Every year, our entire family on my husband's side takes a vacation to the Outer Banks. We go in late spring before the season gets too busy and stay a week on Ocracoke Island. We started going 15+ years ago and we have been blessed to continue that tradition each year. As the family has grown with more marriages and children, you can imagine the large number of people dining together under one roof! It can be tricky sharing the same kitchen. It can also be tricky sharing non-food items, so I want to highlight how you can use Perfect Potluck to help organize what each family will bring.

Out of necessity, each family takes turns cooking dinner one night of the week. We make it our goal to keep our mother-in-law and father-in-law from doing any cooking. This is our treat to them (because they are spoiling us with a beach vacation). We each volunteer for a night and share the meal we prepare. In the past we have done this through a group text, but that can be difficult to follow and details can easily be lost as the thread grows. The original message might even be pushed back out of sight as everyone comments. This is where using Take Them A Meal's free online meal calendar comes in handy!

One benefit to using a meal calendar is that it is very easy to see what meal each family will make and for what day. I love using it for that reason! Aside from meals, there are other non-food items that we also share. These items are necessities like paper towels, soap, and trashbags.

Perfect Potluck is the sister site to Take Them A Meal. Perfect Potluck allows you to list all of the needed items for the trip (food and non-food), so the family can sign up to cover all the bases. The site is also free to use and customizable. Did you know that you can edit your categories to say exactly what needs to be brought and how much? I thought I'd share some of the items we bring, so that the responsibility doesn't fall on just one family.

Our list looks something like this:

We ask each family to sign up for one or two vacation supplies. Then, everyone knows these are the sharable items. Your list of communal items may look different from ours, but I hope I inspired you to be creative in how you use Perfect Potluck to help plan your next vacation!

Take Them A Meal works great for the nightly dinner schedule and Perfect Potluck works well for supplies and food that will be shared by everyone.

Where are you planning on visiting this year? Do you have vacation traditions as well? We'd love to hear!