I'll be getting a clear, hanging shoe holder to hang in the closet beside the Pop bathrooms to hold our toiletries. No vanity clutter!
Love the outfits in bags idea too. I need to adpot that one as well, especially when we want to wear matching outfits!
Great tips! I absolutely love organization, and the Rubbermaid bin aisle is one of my favorites in the whole store!
Wow! You are certainly very organized. I consider myself a neat/organizational freak but not anymore!I have that same pink/purple colored tote in my closet and I use it as my Disney box. Every time I buy something for our trip I throw it in there so everything is all together. It makes it so much easier when I'm packing!
We don't usually take long car trips (only to Syracuse and it's only 2 hrs away). We're driving to Maryland in a few weeks for a wedding and I haven't even started thinking about it yet. Madison will bring her Nintendo DS for sure and lots of books. I'll probably bring my ipod and that's about it. We will have a small cooler so we can stop somewhere to eat lunch. Madison is very easy to travel with so I don't have to worry about her.
I love this post! You've got so many great ideas! I love the collapsable bins from the container store (one of my favorite places to shop!). I think your idea about carrying them in in that large bag and then filling the crates once you're in the room will work really well!
And what a great idea for the trash! That is definitely an issues that we have too, since we drive.
I seriously think I'm going to try the ziplock packing method for myself! I think it will be really beneficial in Italy because we'll be traveling between cities so much. If it works out well there then I can use it for the disneymoon!
Great tips!! I also do the same thing with the kids clothes in Ziplocs. I put the clothes, socks, and hair accessory all together. I even label the outside to say which park/day the outfit is for!
Kammie
What a great Fourth of July you had!
Love all your organization ideas! I may be borrowing (yet again) some of your ones for the car! Great thinking!
Ok--first off--where do you find the Disney Princess Teddy Grahams?! I've never seen those before!
Love all of the organizational ideas!! The collapsible totes are really cool! We don't have a Container Store around here, unfortunately. My favorite organizational idea is the labeled clothing bags for each day. It takes up less space in the suitcase AND it saves time in the mornings. Everything is in the bag that will be worn that day including panties, shoes, etc. And Brent is able to grab a bag and help me dress the girls easily.
Wow! I thought I was organized until I just read your update.
We fly down so I don't have any car tips, but my favorite organization trick is one I haven't used yet. I'll be getting a clear, hanging shoe holder to hang in the closet beside the Pop bathrooms to hold our toiletries. No vanity clutter!
I used those containers that you had last year (the plastic shoe boxes with lids), but I just packed mine into a large suitcase. I was able to fit five of them into one piece of luggage and I checked it at the airport with the rest of my bags. It worked really well. The only problem was that two of them were cracked when we arrived b/c the airline was pretty rough with the luggage. But since you are driving, that wouldn't be a problem. But I think I like the collapsable boxes even better!
My organizing issue hasn't really been packing to go, it's been packing to leave! Our room was always a mess throughout the week with dirty laundry piling up (I cannot stand a messy hotel room...........too small to be in there with junk everywhere!). One year I took a collapsable, mesh laundry basket for all the dirty clothes, but then on the last day, I had to get all that mess back into a suitcase. But I have finally come up with a system that works for us. After I unpack, I just leave our largest suitcase out and open all week and we fold our dirty clothes and put them into that suitcase as we go all week. Then on the last day, I just zip it up, and I only have to pack the toiletries! It worked great last time. I spent minimal time packing to leave, which is always so depressing anyway, so I was glad it didn't take long. Then, when I get home, I just take that bag straight to the laundry room and get it washed.
My only other miracle item is an organizer toiletries bag. It is one of those that holds a ton of travel sized items all in one bag and you unfold it several times and it hangs on the door hook in the bathroom. It is great for hotels b/c they have so little counter space. I couldn't do without that bag!
The only other thing I can think of right now is that we use a large bag with our stroller. We put all our things into a very large bag that I kept under the stroller in the basket. On our first trip, I quickly realized that we were going to have to unload the stroller quite frequently getting on and off of Disney transportation. It was just too much trouble to have to take several bags/items out of the bottom to fold it up every time we got on a bus. And the bag was big enough for everything that I brought with me to the parks and we had plenty of room for anything that we bought too. It all went into the bag! So that helped a lot to just have one large bag to grab when we needed to fold it up quickly.
But it looks like you have a great system going already. I also used the contanier of goodies beside the car seat and that works great. I think the tub toy trash can is a terrific idea! I may have to steal that one!
WOW, you are super organized!
Love all the treats for the kids. I totally remember getting American Girl magazine when I was younger.
love love love all the organizing tips. I am verified (insane!) type-A personality that loves organizing. Drives my DH nuts how i pick stuff up and put it 'away'.
anyhow- love the bins- but you drove down with those? We fly and so those might be hard to fit in the suitcases. however, we used the over the door shoe rack trick on our last few stays. at WL, it worked well- just put on the inside of the bathroom door- it was a floor to ceiling type shoe rack that just hooks over the door- and had like 20 pockets. I put sunblock, makeup, meds (high up where the toddler couldn't reach) and everything else in those pockets. we even found one for under $5 on sale! similar to this one
heck, i use one at home in our coat closet year round. i keep mittens, gloves, hats, scarves, dog leashes, dog sweaters and the like in the pockets at home. really easy to organize.
we also loved the $1 store pop up hampers, we used those for dirty clothes and haul our clothes down to the laundry!
my mom also bought us some 'space bags' and those came in handy when packing- like you, we do the ziploc bags, but i was able to fit stuff like nightgowns etc. into the space bags to save room!
for the stroller, we also have a large organizer bag we got at babies r us. it just attaches to the handle/back and has a large mesh bag for big items, then a smaller section in front of that with a zipped pocket and two other pockets (that are great for holding water bottles). Since our stroller doesn't have much of a basket below, we loved having this bag on the back to put in maps, sunglasses, sunblock, waters and even my camera in the zipped compartment.
it looks sort of like this:
for the car, we found a great little car trash thing at the container store- it has a little trash can and hooks onto the back of a seat (or the center console in our truck), it has a kleenex holder too at the bottom, you stick in a box of kleenex and pull them out through a little hole. i love that thing!
for the stroller, we also have a large organizer bag we got at babies r us. it just attaches to the handle/back and has a large mesh bag for big items, then a smaller section in front of that with a zipped pocket and two other pockets (that are great for holding water bottles). Since our stroller doesn't have much of a basket below, we loved having this bag on the back to put in maps, sunglasses, sunblock, waters and even my camera in the zipped compartment.
it looks sort of like this:
I loved it b/c we could fold up the stroller without taking this off. I'm sure it would work on just about any stroller too b/c the straps are adjustable.
it looks sort of like this:
How could I have forgotten this!!! I have this EXACT same organizer from Toys R Us and it ROCKS!!!!!!!!
