How I Pack My Things in a Hotel Room so I Don’t Forget Anything

I didn’t realize how good I am at cleaning a hotel room quickly and thoroughly until I went on vacation with someone who doesn’t. (This person will remain nameless, but full disclosure: I am married to him.)

He does things like fill a suitcase and carry it to the car while the intended contents languish on the table. Or he won’t notice that one of our kids’ toys is with the food containers we need to throw away.

We can do better than this! And I’ll show you how to do it. Ideally, the magic starts long before you need to pack, but you can start at any time.

When you arrive: Determine “your” seats.

I’m not going to tell you to avoid using boxes. Be sure to use boxes if your hotel has them. In particular, you should remove the packing cubes from your suitcase. leave them full of clothes and place each cube directly into the drawer.

The key is that you must claim the spaces you will be using. Consider certain areas of the hotel room to be “your” areas, as they will be where your belongings will be stored. (That drawer you just put the packing cube in? Yours.) Then designate other locations for disposable or hotel-owned items.

Here are some examples of how you can do this during your trip. You can adapt them to your needs.

• My bedside table. The TV stand belongs to the hotel. So I keep my phone and charging cables on the nightstand, and move all small hotel items (information cards, etc.) to the TV stand. I also put the TV remote on the TV stand when I don’t need it.

• The place under the table where the trash can is located belongs to the hotel. This is where I will put trash and recycling. I won’t take off my shoes and leave them under the table.

• “My” place in the bathroom is the counter. The shower is not one of my go-to spots. So after I shower, I take off my razor and bottle of shampoo and put them on the counter. (Hotel soap may remain.)

• The bed belongs to the hotel. When I wake up, I take all the things that were in my bed (the sweatshirt I took off last night, the book I was reading when I passed out) and move them to one of their places.

I like to stick to this separation of rooms during any short stay (up to three days) or during the last few days of a long stay. Obviously, if several people live in the same room, each of you can have your own personal space. For example, you take a table, and your roommate takes a table. You take the top drawer and they take the second one. You occupy the left side of the bathroom counter, and they occupy the right.

Make it a habit to regularly check the hotel premises and move things from them to the right place. This way, nothing will be left under the blankets as you check the bed every morning. This is also a good practice when you finally pack up, but more on that in a minute.

Don’t unpack things you don’t really need.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate things that remain “packed” even when they are unpacked. For example, if you place a suitcase on a luggage rack, you can use it as a sort of makeshift chest of drawers. And I love a good hanging toiletry bag—I have this one from Travelon . I’ll use the deodorant and put it back in my pocket. My toothbrush is the only thing that stays outside all day (by the way, airing out your toothbrush is key to preventing germs from growing – it’s more important than covering it).

On the penultimate day: reduce the space.

As your departure time approaches, start packing your things. You don’t have to pack them in your bags yet, but check all areas of the “hotel” and see if you can sneak anything into one of “your” areas.

It’s also time to start converting some of your spaces back into hotel spaces. Let’s say you hung some clothes in the closet. Well, if it’s your last night and you’re done wearing these clothes, take them off the hangers and put them in your suitcase or with your other clothes in a drawer.

This is also a good time to separate things that belong to different people. If some of your items are on the side of your roommate’s sink or vice versa, rearrange them accordingly.

Check your hotel rooms when packing.

Once you and your traveling companions begin packing, continue the process of removing items from the hotel premises. You will get into the habit of looking around: “Nothing on the table, nothing in the closet, nothing here on the floor, what about the drawers? No, there’s nothing in the boxes. Okay, let’s see what I can take with me from the bathroom.

On a solo trip when you have one or two bags, this is a quick and easy process. This is more difficult if you have more people and more luggage. In this case, start organizing your items according to the bag they will be packed in or how you will organize it for the trip. All clothes together. All the toys together. All food together.

The idea is that you should be able to look at the space and know if you’re done putting it together. If it’s empty, great, that space is done. But if you have, say, some groceries in a half-opened shopping bag, they need to be separated into trash (throw them in the trash) and things you still need (put them in with the food if it’s food, and so on ). .

Designate preparation areas

Most hotel rooms have a hallway where you can store several suitcases and pairs of shoes. (If you don’t have one, designate a suitable area.) You may be tempted to throw trash near the entrance as well , but make sure it’s completely visually separated.

Once your bag is packed, don’t take it into the car yet. Place the bag in the preparation area. This way, if you find an item that needs to be put in the green suitcase, you don’t have to go to the car to get it or pack it in another bag – the green suitcase will still be there.

It goes without saying that you will continue scanning hotel premises. By this point, the drawers are empty, the desk is empty, there are only a few things left on the table, and you have obsessively checked the shower, the hooks behind the door, and the space under the bed about 1,000 times.

You can also use some “hotel” spaces as staging areas. Reasonable, of course. A good strategy is to check the bed for any items, repurpose the bed (it doesn’t have to be pretty), and then use the bed for things you grab when you leave the room. Your jacket, for example. Or your wallet. It’s much harder to forget your jacket when it’s lying right in the middle of the bed, rather than hanging on a chair in the back of the room.

Review your packing list

To ensure you don’t forget any essentials, refer to the same packing list you used when leaving home. Pajamas, toothbrush, passport? Check.

Be sure to add two things to your mental packing list: (1) the souvenirs you bought (or anything you bought) during your trip; and (2) Food in the refrigerator. The refrigerator is one of the most difficult areas to clean because food needs to stay there until the last minute, but it is also out of sight. If you have a refrigerator, leave it open in front of the refrigerator as a reminder.

Let everyone do one last check

Of course, you’ll have to check the room one more time before closing the door for the last time. But if you’re in a family group, especially with kids, make sure everyone does their part—don’t wait in the car while Dad gets “the last few things.” Teach the kids how to check “behind and underneath” as I tell them (now that I typed that it sounds dirty – I mean behind the bed, under the table, things like that).

This works well because each person will naturally pay a little more attention to the places where they personally spent time. My child is much more likely to find this doll under the bed than I am.

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