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The Family Notes
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The car list

What goes in the car before a long drive to the grandparents’, in the order we’ve learned to load it. Written after the time we got to Scotch Corner without the dog’s water bowl.

5 July 2026One side of A4Free, no sign-up

We are not organised people. We are people who have twice arrived four hours from home without something we could not do without, and this list is the scar tissue.

It prints on one side. Ours lives folded in the glovebox and gets replaced about once a year when it becomes unreadable.

The Family Notes

The car list

Bag by the door

  • One change each for both kids
  • Pyjamas — the actual ones, not the spare ones
  • Nell’s blue rabbit (check it is IN the bag)
  • Calpol and the syringe
  • Wipes, two packs, one in the front
  • Carrier bag for the sick

Food

  • Water bottles, filled, not just fetched
  • Something salty and something not
  • Flask for Tom
  • Bananas — no, not bananas

Dog

  • Lead and a spare lead
  • Water bowl (the collapsible one)
  • Old towel for the boot
  • Bramble’s tablets

Glovebox and boot

  • Phone cable that actually works
  • Two carrier bags
  • Kitchen roll
  • Coats, even in August
  • Wellies if it’s my mum’s

In the margin

  • Load the boot in reverse order of when you’ll need it. Wellies go in first.
  • The stop is at Wetherby whether anyone needs it or not. Forcing it later costs more.
  • Leaving 'when everyone’s ready' is not a departure time. Pick a number.

thefamilynotes.com · Free to print, copy and scribble on

Using it

Print it, copy it, change it, put your own family’s jobs in it. There is no licence and no attribution needed — it’s a piece of paper. If you improve it, send it back to us and we’ll probably steal it.