Keeping the Family/Room Organized at a Value Resort

[aimeeg]

We are heading to WDW in March. We are surprising our girlies with a two week vacation!! Woo Hoo!! Anyway, we are staying at the Pop Century. This is the hotel the picked and I am excited. I am a wee bit concerned about living in one room with four people for two weeks. My girls are 2 and 4. I would love to hear any tips you might have about staying organized in close quarters!!

Thanks!

 

[mom2travel]

Lucky you - 2 weeks at WDW! We spent 2 weeks in Hawaii in hotel rooms; our kids are older, but not sure if that makes it easier or harder
Let's see... unpack your clothes into the drawers and closet and consolidate the luggage as best you can. Bring a hamper for dirty laundry (we always bring a foldable pop-out one that fits in our suitcase flat); plan to do laundry a couple of times during your trip to cut down on the amount of clothes you need to bring. If your kids are bringing toys/stuffed animals - bring a small bag/pop-out bin to toss everything into when not in use (they sell them at Target and Lowes/Home Depot for maybe $5 - my DD uses them in a shelving unit to sort types of toys/dress-up items).

 

[8disneyfans]

This is a hard one! We just spent 14 days at ASMovies with 8 of us! I wish I could have been better organized. One thing I will do next time is get an over the door shoe organizer to put all the toiletries in it (hair ties, deorderant,ect.). Unpacking and putting everything away in the drawers and hanging up stuff really helps.
I am looking forward to reading what others do.

 

[tricia]

Pack the outfits for the girls in Ziplocs if you can. Then you have one bag per day. I do 1/2 of the days plus 1 and then do a load of laundry in the middle. Also, i second the over the door shoe hanger, we use it all the time, and also, we always bring a pop up clothes hamper to put the dirty stuff in. Shove it in the closet and dump all dirty clothes in it as they are used.

 

[Sabrina90744]

We used the pop up hamper and over the door organizer for our last trip. Something like this one..http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10569433

It is great for toiletries. Bring extra hangers as there are only about 5 or 6 in the rooms.

 

[aimeeg]

These are all really good ideas. I did bring the pop up hamper last time and it was a life saver. A pop up hamper for toys/loves is a great idea too! Hangers are a good idea too. I should have mentioned that I am a disboutiquer so we really have baggage LOL!!! My girls will have lots of clothes but I like the idea of planning on doing laundry for my DH and I. Why that never dawned on me! LOL I was thinking of bringing our own coffee maker. I thought my DH would like that but on the other hand he likes to escape for coffee.

I was also thinking about packing the car with Rubbermaid containers along with our suitcases. Those little drawer things might be useful above the clothing rail.

This is what my DD wore on the plane last time. Behold the pettiskirt- It is 30+ yards of chiffon!!! LOL Isn't it fabulous to be four!!!!

 

[tricia]

Well then, the packing in Ziplocs is not going to work for you. Worked good with my boys as they had no customs. I am just skimming the disboutique thread now.

 

[aimeeg]

LOL! I used to pack in ziplocs when the girls were younger. Then I would label the bags with the date. It was great I had hair accessories and everything in the bag. It was super easy for my DH to help out. I still pack his clothes that way. He sees Monday MK and gets dressed- shorts, tee, undershirt and boxers. I even write what color flip flops and hat to wear! LOL I swear he is more work than the girlies!!!

 

[8disneyfans]

I love the dress. Sometimes I wish I could be little again just to wear all the cute clothes and twirly dresses....
My girls are getting to old to dress like this, so sad.
I love all that the disboutiquers do! I so wish I could sew. My mom was a seamstress, it just didn't get passed to me

Love the idea of the pop up hamper, we just used one of our suitcases and I just took that to the laundry. With 8 of us I had to do laundry, we were gone a total of 21 days for our vacation!

 

[The Moonk's Mom]

Without a doubt the best advice is the pop up hamper...I took two...one for clothes and one for the kids blankets and stuffed animals. I unpacked right away and put all the clothes in the drawer or closet area. The top of the TV became our "kitchen" where I put all the snacks and food. And...always make sure you have one place where everybody's shoes go...I like by the door. That way you aren't spending time searching for them!

 

[familyfirsttimer]

You do not have to bring hangers, you can just call Mousekeeping when you get there and ask for 10-15 hangers. We do this and have never had a problem. Of course, if everyone was doing this they might run low but I doubt too many people request them.

Just wanted to mention because I do not want my luggage any heavier!!

 

[aimeeg]

Thanks for all the tips. I never thought about asking for extra hangers.

Please keep them coming!

 

[jensen]

I'm going to head out and look for one of those pop-up hampers! And I love the ziploc idea for the clothes.

We always take our own coffee maker... DH cannot function without his coffee first thing in the morning, but before I brew the coffee, I brew a pot of plain water and use that to make up some oatmeal for breakfast.

 

[Disneyforus]

I love all these ideas! We are staying at a value for the first time with 4 kids and am also looking for some organizing ideas. I did the ziplocs on our last trip and it worked great. Though, I had to keep the ziplocs to repack the dirties into to fit everything back in our suitcases.

 

[Tricia1972]

We love the pop up hamper, the over the door shoe organizer, and always pick up a pack of 10 hangers (.88 at Walmart) to bring with us.

We also like doing laundry throughout the trip. Take an evening mid trip, order pizza, kids play by the pool and you do your laundry. Doing this saves SO much room.

We also had folders for each park so the papers didn't get all confused. All receipts were stored in one quart size ziploc bag - so nothing got lost.

 

[Sabrina90744]

I love all these ideas! We are staying at a value for the first time with 4 kids and am also looking for some organizing ideas. I did the ziplocs on our last trip and it worked great. Though, I had to keep the ziplocs to repack the dirties into to fit everything back in our suitcases.

Do the ziplocs really help? Do clothes take up less space that way?

 

[Kimberly Hill]

Do the ziplocs really help? Do clothes take up less space that way?

What's great about the Ziplocs is everything's together for each day. No need to worry about only bright blue undies left to go under white shorts or which tshirt goes with those shorts. It's all together!

 

[Sabrina90744]

What's great about the Ziplocs is everything's together for each day. No need to worry about only bright blue undies left to go under white shorts or which tshirt goes with those shorts. It's all together!

Oh...so not really a space saver??

 

[aimeeg]

I have to disagree. The ziplocs help a ton! Here are some pics.

Here is half of the clothes I took for my girls.

This was my youngest clothes.

Here is an outfit.

Now multiply that by two and you get this.

I took pics of our packing for the scrapbook. LOL You do have to suck the air out reall well. Sitting on it helps! I really do like the ziploc method and still use it with 2 gallon bags. It helps a lot.

 

[Sabrina90744]

Thanks does look like a space saver!! Would definitely help with my kids clothes, Mine not so much . BTW, love that Chef Mickeys outfit, so cute!!