Day 10 - Travel Organizers {31 Cheap & Easy DIY Organizers}

Think you have to spend a lot of money on costly organizing tools to get your house in order?  Nope!  Getting organized doesn't have to be expensive!

Throughout this series I'm sharing ideas to help you organize your home by either

• making simple organizers with things that don't cost very much OR
• using items you already have in a different way.

If cost has been holding you back from getting organized, now you've got no more excuses!  

Today I'm showing you some cheap and easy DIY organizers you can use when you travel.  There's a whole industry for travel organizing products, but many of them are very expensive.  These DIY ideas will help you keep everything organized when you're living out of a suitcase.

This post has been moved to my business website's blog: https://fromoverwhelmedtoorganized.com/day-10-travel-organizers-31-cheap-easy-diy-organizers/. 

Please check it out there. 

Happy organizing!

How to Have a Great Family Road Trip!

Do you take road trips with your family?  Or do you avoid them because the thought of being cooped up in a vehicle for hours on end overwhelms you?

I have great memories of family road trips.  We flew for some vacations, but many of our family trips when I was growing up involved driving to our destination.  Often the journey was a big part of the vacation itself.  Of course back then we were bouncing around in the back seat with no seat belts and could just lay down on the seat to sleep (maybe I'm showing my age a little now!). I'm glad some things have changed.  Safety first :)

Early in our marriage I shared my love for road trips with my hubby.  He'd never traveled very far by car so it took a bit of getting used to.  But it's MUCH more economical than flying and since having our kids we've only taken road trip vacations.  Our kids don't know any other way of traveling.

Road trips can be great.  Or not.  I've heard plenty of horror stories of road trips gone bad.  Sometimes those make for great shared memories... years later anyway!  Like the time my parents' car got tired of pulling a trailer through the mountains.  We were already hot because we didn't have A/C, but when the car started overheating, we had to turn the heater on full blast.  Not fun at the time, but funny to look back on now.

You can't control everything on a road trip, but over the years I've learned a few tricks to help make road trips great.  I'm sharing them with you so you can plan a great family road trip too!

Organizing Ideas For The Weekend: Road Trip Tips

Happy Friday!  Time for another organizing idea for your weekend!

Continuing on with my vacation, travel, and packing, packing, and more packing theme, today I want to share some tips for a great family road trip!  Road trips are great memory makers.  Memories that last a lifetime.  I still remember some road trips I took with my family when I was growing up.  And I've passed that love of road trips on to my kids. 

We nearly always take road trips for our family vacations.  Our kids don't actually know any other way of traveling because they've been taking road trips them since they were weeks old (actually even before they were born - the only time I remember being carsick - but that's another story).  I know they'd love to fly somewhere, but it's much more economical for us to drive at this point in our lives.  And saving money by taking road trips means we can go on vacations more often :)

We're road tripping to Florida soon, and when we get back I'll be sharing some of my own road trip tips, but in the meantime, here are some great ones I've found online, in case you're planning a road trip soon!  Or if you've never taken one because you've got too many concerns, hopefully these tips will help you overcome those! 

5 Ways to Not Get Overwhelmed When Packing for Your Next Vacation

Do you find packing for vacation overwhelming?  Are those days leading up to your holiday stressful as you try to finish everything on time?

A vacation is something you look forward to, eagerly anticipate, and dream about.  But as your departure date gets closer, that to-do list grows.

Today I want to share a few strategies that I've found help me feel less overwhelmed when I'm packing for a vacation, which in turn helps me enjoy my time away more :)

7 Ways to Be Organized When Your Spouse or Partner is Away

Do you have a significant other who travels for business?  Or travels with friends or family without you?  How do you deal with the house and your family while he or she is gone? 

I've never been in this situation before, but soon my hubby is going to be away for nearly 2 weeks.  We share the load in our family and while I'm the "at-home" parent right now, it's still going to be a big adjustment having him gone.

Today I want to share how I'm getting organized to prepare for the time he's away.  Hopefully these 7 tips will help you if you're in this situation too.

Organizing Ideas For The Weekend: Planning Your Vacation

Happy Friday!  Time for another organizing idea for your weekend!

It's barely spring in some areas (like here in Southern Ontario!), but many of us are starting to think about summer vacations.

In our family, we aren't able to take time off during the summer because my hubby is pretty low on the seniority list at Canada Post.  So we're going to be pulling the kids out of school for a couple of weeks in May to get away as a family (more on that in upcoming posts). 

And just before that my hubby is traveling on a Holy Lands cruise for 10 days with his sister (it was a trip she won and she invited him to go with her). 

So we've got traveling on the brain around here :) 

Whether you've got a trip booked or you're just starting to think about a summer vacation, now is the perfect time to start planning your next trip.  And to help you out, here are some links with great tools and tips!

Christmas Packing List {Free Printable}

Are you traveling during the Christmas holidays?  Many people have family gatherings, visits with friends, or vacations while school's out.

I don't know about you, but whether I'm going somewhere just for the day or overnight or for a whole week, I seem to have a lot to pack!  Especially since we had kids.  Sometimes I feel like we're staying for a week when we're just going to someone's house for the day :)

This post has been moved to my business website's blog: https://fromoverwhelmedtoorganized.com/christmas-packing-list-free-printable/. 

Please check it out there. 

Happy organizing!

8 Tips for Packing Gifts When Traveling

Do you bring gifts with you to other people's homes over the holidays?  Maybe it's a hostess gift.  Or a few presents for grandparents or nieces and nephews.  Or, you may bring your own family's gifts to a family member's home to open there.

On Wednesday I shared 5 Tips for Simpler Gift Wrapping, but now how do you pack those wrapped gifts so they aren't damaged or the wrapping isn't torn?  Here are some tips to help you out!