Dos and Don'ts of Organized Travelling

Hello lovelies,

Reason for such a long Break? I had to take a short 5 days official trip to plant site for the preparation of Budget 2014; But, I missed being with you guys so much Every single second! As I am back, I wish I could give you all a warm hug as now you all have become such an important part of my personal life.

I work for a fertilizer manufacturing company, having its plant site at almost 10-hours’ drive from the Head office. This short trip, where on one hand was the opportunity to grow professionally, was a chance in disguise to re-evaluate my organizing systems during travelling.

I’m fairly organized during my normal day-to-day routine; but, I found some of my tricks to simply not working during this tour.  How Frustrating! For example, having no hangers, I found my clothes jumbled up on writing table, side of the bed and even on chairs in the guest room. Also, at the end of the tour, I had to just dump my belongings in the travel bag; fairly opposite to nicely stacking them vertically at the start of the tour.

In this post, I’ll summarize all the systems that really worked well for me and rules that I now need to follow to make my next trip as organized as possible.

THINGS THAT WORKED FOR ME:

1)    Clothes Planning: I love checklists as they let me plan an activity smoothly without oohs and ouches. Moreover, they force me to set some time aside to reflect on what I’ll need and to avoid any surprises. In future blogs, I’ll share my clothes planning checklist. Depending on the type of trip, I first write down number of days I’ll be out (with few days margin), weather predicted for the destination and what kind of functions I’m supposed to attend (Formal meetings VS dinners etc.).  

Once I’m done planning how many, and what type of clothes, I’ll be packing, it becomes fairly easy to pick out the accessories that’ll go along with each outfit - like jewelry, shoes, belts and scarfs etc. While packing my suitcase, I keep checklist in front of me and after keeping an outfit, its matching accessories (including shoes), I mark it off the list. 

2)    Stacking Vertically: This is such a life saver and lets me see everything I’m packing. Many people prefer to pack clothes horizontally that literally block the view to the items at the bottom. Ah! And, yes! You misbehave with one row and you’ll be penalized by the entire suitcase. I feel, when I stack my folded clothes vertically, my suitcase becomes more spacious and offers me tons of more storage.

 

3)    A tackle Box for Hygienic Items: I always struggled with keeping the hygienic items from wayfaring all across my suitcase. Solution was far easier than I had imagined: a tackle box. Well, you might haven’t thought about it before, But it has been rocking my every travel since the very first day. Pick a medium sized, transparent, tackle box and put all the hygienic items inside it, standing. My tip: have all the hygienic items handy in travel sized bottles nicely contained in tackle boxes. This way, you’ll be ready to just grab and go! 

THINGS THAT DIDN’T WOTK:

1)    Stuffing Hand Bag: I am obsessed with making my handbag ready for anything that come what may. So, from my favorite lipstick color to tweezers, from hand sanitizer to extra tissue role, I had everything stuffed in my purse. I admit, these items were properly organized in appropriate pouches. 

But, during travelling, we collect many things, at airport, while shopping, while working. And fortunately, the first thing we look forward to secure all these collected items is our purse. Already loaded with precautionary items, hand bags come near to vomiting everything out. Yikes! It was very disappointing.

 

I learnt, only necessary items should be put in handbag to leave enough breathing space for newer items that you’ll accumulate along the way. 

2)    NOT USING CLOSETS:

While travelling, I consider myself a guest and regarding my stay to be temporary, I don’t hang my clothes in closet. Rather, I let them either stay in suitcase or put them on table. But, this didn’t work for me at all! Clothes get wrinkled, I lose control and mess makes me freak out!

I learnt, no matter I stay for one day or one week, it’s ideal to start using the guest room as my very own room and then suddenly, all my systems that work in normal routines also starts working during travelling. Ah, a sigh of relief!

 

If you are going to travel in near future and looking for ways to make it as organized as possible, you are in luck. This week is going to be about traveling where you’ll get to read numerous tips about organized traveling.

 

Pictures Credit: 1, 2, 3, 4