The following is a guest post from regular contributor, Angie at Echoes of Laughter.
Hello Org Junkie readers! Are you excited that March is here and Spring Break is about to arrive? Even thought we don’t usually go anywhere for Spring Break, I still really look forward to a break from routine for the kids so that they can relax and we can spend some family time together. In April, my daughter and I are taking a trip to Disneyland as I am attending a conference there and my daughter is tagging along to keep me company and to have some fun too! I know that many families do travel for Spring Break to a warm and sunny destination or for one last trip to the ski hill, so I wanted to share with you how I like to organize the many pieces of paper and documents that often go along with travel.
How to Organize Travel Documents:
I not only like to be organized at home, but I like to be organized when I travel as well. And for me, there is nothing worse than frantically searching, red-faced, for a travel document in front of an airline employee or customs officer. And when traveling to a few destinations, it doesn’t take long for the paper pile to grow.
How do I keep it all organized?
With the help of page protectors and labels!
Page protectors not only help to organize the documents, but protect them from liquid spills too.
I simply organize a page protector for each destination we are visiting and place all related documents inside.
And I have a page protector for hotel reservation details and I keep them in chronological order so that the hotel we are staying in first is on top, and so on.
The beauty of page protectors are that they are also very lightweight and can easily go into a purse or carry-on piece of luggage.
And I always include a copy of our packing list so that when we packing to go home, we are less likely to leave anything behind in a hotel!
And when I used to manage one of my daughter’s sports teams for a few years, I also kept a binder for the team with all of the documents I needed to travel with the team such as health card numbers, emergency contacts and so on.
It’s a very simple method and it works much better than having a pile of loose papers to flip through, don’t you think?
So, tell me, are you traveling somewhere fun & warm for March break for are you enjoying a ‘staycation’?
Whatever your plans, I hope you have FUN!
See also: Free Family Travel Checklist Printable
Linking up: Design Dining and Diapers, 36th Avenue, House of Rose, Six Sisters Stuff, Skip to My Lou, Your Homebased Mom, A Bowl Full of Lemons
Susan L. @ Full Happy Muffin and Mama says
Thank you for these wonderful ideas! We are not planning on going anywhere this spring break, but I am planning on going to Ontario to visit my husband’s family in late June/coming back home early July (traveling over Canada Day). That jumble of having to keep up with plane tickets and the fear of “Where are the passports?” is horrendous, especially when coupled with keeping up with a toddler/preschooler and all of his paraphernalia. For the second year in a row, we will be taking Amtrak to Buffalo, where my mother-in-law will pick us up to go to her house north of Toronto (by 3.5 hours). So, I really really really needed this post.
Julie K says
Thank you so much for this post!! I am traveling on my dream vacation to Italy for 20 days (including travel) and leaving on March 27! I just happen to be working on all the documents and copies and your idea of using page protectors and labels is great!
Julie
Hayley says
Awesome tips for travel! We have done this many, many times!
Though, for this last trip we changed it up a little – this time we made sure to have electronic copies also stored, accessible via the Internet and through apps on our iPhones (there are TONS of options for this – Google Drive, Microsoft Sky Drive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote…) – this way if we lost anything – and heaven forbid our binder! – we could still access our tickets, etc.
For that trip we also had to pack carefully as we were travelling with a 5 month old and catching trains across Europe, which meant we had 1 suitcase and 1 small backpack. We really didn’t have space for a binder, so we used a file folder and paperclips to organize and sort our documents. Not as good as the binder, but such a space saver 🙂
Thanks again for the tips 🙂 Enjoy DisneyLand!!
Vanessa says
SUPER organized, I love it! Love your ideas and can’t wait to start putting them into practice to organize my own home 🙂
Kristin says
This is a FAB post! Thank you for sharing.
Laci says
Great info as always. I’m still a little concerned about what the first 2 letters of the list title are.
Laura says
Hi Laci, I promise you it says PACK This! 🙂
Laci says
That’s a relief. When I’m getting everything together for a trip, there are some alternate phrases thrown around. 🙂
Allysgrandma says
This could not have come at a better time for me! I am traveling to Hawaii for my oldest daughter’s wedding flying out of Oakland March 17th. So do you do a binder when flying also? Keep it in your purse?
Angie@Echoes of Laughter says
Hi Allysgrandma,
No. I don’t use a binder when flying because it’s too cumbersome. In the post I explained that we only do a binder for car trips. Have fun at your daughter’s wedding! Angie