As military spouses, we are always looking for ways to work smarter, not harder.

Organization is an easy way to do that, especially when it comes to using nifty documents and templates. But really—who has time to design that kind of stuff?

The good news is we do! We wanted to help support you with all things planning and organization, especially when your family is smack-dab in the middle of a deployment or TDY. Holding down the home front is a big job in and of itself, but of course you want to tangibly support your spouse too.

Talk about potential brain overload.

Enter stage left: The joy of creating care packages.

Very rarely are these care packages done spur of the moment… It’s a process that involves thinking, planning, and strategizing, usually over the course of a few days (or weeks or even months!)

And I don’t know about you, but my memory isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Even if I have a great idea for a care package item, I must write it down or it will disappear like goldfish crackers within reach of a toddler.

So for this freebie, we created a care package items list. It might work best for you to keep it on your fridge or in your journal, or if you are like me, on your bedside table so that when you are lying there at night thinking about #AllTheThings, you can capture your brilliant ideas for care package items. Keep it handy for those precious 90-second phone calls from ranger school in between phases or when your spouse calls to ask you to send something overseas via snail mail.

All you have to do is click the hyperlink, download, save, and print as many as you might need for your current/future deployment or TDY. This can also apply if you have kids that are in college or away from home and you want to send them some goodies!

Care Package Items list

Thanks so much for being part of this very special network. You are the reason we work so hard to be your source of military life empowerment.