Summer Travel Tips: How to Stay Organized on Vacation

Hi Pixies, we are so excited to be writing this particular blog because it is summer time and that means family vacation time!

There is nothing better than a family vacation to make lasting memories that you will cherish for years to come, and they are a great setting to bond with your loved ones over fun adventures and to create unique experiences. Whether you are going to the beach, the mountains, or to visit grandma a few hours away, there is some level of planning and organization that is required. This can be tough when you are travelling with people that have different organizational priorities than you, which is a likely scenario in any given family. Luckily, there are ways to keep everyone together while you travel and we, Pixies, are here to help.

Pixie Types

The most important thing to keep in mind about staying organized while you vacation is who you are travelling with. You have a particular organizational style and a particular personality that makes you one of four Pixie Types: Classics, Funs, Smarts, or Organics. Each person you are travelling with is also one of these types. The type you are determines what type of organizational strategies are going to work best based on what comes naturally to you. These types line up closely with the Myers-Briggs personality types. Inside of these four main types, there are a couple of sub-types, some of which are more naturally list makers and time keepers while others are more spontaneous and free wheeling. This comes into play while you are trying to keep everyone you are travelling with organized and having a great vacation.

Preparing for Your Trip

Staying organized on vacation starts with preparation for travelling. This means setting an itinerary and packing appropriately for where you are headed (clothes, toiletries, accessories, and any book, toys, or other must-take-alongs. At a minimum, you need to know:

• What time and day you are leaving
• How you are getting to your destination
• Where you are staying
• How long you are staying
• What you plan to do while you are there
• How you are getting back home
• Who is taking care of any plants, pets, and your house while you are gone

Writing this out into a checklist will help almost everyone stay organized and not forget anything. Plus, it will keep everyone you are travelling with confident in knowing that nothing was forgotten. Afterall, nothing can make a family vacation quickly go south than your husband suddenly wondering if anyone remembered to turn on the alarm, or lock the garage, when you are 5 hours away from home. So to avoid those frantic moments, spend the time to go through the checklist before you leave and double check that everything is taken care of.

Packing for Your Trip

Now that your general travel logistics are taken care of it is time to think about packing. What and how you pack is the most important thing you can do to be organized throughout your travels. For this, we are borrowing some tips on how to pack lighter, smarter, and faster from Travel and Leisure Magazine’s editors:

• Keep a packing checklist and keep it with you while you travel. This will help you remember everything that needs to go in your bags and help you not forget to bring anything home with you.
• Use packing cubes. These wonderful organizational tools will help you not only keep your suitcases organized, but can be moved right into drawers in a hotel or guest house.
• Pack by outfit. This will help you easily move through your suitcase.
• Roll your clothes instead of folding them and put socks in the toes of your shoes to save space.
• Use snack-size baggies to separate and pack jewelry and prescriptions, sandwich sized bags to pack any documents and quart-size bags to keep books, journals and other larger items organized.
• Make sure you have packed extra plastic bags to keep wet clothes or swimsuits in.
• Take travel-sized toiletries.

Only pack what you need to take. And remember that there are some things which are just too bulky to travel with, unless you absolutely have to.  For these types of items, consider buying them when you get to where you are going. If you are travelling with an infant or toddler this includes diapers. Make another list of what you are going to buy at your destination and figure out where you are going to get it. Build that into your itinerary so that everyone on the trip knows what to expect. Alternatively, you could order diapers and have them delivered to your destination in your name through diapers.com. Amazon is actually a great way to make sure that some of your other travel items, like sunscreen, are waiting for you when you arrive.

These Tips and tricks are sure to help you and your family have a more relaxed and organized vacation together – regardless of how many different types you are.