7 Tips To Stay Organized While Traveling

How do you stay organized while traveling? You know the story. As soon as you get to the hotel, you unpack everything. During your stay, you then misplace and lose things, and then when it’s due to check-out it’s a last-minute rush to leave the hotel while praying you haven’t left anything behind. This unnecessary stress can all be avoided, with these helpful tips we are going to share with you.

Here are our tips to stay organized while traveling:

Only unpack toiletries
Keep a spare bag to collect laundry
Do laundry for long trips
Get rid of rubbish in real-time
Keep valuables in the same place
Buy essentials for the next day the night before
Keep gifts together and label

We are confident that these tips will really help you stay organized while on the go and reduce some stress related to traveling. Although some of these tips may seem obvious, I think it’s fair to say most people will not stick to them. Try it once and you’ll be hooked! Think of it as doing your future self a favor. Let’s look into these tips further.

1. Only unpack toiletries

One of the first things a lot of people do when arriving at their hotel is to unpack their bags completely. Don’t do it! I mean, if you’ve come on holiday, you’re likely to only be in the hotel for a short time, say 1-2 weeks. It’s really not worth unpacking your whole suitcase for such a short time.

We normally only unpack out toiletries bag. This is something we will use every day and it’s as t’s easily just kept in the bathroom for convenience, it’s unlikely to get lost in the room. We also normally leave our valuables in the safe. Everything else stays in the suitcase.

There are so many clever packing solutions today that help you organize and maximize the use of space in your suitcase. Check out our reviews on the below helpful items:

These items are great for organizing your luggage, but as soon as you get to the hotel and start unpacking things, do you really put things back where you got them from? Probably not, right?!

Living out of our suitcase for the trip, not only saves you time unpacking and repacking but keeps most of your items in one place, therefore items are less likely to get lose or misplace items. On the day you’re checking out of the hotel, you will then only have to remember to pack your toiletries bag and grab your valuables and you’re out of there. There’s no last-minute panic searching every single drawer and cupboard trying to find misplaced items that may or may not be in your luggage already.

2. Keep a spare bag to collect laundry

Make sure you remember to pack a spare bag to collect your laundry. It doesn’t have to be fancy, a bin bag will do. Never mix your clean and dirty clothes for obvious reasons.

As the days go by leave the laundry bag out and collect your dirty washing as you go. Then, just pack the laundry bag in one of your suitcases and you’re good to go. It’s clear which clothese are fresh and which are dirty – no hassle.

3. Do laundry for long trips

If you’re planning to be away for around a month or so, it may be worth considering getting your laundry done. Depending on which country you’re in and the hotel you’re in, obviously, the cost will vary, but it’s definitely worth doing that than packing a month’s worth of clothing. That’s too much to carry and you wont’ have enough room to bring back anything you buy!

That being said, if you’re looking to save some money, you don’t need to wash all of your dirty clothes either. Just sort through the ones you know you definitely want to wear again and get these washed only.

4. Get rid of rubbish in real-time

When your out and about on holiday, it’s easy to just accumulate and bring back rubbish to your hotel room, rather than sorting through it before you pack it away. You probably just dump it in your suitcase to sort out when you’re back home. Don’t do it! Problem for future self, right?!

After you come back to your hotel room every night, make sure you get rid of any rubbish e.g. empty water bottles, receipts, maps, leaflets, etc. That way it doesn’t get mixed in with your actual clothes and items. You’re only adding to the weight. And it leaves more room for packing as well as saving you time sorting this out once you’re back home.

5. Keep valuables in the same place

If you’re staying a hotel and choose to use the safe, it’s good to keep your valuables locked away such as passports. Even if you don’t want to use the safe, keep it in the one safe place. Don’t keep moving it about. The last thing you want to do is keep moving it around in random compartments in your suitcase/bag, then panic wondering which is the latest compartment you’ve put it in.

6. Buy essentials for the next day the night before

If you have a jam-packed itinerary of activities on your holiday, it’s good to stay organized by buying any essentials the night before. One thing we always do on holiday is pop to our local shop to stock up on water bottles and any other essentials we may need for the day after.

It saves time in the morning and you can just get on with your day, and not have to wake up that bit earlier just to prepare yourself for the day. Again, future self will thank you.

7. Keep gifts together and label

When you go on holiday you’re likely to buy some souvenirs and gifts for loved ones. If you’ve bought or planning to buy a lot of gifts, believe me, you are definitely going to forget which gifts you have bought for who!

We recommend labeling the bag with the person who it’s for and put into a larger bag with any other gifts you’ve bought. Keep these together so you exactly where all of them are so they don’t get misplaced. It’s also super easy to sort out when you get home. Everything is already labeled so it’s just up to you to hand out.

Stay Organized to Eliminate Stress!

So, why try to stay organized at all? Believe us, it really does make your holiday less stressful, not only when you’re on holiday but also when you come back.

If everything is organized as possible all the way through your holiday, you’re only doing yourself the greatest favour by giving yourself the most minimal work when you get back. I mean, the last thing anyone wants to be doing after returning from a trip is unpacking their suitcase, but everyone has to do it. The neater you keep your suitcase the quicker it can get done.

Organization Before you Leave for Vacation & After you Return is Key

Organization is super important. You might think we’re a bit obsessive about this topic, but we really believe it helps in keeping you stress-free not only while you’re on holiday but the whole process from planning your vacation, leaving for your vacation to returning home. Check out our articles below where we share some great tips on how to do this. Hopefully, they’ll help you as much as they’ve helped us! If you have any organization tips, we’d love to hear them!

If you enjoyed this article and want to check out some more of our content, take a look at some of our recommended articles below.