11+ Organized Travel Tips to Make Your Next Trip Effortless

1. Before leaving on vacation, set a timer for interior and exterior lights.

Having lights turn on and off while you’re away gives the appearance of activity at the house, warding off potential intruders and other unwanted guests.

Heather at the Heathered Nest shares this + 18 more helpful ways to prep your home for travel on her site.

Find Heather’s full list of tasks to complete before you leave on vacation here.

2. Choose luggage and travel pieces that will help you pack more efficiently.

My friend Christin at My Homier Home traveled for a 7 day trip to France with just a carry-on suitcase and a backpack! The girl is a packing guru!

She did it by investing in the right travel organizers, allowing her to have everything she needed in a tidy, compact package. (And she didn’t have to worry about the airlines losing her luggage!)

Whether you’re heading overseas or doing a road trip in your home country, smart packing can help ensure you maximize the space you have available to you.

Check out Christin’s entire list of travel essentials here.

3. Roll clothes when packing.

Along with having the right travel gear, the way we use the space within our luggage and bags matters!

Christina and Rebecka at Graceful Spaces are pros at packing an organized suitcase for vacation, and they recommend rolling clothes to make the most of your space.

And since rolling results in less wrinkles, you’ll be able to skip the iron once you reach your destination too!

Find their top ways to feel at home while you’re away here.

4. Use a checklist to help you pack for more organized travel.

You know I love a good checklist! Aby at Simplify 101 has done all the work for us, putting together a helpful and thorough list of travel essentials.

Simply print the list before you go on vacation, and use it to remind you of everything you need to pack before you head out on your trip.

Find the checklist + all Aby’s travel tips here.

5. Use packing cubes to keep your suitcase organized.

I agree with Laura at Organizing Junkie— packing cubes are a must!

Not only do they allow you to fit more into your suitcase, they also make it easy to move your items to drawers when you reach your destination.

We use our packing cubes to store our dirty laundry too so we can easily dump it right into the washing machine when we get home.

Check out all of Laura and Kristin’s tips for organized travel here.

6. Use a three-sectioned file to hold your organized travel documents.

Janine at Peace of Mind Organizing shares a genius strategy for organizing travel documents!

She keeps all of her flight and hotel information, receipts from purchases, maps, itineraries, and more all in one neat and tidy spot so she can easily access any document she may need.

See more of how Janine organized her documents here.

7. Organize your office before you leave to make it easier to start work when you get back.

How amazing will it feel to come home to a neat and organized space rather than a cluttered mess?

Stephanie at The Organizing Zone shares an easy-to-follow list of ideas for organizing your office so that getting back to work after a trip doesn’t feel quite as daunting.

Get all of Stephanie’s pre-travel office organization tips here.

8. Pack outfits together in “packets” for more organized travel.

Christina at Streamlined Living folds a top, pants or shorts, undies, and socks together in one compact “packet” so that it’s easy to grab a complete outfit each day on vacation.

I especially love this idea for helping young children be able to get ready independently.

But it would work well for adults too, making it easier to prep for the day and saving space within a suitcase at the same time.

Check out all of Christina’s packing tips here.

9. Organize your to-do list and your itinerary.

There’s nothing worse than getting to your destination and realizing that activities and prime dining spots are already booked.

Make a plan in advance with this simple (and pretty!) printable.

There’s space to record your lodging and flight/travel information. There are also columns to note what you want to do, eat, and buy while you’re on your trip.

Finally, there is a day by day breakdown, separated into time blocks, so you plan for all of the activities you want to complete!

Check out all my travel plan tips here.

10. Choose a packing list that works best for you.

Any time I want to get organized for anything, I make a printable, and travel is no exception!

You can grab my free printable packing list in two versions— one that is pre-filled for you and one that is wide open for you to customize any way you’d like.

Not only is a packing list handy for making sure I don’t forget anything at home, but I also like to take it with me to double check before leaving our destination so I know we’re leaving with everything we brought!

See what I have on my packing list here.

11. Pack a tidy suitcase for organized travel.

Our trips go a lot more smoothly when everything is packed neatly in our suitcases.

When we can easily find what we need, we get to spend more time experiencing all of the wonderful sights at our vacation destination, rather than searching for our stuff.

(Or having to track down a store to buy new stuff when we realize we forgot something!)

See exactly how I pack my suitcase in this post.

Organized Travel Tips: Final Thoughts

Vacation should be fun and relaxing, not stressful. Taking a little bit of time to get organized before you travel really can make a big difference!

Whether it’s prepping your home and office before you go, making sure your suitcase is organized and packed efficiently, or planning out your travel activities, you will be thanking yourself for taking these steps to ensure a more peaceful and enjoyable vacation.

Have fun on your trip!