Don’t Make These Mistakes When Organizing & Packing for Your Trip

You know me. I am organized. But I did learn a valuable lesson on my latest vacation to Arizona.

I do all the packing when we go away. If I left it to my husband he would throw things in a suitcase and realize what we were missing when we got there and then panicked.

So I packed. Everything was neat and tidy and in an organized manner.

Zip lock bags are a must.

All the shampoos and other liquids get packed in ziplock plastic bags in case they get crushed or explode in mid-air, which has happened a few times. It has been a blessing as it could have made a mess of our belongings.

Have identifiers on your bags

On this recent trip we took three suitcases, two of which were checked baggage and one was a small carry on. The carry on had a few things I didn’t want to lose, so having this with us would be safe, right? For our two checked bags have put a special identifier on them for our easy retrieval off the luggage carousel. I have a bright red sock tied to one of them and on another we have a colourful ribbon.

So we get to the airport and board the bus to pick up the rental car. We get to the rental car building, we depart the shuttle bus and when the two suitcases come off the bus we head in to get our car. Once we arrive at our destination we ask each other what the other did with the carry on. Oops! It was left on the rental car shuttle bus!! No identifier, no tag, nothing on it. Panic set in pretty darn quick.

We called around frantically and find the number to the lost and found for the Phoenix International Airport but it is now Friday at 4:00 pm and they close for the weekend at 5:00. Just our luck. We spent the next two days of our vacation wondering if an honest driver or passenger would turn in our suitcase. You just never know these days.

Luckily they did and on Monday afternoon we made the drive back to the airport to claim our suitcase. Phew!

Travel case for your underthings

Now, because we did not have anything on our carry on to confirm it was ours the lost and found staff had to open our suitcase for us to describe the contents, some of which were of a private nature. For your information, the woman at the lost and found counter was quite amused by my contents.

I happen to have a travel case for my bras so they don’t get crushed en route. It’s a hard case, shaped as a brassiere with pretty polka dots on it. The lost and found lady wanted to know where to purchase such a thing! Lol. The male attendant at the Lost and Found couldn’t stop smiling. I was a tad embarrassed but what the heck. We got the case back so it was all good.

Don’t forget your tags!

Next stop for us is off to the luggage store to purchase some permanent tags for each of our suitcases and carry on’s and on our next vacation we will stop at every turn to ensure that all bags are present and accounted for.

If you are dealing with an organizational task and don’t know where to start, contact us here for your FREE telephone consultation.