Problem solved: Who, where, what and how much. Those are all the questions that you need to ask to find out how to pack efficiently for the beach.
Who
Who exactly are you taking to the beach? If you’re planning on bringing 5 children or more, then you’re in for some heavy duty lugging around. But if you’re just going with a friend or two, then you could just go with the bare minimum.
It’s a given that travelling light can be quite expensive specially if you’re going to be taking children with you. But if you’re group is composed of only two or three adults, then you could simply opt for the things that only you need.
Where
This may be a no brainer but if you live near the beach, then you could forego bringing a lot of things. After all, you only need to walk home to get what you need right? But if you’re going to the next State or the next country, you might consider packing things which you could subsist on for at least three days to a week. Again, the first question on who are you going with applies.
It’s more difficult to bring children across great distances than it is to move yourself. To be honest, as a parent myself, I sometimes don’t even think about what we need to bring. I just get the essentials which are clothes, towels, toiletry and money. Always those four. Anything, other than those are not needed.
Always remember, the closer the beach, the less stuff you need to bring. The farther the beach the more things you have to bring.
What
Family members in particular have that tendency to bring a looooot of things when going to the beach because of the perception of boredom. You’d have to understand that kids sometimes can have very limited imaginations about family excursions. Little Joey over there would probably not like the idea of being away from his computer for two days without Internet, that’s why he is going to bring his Laptop. Sandra doesn’t like to lose contact with her friends so she’ll bring her iPhone, iPod, iPad and iWhatever kit. The baby’s the most demanding. You’ll have to bring disposable diapers, feeding bottles, more than extra amount of clothes, umbrella, the milk can, a lot of clean water, powders and lotions. That’s why it’s highly inadvisable to bring babies to the beach.
How Much
Here’s the most important question of all. How much money are you going to spend? I’m not talking about your budget but rather your willingness to burn that cash. If you can afford to buy new clothes and everything you need near the beach then by all means, carry as little stuff as you could.
If you’re on a tight budget and you’re constrained to work around it, then you can expect to bring more things since retail outlets near beaches, wherever they are have a reputation of selling things at three times the price that they would normally fetch for!
At the end of the day your situation would determine how efficiently you can pack things. The basic rule is, bring only what you need.