My travel acronym: A B C D – S O S
Our small group custom tour of Egypt is midway through, and we have already lived some amazing experiences. While enjoying exploring such a fabulous destination, there’s always some logistics associated with travels. Today I share some of my practices for a smooth trip with some unpacking tips…
Unpacking Tips while Traveling
A few years back I was quoted in USA Today for an article about unpacking tips, which I thought was an interesting twist on the typical packing tips story. Obviously some of the ideas related to unpacking mean you have to pack a certain way for those to work, but it does focus on the convenience of living out of a suitcase versus just the ways to avoid wrinkles or make everything fit in your suitcase.
Anyway, I actually had some suggestions that were much better than the one the writer chose to use in the article, so I thought I would share some of my tips for unpacking during your travels.
For the majority of tops and pants, put them on hangers (the thin velvet hangers work really well), cover in a dry cleaner plastic bag, and fold into your suitcase. Upon arrival, hang the clothes in the hotel closet, and most of your unpacking is done.
Use packing cubes to organize – either by similar items such as underwear, socks, or organize by outfit, such as a top and shorts that go together. It’s easy to pull out the packing cubes out of your suitcase, unzip and fold the top under, and then just put the cubes in hotel room drawers.
My rule for unpacking beyond hanging up clothes is that any stay for 1-2 nights, I live out of the packing cubes in the suitcase. When I’m staying three nights or longer, I fully unpack to make my stay easier.
Put all dirty clothes in a separate bag so the smell doesn’t foul the clean clothes. Use 5-6 lavender sachets in luggage – put some in the dirty clothes bag also to help reduce any smells.
Create a ritual for repacking all your items when leaving a hotel to ensure you don’t leave any items behind. I have a little acronym to help with making sure you check all the likely spots – it’s “A B C D – S O S”. It stands for
After, Bathroom, Closet, Drawers, Surfaces, Outlets, Safe
A – After – After you pack everything and you think you are ready to leave, make one more pass checking all these areas:
B – Bathroom – Go back into the bathroom and inspect the sink area thoroughly, and make sure to look in the shower also.
C – Closet – Look in the closet for any other hanging clothes or shoes on the floor.
D – Drawers – Open each drawer and stick your hand in the back and feel around entire drawer bottom.
S – Surfaces – Inspect the top surface of the desk, dresser and side tables.
O – Outlets – Check all the outlets for any charging devices.
S – Safe – Look in the safe and make sure you have everything – stick your hand in and feel around the corners.
If you are leaving your hotel room first thing in the morning, the best idea is to do this step of opening the night before so that if there are any battery issues opening the safe, you can get them resolved when you are not rushing out the door.
Make sure you allow yourself enough time to thoroughly go through the room for your check-out ritual and don’t rush this step.