Turn Your Hotel Room Into the Perfect Vacation Hub

When you’re on vacation, your hotel room is your home base. It’s where you can slip away for a little downtime, store all your belongings and where every adventure-filled day starts and ends.

By organizing your hotel room – and all the clothes and toys in it – it’s possible to ensure each day of your trip gets off to a no-hassle start.

Battling Bathroom Clutter

Bathroom clutter, especially when there’s more than one person staying in your room, is the primary culprit for chaos.

The simplest way to declutter your hotel bathroom is to bring along a clear plastic over-the-door shoe rack. This isn’t for shoes – the clear pockets allow you to see everything you need at a glance and keep it all up and out of the way.

You can use your shoe rack to store toiletries, as well as sunscreen and bug spray. Nobody wants to sift through clothes and sheets trying to find sunscreen when there are only so many hours you’ll get to spend on the beach.

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You can also leave everything packed in the shoe rack when you move on to your next hotel if you’ll be staying in multiple cities during your vacation. For those who are uber-organized, feel free to make labels for each pocket; this way, if a pocket is empty, you know exactly what’s missing.

To Stay Packed or Not to Stay Packed, That Is the Question

You can be a live-out-of-a-suitcase sort of person or a move-right-in kind of person, either way – do it. Don’t get stuck halfway between.

A good rule of thumb is that if you’re going to be spending more than two nights at a place, go ahead and unpack. Move right in. Hotels typically offer a plethora of drawers, bedside tables and closet space. Take advantage of it.

There are coat hangers in the closet, so hang up everything you can before packing the rest away in drawer space.

Organize your drawers by people’s possessions – so your kids know where to put their belongings – or by activity. This will help you to hit the ground running each day and stay organized when everyone comes “home.”

Keep it Clean

Dirty clothes happen, and they happen fast while enjoying vacation. When you’re living out of a hotel room for several days you don’t always have easy access to a laundry room or laundry service.

So, pack a dirty laundry bag. If you have room in your luggage, you could bring a pop-up hamper. If not, any large bag will do the trick. Even a grocery bag will do in a pinch!

The idea is to keep your dirty laundry separate from your clean clothes. Not only does this stop you from having to conduct a sniff-test on shirts before going out, it also makes it easy to do the laundry when you get home.

Keys, Wallet, Phones and Power Cords

The essentials are too easy to misplace, especially in a hotel room. The easiest way to avoid losing anything is by committing to put everything in a designated place when you get back to your hotel room.

Though you can choose anywhere to keep your keys, wallet, phone and power cords, the drawer in the bedside table is without a doubt the easiest place to store everything.

As soon as you walk into the room, empty your pockets into the drawer; otherwise, you might end up having to dig through your laundry bag right when you’re trying to get out the door for your next adventure.

Fill the Fridge

There’s often snacks in the mini-fridge when you arrive at your hotel (for a price). However, if you want to make your hotel room the perfect hub for your vacation, you’ll want to stock up.

All it takes is a quick run to the local grocery store to pick up healthy snacks, such as bags of baby carrots, celery and fruit. They key is to fill your fridge with snacks that you can quickly pack but aren’t too messy.

Set up a Workspace

It’s painful to even talk about work when taking a vacation. The reality of the situation is that more and more people are needing to at least check in while they are out of the office.

Most hotels recognize this and will supply you with a desk area and a good chair. To take it to the next level, make sure you pack your office essentials and really carve out a place in your hotel room for work – this often means keeping the desk space free of clutter.

If there’s too much going on in your hotel room, most hotels also have dedicated business centers where you can get away for a bit.

Keep the Counter Clean

Counter space in a hotel room is a prime victim of clutter. And clutter is what turns your hotel room from a basecamp for adventures to a disaster zone.

By taking full advantage of drawer space – and perhaps using non-residue stickers to help you remember where everything is – you can quickly whisk items from the countertops into their proper place. If you’re traveling as a family, you can have the kids make sure everything is in its proper place.

The Perfect Vacation Hub

Fundamentally, each of these seven essential travel tips is designed to help you battle clutter. Vacations can become stressful due to thousands of tiny inconveniences in those moments when you deserve to be relaxing and enjoying yourself. By keeping your hotel room organized, you can minimize the number of stressors during your holiday and feel right at home.

Part of feeling right at home is spending less on your hotel room. By booking your hotel room with Best Western and AAA, you can save you up to 15% and earn 10% bonus Best Western Rewards points.

Do you have a favorite tip for keeping your hotel room organized? Share it in the comment section below.