Maximizing your space in resort rooms

[princessmom29]

someone said to call for hangers. I pack extra plastic hangers in my empty on the way down laundry bag, and my empty on the way back suitcase. I make a lot of customs for DD for the trip that need to hang, and this way they can come right out of the suitcase and onto hangers.

 

[familyfirsttimer]

someone said to call for hangers. I pack extra plastic hangers in my empty on the way down laundry bag, and my empty on the way back suitcase. I make a lot of customs for DD for the trip that need to hang, and this way they can come right out of the suitcase and onto hangers.

oops! Forgot they are driving...you can just bring them. We fly so we need all the space and wegith we can use to not have to pay bag fees!!! Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[MapleGirl]

A collapseable hamper for dirty stuff would be helpful.

This is key for us! We've also used those gigantic ziplock bags (the storage ones that are big enough to fit a small child!) for dirty clothes.

 

[Mufasa&Simba]

I don't believe that anyone has mentioned this yet on the thread, but you can use the ironing board to store stuff on. Mostly for extra toiletries. There may not be enough room on the sink, so set up the ironing board and there you go! I used it when I went a year ago and stayed at CSR. It helped a lot with having extra room. Of course, then if you need to iron....

 

[dizfam4]

I, too, am a hanger packer...I just take my kiddos outfits (still on hangers) and place them in the suitcase. Makes unpacking at the hotel easy to...haha. I am fortunate that we are driving and we don't have a space/weight limit w/ regards to our luggage. I love the ironing board idea!!! That is like great big counter top! You guys are awesome!!!!!!

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Oh, I love the ironing board suggestion!!!

I know you have the luxury of packing 'more' but one of my packing tips is to bring 'old' clothing and such. I save up all the old underwear & socks (you know, the stuff that won't make it through one more wash) and we use these and throw them away. I'll do this for clothes that maybe the kids have stained really badly or the 'holey' items my husband has. Yes, I like to look nice at Disney but typically these outfits are fine, especially for the daytime. As the year goes on, I just pull things out of the clean laundry that are good candidates. It helps for us that are flying to have more room in the suitcase for souvenirs. (I apply this same theory to toiletries and bring all the stuff that we will use up rather than have anything leftover to take home.)

I also recommend bringing lots of extra trash bags. I usually have grocery bags that I put all our shoes and clothes in or to separate things in the suitcase and then I use them as trash bags while we are there. There never seems to be a big enough trash can for us!

For space, we completely utilize the dresser drawers. The lower ones are for the kids. Each gets a drawer for clothes and one drawer for their toys/light up sticks/pins/hats/sunglasses/etc. My husband and I hang everything we can (and ask for extra hangers) and then we take the suitcases and pack them inside of each other and put them somewhere out of the way. I actually like getting a connecting room because I put the luggage rack in front of that door (since we won't use it anyway) and put a suitcase on it that we can use as an extra storage space, then put our shoes underneath it. There is usually enough room to store the big suitcases on the side of it too.

And I agree about the hanging toiletrie kits. Whatever works for you is great (shoe hanger, toiletrie kit, etc) just hang it up so it is out of the way!

 

[Al and Kate's Mom]

Great tips everyone - thanks!!!

 

[mavdav]

Great ideas! I can't tell you how much we love using the over the door shoe holder. Its been quite handy for us. We have used it at WDW and DCL and other non disney vacation (gasp - we cheated on WDW).

Can't wait

 

[rosiep]

I don't believe that anyone has mentioned this yet on the thread, but you can use the ironing board to store stuff on. Mostly for extra toiletries. There may not be enough room on the sink, so set up the ironing board and there you go! I used it when I went a year ago and stayed at CSR. It helped a lot with having extra room. Of course, then if you need to iron....

Yup! That's what I do!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I'm trying to remember CSR. I believe it only had one sink because I remember thinking how odd that was.

Everyone else has already passed along the tips that I use.

 

[boettj]

Ok. prepare yourself for an unpopular solution, but this works for us. We only bring half the amount of clothes we need. Halfway through we wash them. For a family of 5 (my family), this saves a great deal of space.

Another solution is try those vacuum pack bags. They are suppose to collapse your clothes.

A locking roof top for your car?


That is all I got.

 

[churchpilot]

We unpack completely and put our suitcases away--this means we have to have a space for everything. 1) Over the door shoe holder for all bathroom items and anything else that will fit in there. Both boys have a hanging 5 partition shelf for their clothing (packed in ziplock bags). They share a drawer for underwear, socks, jammies, etc. We have one large collapsible basket for laundry and another one to corral everyone's shoes in so we don't spend valuable time looking for shoes. These both go against the wall by one of the beds. We also use the collapsible "basket" to keep all of our small items in--keys, wallet, cell phones, KTTW cards, etc. When we leave the room, this should be empty so we know we didn't forget anything. We bought a large toothbrush/soap holder from the Dollar Tree that suction cups to the mirror. This makes us feel better about our toothbrushes being up and out of the way when housekeeping is cleaning.