9 Tips For Organizing Your Travel

I like to travel. Traveling to a new place is so exciting, but it can also be a little stressful. When I’m going on a trip I would love to just toss half of my clothes into a suitcase … But then I would have to dig through that  suitcase for a long time deciding what to wear. Therefore, I came up with simple but effective solutions that allow me to get rid of stress and enjoy trip.

Here are 9 tips to help you stay organized on your next vacation.

Don’t take a lot of clothes

Packing 10 dresses for a weekend trip isn’t a good idea. Instead do your best to only pack what you need and you’ll be far less likely to have a chaotic suitcase during your vacation.

Double bag for cosmetics

Nobody wants to open their suitcase and see how shampoo exploded all over their wardrobe. Additionally, drop a few more ziplock bags into your suitcase just in case.

Have a plan for dirty clothes

Choosing what to wear and not knowing your clothes are clean or dirty is horrible! Make sure you keep clean clothes and dirty clothes separate. I recommend a small mesh intimates bag for dirty socks and undies. It’s compact and you can toss the entire thing in the wash when you get home.

Organise your chargers, headphones and cords

It’s pretty easy to forget the charger or headphones when you’re going on vacation. But organizing your cords and keeping them in a designated place is the best way to keep those important cords on hand when you’re on vacation. I recommend buying a large pencil case for hold all your chargers / cords. Then to prevent the pencil case from becoming a disorganized, tangled mess, I use binder clips to keep those cords in check. Use a clothespin to neatly fold the cord.

Have a photo sharing plan

When your family or friends with whom you traveled heads home, it may be a nightmare to get all vacation photos that were taken by everyone on the trip. I recommend setting up a photo-sharing system before you arrive at your destination. If you’re taking photos on your iPhone, I recommend creating a photos stream and inviting everyone to share their travel photos. Or you can create a share folder in Dropbox and invite all your  friends to join it. Everyone can dump their photos into one common place so you all can enjoy the memories throughout the trip and well beyond!

Create a detailed document

Before you go on a trip, I recommend taking 15 minutes to fill out a sheet with all the important information about your trip. In this document you can include the following:

• Airline information: confirmation codes and flight times
• Travel agent contact information
• List of key contacts
• Rental car details
• Hotel address and phone number
• A list of places to eat with their addresses
• Travel routes

I know that everyone can look these things on their phone in about 30 seconds. But having physical paper with all your important information can make things a lot less stressful (especially when you can’t get a Wi-Fi signal). I also recommend sharing a copy of this document with someone at home. That way someone has details in case they need to urgently find you!

Don’t forget other important documents

You also need to collect other important documents necessary for the trip. I’m talking about boarding passes, receipts, ticket stubs, etc. It might be better to bring an extra Ziplock bag for receipts. Or maybe you prefer to bring a file folder for all the important documents or sneak an envelope in your bag. Choose the method that suits you best.

Maintain your organization system

Take a few minutes to maintain your organization’s system. Maybe this means clearing out your wallet or maybe adding yesterday’s photos to the photo stream when you have a few free minutes. Take some time now to fight chaos later.

Enjoy and relax

Enjoy your trip and make the most of your precious vacation days. Happy travels!

How do you organize your trip?