I 100% do that too (the 3 different types of clothes). Also when packing I always roll my pants and stick them in the bottom of my suitcase to fill in the gaps from the handle, then my packing cubes on top. I normally pack less pants than tops since they are easier to rewear and if I do a split stay, 1 ‘aisle’ of the pants in the bottom of the suitcase can be for dirty, 1 for rewearable, and 1 for clean.
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I once tried to pack our clothes in storage tubs with layers of clothes for all 5 of us each day. I had an extra tub with sweaters, swim suits, costumes, jammies. It was a horrible mess. We were at All Star Sports in a std room with 5 ppl (2yo in a pack and play) and a giant double stroller that barely fit in the room. I had several tubs that would be stacked on top of one another, and then you had to move them onto a bed to get to the lower ones. Somehow the outfits didn’t work out b/c the 2&5 year olds wore costumes most days, but then would change into clothes just for a while, So I would have all these extra clean clothes to move out of the way to get to the stack for the next day…disaster.
My most successful packing strategy has been to take pictures of the kids in their outfits before we leave (to make sure they are going to look great together) then I write down the outfits on our daily schedule and let them all know what we are wearing the next day (and I choose the shirts for DH. We also travel with extended family, so I tell them the color scheme of the day, and we all are kind of matching - makes for really fun pics and also easier to pick everyone out in a crowd. 
When their clothes were smaller, I put the 2 girls’ matching outfits in a ziploc baggie. Then I pulled out one baggie at night and layed out what they would wear the next day. I had a baggie of “spare clothes” in our park bag that I restocked as necessary. I would be heartbroken if someone had to change, and they didn’t match, so I would have both change. I take meds for that now. Ha!!
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This is what we do. And when we stay DVC, I usually throw in a load of laundry and that gets us more extras. We also have a swim cube with multiple suits and some extra undies.
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omg my mom used to do this when we would go camping. in a small pop up camper. no.
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I LOLed pretty hard! Meeeee too. It’s hard to find a balance between the type of neurotic packing that will actually decrease your stress, and the type of neurotic packing that is as crazy as it sounds. I feel like the cubes decrease my stress during the trip. As a liner, I always defer to stressing before and not during the trip.
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My people!!! 
What I do is turn all that stuff inside out and then store it with the clean clothes. One less area to keep up with but I still know what “stage” it is in.
I roll everything and keep everything of the same type together. So all the pants, all the shirts, etc. That way, I just go to the pants area and grab one for everyone, etc.
Except road trips. Which I do completely differently. 
We have one of these beauties. 
Highly recommend. But get white. Cuz summer sunlight and black is a bad combo.
7 boxes like printer paper comes in, plus a duffle, fit perfectly. We usually have one clothing box per person and then swimwear in the duffle. If we’re just stopping for 1-2 nights, we have a suitcase carried in the van that has everyone’s toiletries that I refill clothes from the boxes.
Extended stays, we bring the boxes in and put in everyone’s rooms. And we take them into laundry mats and put stuff straight from the dryer into people’s individual boxes.
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Oh, and speaking to the original question, I’m not sure I’d be a fan of evenly split stays because that does feel a bit like a perpetual road trip. (Road trips are fun, but the constant shuffle does use up energy.)
This trip, we’re doing 1 night at AKL and the rest offsite at CWBC. That’s a better fit for us, I think.
I can totally see doing 1-2 nights someplace at the beginning or end (or even both!) where we stay in “road trip mode” and don’t really unpack much, but then having a big chunk where we stay in one place and totally settle in.
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This is basically what we are doing. Short stays at AKL and BLT at the beginning and end with a 3-night stay at HRH and 7-night at BCV. We didn’t exactly plan it this way … it fell into place. If I were to start over I would probably do HRH first then BCV the rest of the time. But as it is I’m looking forward to trying the different resorts out. We’ll see how it goes!
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Where have you been my whole life? It’s like I’ve met my match! I feel so seen and understood.
This is how I packed for 2014:
Family photos are so much easier on the eyes of you put in the time.
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At least for me, moving is fun and exciting if it feels like I’m getting something better (or different in a cool way) and a hassle if it feels like a downgrade or I’m not done with the current place. So I would think about each transition and how that would probably feel
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Everyone’s opinions are making me both excited and nervous about our 1st split stay coming up in a few weeks. We have 5 nights at first resort and then 7 nights at the second and will do a late brunch and then pool afternoon on our transition day. I can’t imagine packing and getting luggage to bell services in time to RD a park on transition day. Kudos to those who can.
One tip I’ve heard is to pack an extra duffle or 2 in your luggage if you don’t have a car to make packing up easier.
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YES! That’s how mine looks too, but I can’t visualize how it will look in photos when it’s not actually matching, so we take pics to see… I put on loud Disney music and have fun snacks, so they’re not so cranky about having to try on 15 outfits. It’s become part of our getting ready routine. We’ll see how it goes this time with a teenager! Luckily, she loves Disney and travelling, but she is a simple packer like her dad and I’m afraid she will start to see how ridiculous I am soon. Ha!
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They are adorable!!!
And there is no way my kids would be so agreeable. Not all six anyway.
Last trip I didn’t coordinate. They were 19, 17, 15, 13, 9 & 6. Our pictures are awful. Like so bad.
My sister and I thank our mother every day that she gave up on matching us after ONE Easter battling over matching dresses. She learned we are too independent to be dressed alike.
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With 6 those ages, I think you did great just getting them all in the same place and together for any pictures!!
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Mine never battle. I think they are narcissistic enough to like seeing photos hung around.
Oh we have photos hung. We just didn’t have to match.
Mine pretty much only dress alike if we are at Disney now, but when they were little, they loved it! Then we had a boy, and I was so confused with how to fit him into the matchiness!
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I won’t hang a photo unless it is easy on the eyes. They have to be coordinated on some level. Eight different patterns would give me a headache.