad pocket (or fire tablet pocket, in our case), multiple water bottle pockets, and lots of room for notebooks, stickers, or whatever else the kids would typically throw on the floor. If you are on a budget, this would be one of my top three essentials with kids. - GARBAGE CONTAINER
Do you need a fancy container to hold your trash? Of course not! For all three trips we just kept an extra bag in the car and called it a day. But man, it would have been nice to have something that held in the stink and didn’t spill all over my car every time someone shifted positions! If you know, you know. (And if it had been on this Prime Day deal, I would have snagged it in a heartbeat!) - CORD ORGANIZER
Admittedly, this was smaller than I expected it to be and some of the pockets were ridiculously tiny. But it still did the job I bought it for and I found myself rather grateful for it more than once on this past trip! It was nice that wherever we were (car, hotel, restaurant, friends house, air bib) we all knew exactly where to find any plug ins! - CARGO HITCH
By far the most essential of all the Amazon Essentials on today’s lists! This cargo hitch cleared up soooo much more space in our vehicle time and time again. Plus, the waterproof bag kept everything dry and secure during our travels. During our second cross country move, we hit a really low dip in a parking lot and scraped the hitch along the pavement. It got quite the dent and even rusted a bit, but stayed strong and sturdy, even for another road trip! So grateful for this find.
- LOOP EAR PLUGS
As a mom of four, I get easily overstimulated by noise just at dinner time and I knew that a week in the car together? That was a guaranteed headache (or seven). My biggest regret was forgetting to purchase these before our trip because it would have SAVED MY SANITY a time or several. You know what I mean? - BLUEY ON DVD
If you don’t have a DVD player in your car, you might want to make that happen before this trip, but let’s get real here… Bluey? Might be the least annoying cartoon on the planet (and also the easiest to agree upon). But pro mom tip? Also make sure they don’t watch it for a while before you leave so its all new and exciting! Runners up for cartoons would be Pocoyo, Curious George, and Harold and the Purple Crayon. It’s okay, you can thank me later. On a second thought? Thank me in the comments (it will boost my views). - CAR VACUUM
Three weeks without your belongings is a reaaaaaally long time. So is a week long road trip. I’m sure you can imagine the amount of cracker crumbs, french fries, and candy wrappers that litter the floor of my ride right now, right? I don’t have to show you, do I? Because that would be really embarrassing. Long story short — this would have come in handy. - CAR BINGO
Car games are a must. But the magic of car bingo is that your kid can play this one by themselves! Win win in my book. Sometimes you can snag these in the Target dollar section, but its a rare find and usually in the Spring. But keep your eyes peeled! - CHILD SNACK TRAY
So yes, if you have a child in a carseat, you don’t need more of an explanation as to why this little gadget would be helpful on a road trip. But what you may not be thinking about… What I didn’t think about… Is that I should have bought one for myself too! I mean, listen moms. When’s the last time you sat down for a meal uninterrupted? The same thing happens in the car x1000. Why? Because someone doesn’t have ketchup and someone else dropped their straw. And while you’re taking care of that, the toddler dumps the fries in her lap. There are never ending interruptions on a road trip and more than a handful of times I wished I just had a place to set my food. So this isn’t just for snacks, my friend. Get yourself one too! - MOMS ORGANIZER
Ok so the official name is a “toiletry bag”, but this basically organized my LIFE for three weeks… So I think it deserves a crown. Again, one of my top three Amazon Essentials, my friend! I put this on my wish list a couple years back and finally got to put it to use and LET ME TELL YOU – I was shocked by how much fit into this tiny bag! It held all my makeup, all my skin care, all my hair care, plus some more! I’ll show you exactly how amazing this little contraption is in a future video (in post-production now) and you will be shocked too. But just TRUST ME on this one. - SEAT GAP ORGANIZER
I was going to call it a seat crack organizer, but decided to go by its official name. Is it just me or are you always losing your phone, sunglasses, pens, chargers…basically all the things to the always hungry car seat gap?!? Its like this never ending abyss! I love this concept and its a definite ADD TO CART before the next trip (but no, to clarify, we are NOT moving again).
Notable mentions that didn’t make the graphics include my daughter’s little pink twisty fan (great for summer road trips) and the basic but oh-so-helpful drawer organizer (we kept all our snacks in here where our kids could access them at any time).
Whether this fed your need to be organized or sparked some excitement for your next family adventure, I’m glad to have been of assistance!
Let me know your favorites from this list and where your family is headed next!
*Includes affiliate links. If you choose to purchase an item off any of these links, I will simply be paid a small percentage by Amazon at no expense to you. Thank you for supporting small creators in this simple way!
Don’t forget to watch this episode of The Diva Moves South on YouTube!
