I'm an Organizing Junkie - helping you be clutter & chaos free!

Keep reading to see how I organize our travel documents for a fun yet organized vacation.

Who doesn’t love a good vacation every once and awhile? I know I do especially if it involves hot weather, white sand, blue skies and the beautiful ocean. Since we live in Alberta, Canada, getting to the beautiful seaside usually takes a bit of travel. And with travel, especially in my world, comes chaos and unpredictably. Not such a great combination for this lover of all things orderly and calm. However the lure of the ocean is strong and I know all the upheaval of travel is so worth it once I walk over the bridge and glimpse a glorious view like this one. The beach is definitely my happy place!

Over the years my husband and I have been fortunate to get away to the beach a couple of times just the two of us and then a couple of years ago we took the whole family to Florida for a week. So knowing ahead of time that I don’t handle chaos welI (we have had some crazy things happen to us when we travel!) I make sure I go into the adventure as organized as I possibly can.

To do that I created a simple vacation planner portfolio using an inexpensive dollar store folder. I’ve used this system for years and still use it to this day. Having all our vacation information in one place cuts down on all sorts of panic and stress. Also I prefer having printed copies of everything because I don’t trust WIFI to be available when we are traveling. I like having printed copies but if you are someone who prefers digital, I’ve got help for you below.

Tabbed sections include flight information, hotel information, condo information, car rental information, activities and miscellaneous. I print out flight itineraries, accommodation confirmation emails and anything other pertinent information that we need and then add these papers to the appropriate tab. When we travel we almost always use VRBO to book our accommodation through and there are usually condo instructions that I like to print out and keep handy so we don’t break any rules :). I will often add an envelope to the back to use for receipt collection as well. I just feel so much better having everything together and secure.

My vacation portfolio stays in my carry on bag so I can easily access it whenever I need it. Or my family can but they usually leave everything up to me.

The front of my portfolio allows me to slide in a cover page which for me is always a calendar for the time we are away. I just go online and print off a free one like these ones HERE. This is especially helpful if we are staying in multiple locations.

Organizing our travel documents this way is just a simple idea but so worth the time and effort for an organized vacation with less stress. Although keep in mind that as much as one can organize there is still always the chance something could go wrong. I’ve learned over the years to keep a degree of flexibility through it all. We’ve had to go to Plan B so many times that I’m getting pretty good at it :)

For more fun travel information be sure to visit my organized travel and summer boards on Pinterest.

Follow Laura (Organizing Junkie)’s board Organized Summer on Pinterest.

Digital Organization:

Oh and if you prefer to organize your vacation digitally, no problem. One of my contributors a few years ago shared how she uses Evernote to organize her vacation plans.