Staying organized on your travels – words Al Woods
Traveling can be exciting, but it comes with a fair share of confusion. It’s quite easy to forget travel documents, lose your luggage, get lost in a foreign country or become a stressed passenger who can’t reach their laptop while onboard. This is why you need to be as organized as possible when traveling. There are a number of ways to maximize orderliness. Below are a few tips to consider;
Have a packing checklist
The most effective way to avoid forgetting important items entails creating a detailed checklist of everything you’ll need while away from home and during your flight. From snacks to travel documents and medication, your checklist should cover everything. Interestingly, you could also forget to add vital items on your checklist, Therefore work with someone else when creating the list and use blogs and websites to research what should be in a travel checklist. If possible, create the list a week or two earlier to give yourself time to remember things before the final moment.
Simplify everything with one bag
Have you ever wondered why people lose luggage when traveling? Mostly it’s because they have too much going on. Traveling light makes it possible to move around with ease, as well as keep things within easy reach when you need them. When traveling, you should be able to access your travel documents, your chargers, laptop, phone and snacks with ease. Packing all these things in one space can be challenging, but with the right travel bag, it gets easier. A 35L Carry-on Backpack like this, for instance, has designated compartments for every personal item you’ll need when traveling. Traveling light will also save you money and time. You can skip the long luggage check-in lines and avoid checking fees charged by most airlines. In addition, carrying one bag is more secure, since you’ll not need extra help moving your baggage around, either at the airport or when checking in and out of hotels. The possibility of losing or damaging one bag which is constantly under your care and watch is very minimal compared to handling multiple bags. In simple terms, carrying one bag makes life easy.
Use travel apps
It’s no longer 2005 when you had to move around with a printed map, or get frustrated because the airline suddenly changed flight hours. Apps help you stay organized by taking care of reminders, bookings and estimations. App in the Air, for instance, estimates the amount of time you’ll spend at the check-in and luggage station. This app also takes things a notch higher by helping you establish whether your bag will fit in the plane’s overhead bins. There are however many apps which deliver different experiences for travelers. The bottom line is, you’ll need these apps to stay organized if you’re traveling in the 21st century.
Keep your itinerary digital
Creating a travel itinerary is one thing, but having an easy to use itinerary is another. This essential travel tool helps you move from one place to another with ease. With a good itinerary, you’ll avoid wasting time or money since it guides you to where to go and the associated cost of getting there. One way to maximize the effectiveness of an itinerary is to use digital tools to create and save one. You could use an online template to create your itinerary before saving it on your devices (tablet and smartphone). One crucial benefit of digitizing your itinerary is that you can always share it with family or friends so that they’ll know where you are at all times, just in case a calamity strike or something unexpected happens.
In summary, staying organized when traveling doesn’t have to be rocket science. It simply requires using the right tools, which are easily available. Focus on creating a detailed checklist, getting the right travel bag, and making things as digital as possible. Most importantly, store your chargers where you can retrieve them with ease to ensure your devices never run out of power when you desperately need them.
