Travel Organizing Tips
The summer season is nearly here, and hopefully that means a travel adventure or two is in your future. Traveling can be so much fun, but it can be exhausting, too. These travel organizing tips can help you spend more time relaxing and less time stressing!
Travel Organizing Tips for Packing Your Suitcase
When it comes to packing clothes, packing a selection of clothing items that can mix and match to make different outfits, all in a complementary color scheme, can make it easier to pack less. You’ll need half as many outfits as you think and twice as much underwear and socks. Depending on where you’re going, think about shoes. If you’re going to Italy and doing a lot of walking through the Roman ruins, pack an extra pair of walking shoes. If you’re headed to Paris and will be wandering museums and experimenting with fine dining options, you may want to slip in that little black dress and heels.
How to Make the Most Out of Packing Light
If you start with basics – a pair of jeans, a pair of khaki pants, and a pair of black chinos, then add white, black, and a colored tank top, button shirts to match, and a cardigan or two, all of the clothes will be interchangeable for mix-and-match outfits. Don’t forget that what you wear to travel can also be part of your overall wardrobe; wear smart shoes and several layers to add more options for outfits when you arrive. Keep your jewelry and make up simple; ask for samples from your favorite makeup counter to prevent having to pack full bottles of anything (except sunblock. Pack the sunblock).
Travel Organizing Tips for Important Papers
Never pack any important papers in luggage you need to check through. If possible, choose a carry-on that has a separate, quickly accessible pocket for passports, tickets, and other important papers. It’s smart to make a photocopy of your passports to store in a separate place – your purse or checked luggage – just in case you lose your passport, or it gets stolen. If you’re traveling with a laptop and going through airport security, carry-on luggage with a quick-to-open compartment for your laptop can save so much time when you’re going through security. Some things are better left out of the carry-on, like speakers and power strips, which will often cause security to pull you aside to inspect your luggage more closely.
Travel Organizing Tips for Medications
Medications can take up a lot of space when packing. For over-the-counter medications like multivitamins, it might be better to remove them from the bottle and pack them in a Ziploc to make them easier to pack. While the TSA does not require prescription medication to be packaged in its original container, depending on the medication, it might be better to keep it in its original container, especially if it is a controlled substance. Traveling withing the U.S. should present no real issues, but it is important to check the rules other countries you travel to if you are traveling with controlled substances. If your medication is liquid, you are allowed to exceed the 3.4-ounce limitation, but it is best if you have a copy of your prescription or a letter from your doctor.
What If I’m Traveling Past the Renewal Date of a Prescription?
Pack medications you cannot live without in your carry-on to prevent being without if your luggage gets lost. If you’re traveling for an extended period of time, you can ask your doctor to prescribe extra medication to take with you. Some insurance companies will cover up to a 90-day prescription, but sometimes you will have to pay for the additional medication.
Before You Leave – Quick Travel Steps to Take
To travel with peace of mind, a few days before you leave, plan to either hold your mail and suspend any newspaper subscriptions or have someone come by every day to bring them in. Homes with mail or newspapers piled up on the porch look very inviting to thieves. It’s worth investing in a couple of timers that you can program to have lights come on at night while you’re gone. If you’re boarding pets, don’t wait until the last minute to find a place and schedule their stay; be sure if they take any kind of medications that you have plenty to leave with the kennel.
Hopefully these travel organizing tips help you have a great adventure! Bon voyage!