Organized Packing About This Page:

[revral]

So, what do you do keep your packing organized, relatively fast, and easy?

The best idea/suggestion I've ever heard or read about was to pack in kits and keep as many of them as possible ready to pack at all times. I've started doing this and boy is it ever a sanity and time saver. I have a toiletry kit, swimming kit (swimsuit, cover-up, water shoes, goggles, waterproof neck pouch), a plane comfort kit (inflatable neck and back pillow, eyemask, earplanes, earplugs, noise cancelling headphones with airplane adaptor and Disney kit (waterbottle lanyard, pin lanyard, pass/ticket clip on pouch) all packed and ready to go in to a suitcase. I'm also working on a couple of electronics kits one for my laptop which will contain a set of power cable, cooling lap pad, collapsible portable table, usb thumb drive adapter for sd memory cards, a mouse, usb hub, and a case for my Sprint wireless air card the other electronics kit will have a set of cables/chargers for my camera, my smartphone (Palm Centro), battery charger (camera takes AA), and my iPod. I also have a car kit that has the car chargers for the various electronics and a converter that converts the current availble through the lighter to 110ac for my laptop for when I end up going on a road trip.

I'm also putting together a wardrobe of clothing specifically for travel and large enough to get me through a week as I'm tired of always having to pull stuff out of my normal wardrobe when I travel. I've also put together a travel jewelry wardrobe of cheap costume pearl jewelry.

I assign each pocket/compartment in bags, especially my carry on and purse, a purpose. Keys in pocket A. Lotion, lip balm, ear plugs etc. in a pouch in pocket B. Wallet, small notepad, and pen in compartment A. It saves time packing and looking for stuff.

I also use small or medium sized zippered cosmetic/toiletry bags as much as possible to corral smallish items that are easy to lose and/or belong together or get used together and they're much more durable than Ziploc type bags. These are also great for dividing things up in your kits for example in my second electronics kit has 1 for the iPod cables/charger, another for the camera battery charger and cable, etc.

All clothing items go together. Every top goes with every bottom and all of my socks are the same style and color. This eliminates decisions while packing and while traveling. When packing there's no need to worry about making sure you have a top that goes with a certain pair of pants or shoes that go with a pair of slacks and another that go with the dress your bringing because any of your top will go with the pants and 1 pair of dressier shoes will go with both the slacks and the dress. The other benefit of this is that you end up hauling less weight and have more room in your bags for souviners.

[chezp]

Wow, that does sound like a great way to organise everything.

[revral]

Thanks. It seems to work for me. I can't tell you how much time and stress all of that has saved me. The kits in particular. I found a zippered mesh briefcase style bag a thrift store that I use for the swim kit. Right around the time I read the hint about kits I realized that 1) the vast majority of what gets packed is the same no matter what type of trip I'm on and 2) that I was really tired of having to run around the house digging through closets, cupboards and containers just so I could pack the same items again for the 1000th time. Although putting all of this together is not cheap and is taking me quite awhile to do since I can't afford to do it all at once but what I have done has already made a huge difference. I plan on buying one of those free standing closets to store everything in. I think it will protect everything from dust and my cats (yes they've figured out how to open a couple of my closets) better than a regular plus with it all in one place and hopefully on wheels it will be all that much easier to pack for a trip whether it's a spur of the moment weekend or a I started planning this 4 years ago trip.

[alisonhinsley]

Wow that is organised. I think like some others on the boards I have a suitcase/box that is partially packed with the items that I only use on vacation or on business trips i.e. power adaptors

[revral]

Originally Posted by alisonhinsley

Wow that is organised. I think like some others on the boards I have a suitcase/box that is partially packed with the items that I only use on vacation or on business trips i.e. power adaptors

I started out that way but the lack of organization and not being able grab what I wanted without emptying the box out quickly made me even crazier than I already was. Then once I started organizing everything it rapidly became a minor organizing and preparing obsession. The benefit to getting and keeping it all organized and in one place that I wasn't expecting is that I pretty much always know what I have on hand and ready to go. That makes things so much easier when I end up someplace that has lots of travel supplies or trial size products. Also the days of forgetting something vital such as a toothbrush are over because it's already packed away in the toiletry kit along with the toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant etc. I may take things out or add them as the destination and trip length demands but the day to day basics are always ready to go. The other major benefit to this is how easy it becomes to pack beacaus the majority of items are contained in some way it makes packing so much easier because the packing becomes more like a jigsaw puzzle than trying to beat the Guiness Book of Records record for the number of people squeezed in to a VW Bug.

[emtpej]

I pretty much stay packed. The kids, since they need different stuff as they are growing, are another story!

[Colexis Mom]

For packing, we get the XL size ziploc bags, I put two bags per suitcase (we bring 2 big ones) and spread out everyones stuff among the 4 ziploc bags Squish them down to get the air out, and then close them up

[dmpyron]

Friend used the vacuum bags (the ones you roll up to squeeze out the air). TSA called her and made her repack her suitcase. The opened every bag and had no idea how to get everything back in the suitcase. She missed her flight and lost a day of vacation. She filed a complaint and the TSA said "we're sorry". But she is less than happy.

[Tricia Davids]

Wow! We always have our toiletries packed ready to go but that is a great idea to make kits for other things too. My problem is repacking for the airplane to WDW vs. the frequent trips to DL in the car where weight of our bags and liquids don't have to be measured!

[DouglasE]

In reaction to the incident with the air compression bags, I have a small solution. It isn't necessary to pack a different outfit for each day. You can hand wash your clothes in your hotel bathroom and let them hang dry. I have a travel clothes line that I pack. If you stay with one color pallette, then you can mix and match as revral suggests. This makes packing less clothes easier. Consequently, even if TSA opens up your compression bags it will be possible to have them repack your bag. Additionally, the incident is another reminder to get to the airport waaay early.

[DrDolphin]

I would agree with the one color palette system. I did this (well basically) for the 15 night cruise - 75-80 was mix and match - worked wonders. I had more outfits than I needed without having more pieces.

[revral]

I buy new underwear and socks once a year and I now take a week's worth of the old socks and underwear wash them and put them in a mesh sweater bag in my suitcase. I also have an office supplies kit that has a mini stapler, staples, scissors, single hole punch, tape, highliter, and fine and extra fine point Sharpies in it, a laundry kit with a pop up hamper, 3 - 3oz. refillable bottles for detergent, downey ball, and 3 single load packets of Downy from the laundrimat in it, a room kit that contains 2 over the door hooks and a couple of collapsible box/bin style fabric drawer dividers and an old rubber backed bath mat (the kind that goes in front of the toilet that I've cut the "arms" off of). The bath mat is an odd item but I have a bad knee and bad balance and the floors of hotel bathrooms are usually incredibly slippery and cold and the towel hotels provide for use as a bath mat does nothing but soak up water and slide around.