Organized in your room?

[daisy2jae]

What are some of your tips that you do to stay organized in the resort room? We'll be staying for 10 days at POR the end of Sept. We're a family of 5 and I love to have things organized. We'll have limited space and wondering what I can bring that is compact to help organize the clothes and snacks. We'll be stopping at Walmart to grab some snacks and water. We bring a shoe organzier to keep bathroom stuff organzied.

 

[Missytara]

I have stayed from myself to 4 adults in POR.

Store luggage along side one of the beds between the wall.

Place shoes under the bench and hang backpacks on the pegs on the hat rack.

Allocate one drawer per person.

Allocate a few hangers per person in the closet for good clothes and hoodies/jackets.

Place pop-up hampers in the closet on the floor for each person.

Use a surge protector for multiple items that need plugging in.

Allocate use of the sinks.

Place a shoe organizer over the door for extra shoes, toiletries, extra hair dryers, curling irons, etc. Give each person one row as their own.

 

[minnie mum]

In addition to the PPs hints (great ones by the way), also make full use of the shelf above the hanging rod. We usually reserve one section for our snack/breakfast items.

I always bring collapsible hanging sweater shelves. Similar to the over the door shoe organizer, but with 4 shelves wide and deep enough to store Tshirts or shorts, folded pants, etc. It attaches over the closet rod with a velcro strap. This can almost double your drawer storage space. Allocate one shelf per person.

To keep all of our paperwork collected in one place, and also to store the accumulated paper "souvenirs" I bring a clear plastic scrapbook envelope (12" x 12" that I keep on the table or by the phone. It will also hold all of the receipts that we accumulate during our stay.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Okay, I might be an over packer and travel with way too much. So, even though it's just DH and I, I've learned how to maximize my space.

I've found that the cheap closet sweater hanging shelves and closet shoe hanging shelves are a v. good thing, even when it's just DH and myself. You can put a lot in those and really maximize the space in your closet. The last time I went into Target they had some of these in the dollar section for $2.50 each.

The little fold up paper cloth boxes you can get at the DollarTree for $1 work great to store more things tidily. (I even managed to get some in colors to match our room for this trip.)

Rubber bands or twist ties around charger cables will keep all the various chargers neat and untangled when they're on the on the power strip Missytara recommended .

Big binder clips or potato chip bag clips will help keep the curtains closed in the room if you don't want a ray of blinding sun coming through.

I've started carrying non-bleach clorox wipes. They work just as well, if not better than tide pens on clothes, and they're good for cleaning surfaces and shoes and people; great in the room for whatever purpose you want to put them to.

One note on suitcases - someone suggested this on the DIS and I thought it was a splendid idea. If you drive down, you can put them back in your car after you get to Disney and have that room free! DH and I also check to see that one suitcase can be put inside another suitcase, which saves space. Other people designate one suitcase as the dirty clothes.

On that note: cheap kitchen sized white garbage bags. They have all sorts of uses in a room. (stinky laundry, dirty shoes, wet bottoms, etc)

 

[C&G'sMama]

Clean Clothes go in drawers.

We have a popup double hamper we keep in the closet area.

I put the suitcases up off the floor in the closet. If there are "extra" clean clothes that don't fit in the drawers I leave them in the suitcases. When the hamper's full I do laundry.

We keep snacks and paper goods on the table.

I like the idea of portable shelves.

 

[heidijanesmith]

I have stayed from myself to 4 adults in POR.

Store luggage along side one of the beds between the wall.

Place shoes under the bench and hang backpacks on the pegs on the hat rack.

Allocate one drawer per person.

Allocate a few hangers per person in the closet for good clothes and hoodies/jackets.

Place pop-up hampers in the closet on the floor for each person.we used this idea last few trips, worked great, just throw your dirty clothes in and then take the hamper to do laundry. We had gardengrocer.com deliver food/supplies and an all-in-one detergent fabric softner sheet

Use a surge protector for multiple items that need plugging in.

Allocate use of the sinks.

Place a shoe organizer over the door for extra shoes, toiletries, extra hair dryers, curling irons, etc. Give each person one row as their own.

Great ideas above! We also bring extra hangers, wire than can be tossed at the end of the trip.

 

[hammie59]

We wiped out inside of top 2 drawers and used them to store our snacks and drinks that didn't need refrigeration. Bottom drawer was used for the kid's toys. All the clean clothes stayed in suitcases or were hung up in closet. (was going to request second luggage rack, but didn't need it). Sometimes I bring extra hangers.
I brought pop up cubes that fit on top and in shelves of dresser unit. We used those to store misc items such as cameras, spare change, keys, maps, etc...

 

[daisy2jae]

Thanks for the ideas! I'll have to check out Target and see what I can find. I prefer to unpack 100% and not leave clothes in the suitcase however I pack like we're going to be gone for a year! I can't seem to pack light.

The 12x12 plastic sleeve would be great. I seem to always have a pile of junk papers and receipts that get in the way. That would help keep thing organized.

I always forget a power pack. I need to do that b/c with all our electronics it would be handy to have plenty of plug in's so they can all be together instead of all over the room.

We'll have a rental car but we're going to return it early and take Disney transportation back to the airport. Otherwise I'd love to have the car to put the suitcases in.

 

[Missytara]

OMG - I am a neat freak and was lucky enough to travel with three other neat freaks, so we did great.

One year I traveled with two other girls who were slobs, had tons of "beauty products" and insisted on living out of their suitcases on the floor. I thought I would freak out before the week was over. It was a nightmare stepping over stuff every night.

 

[RFrank9504]

I always pack hangers in our suitcases. I'm a sundress girl and I hate my dresses folded. The rooms never have enough hangers for all of us. I generally hang me and my hubbys clothes (as well as DDs dresses) and use the dressers for the kids clothes.

we always bring a laundry bag so that at check out clothes never mix and all dirty stuff in the bag goes in one suitcase. Simplifies unpacking and cleaning at home.

I LOVE over the door shoe racks-its perfect for toilteries (we dont put shoes in it. Brushes, hair products, extra soaps, etc.

I always take a collapsable or pop up laundry basket from home to leave by the room door and all of our shoes go into it. I hate tripping on everyones shoes!

last trip my hubby bought and over the door towel rack with 4 hooks in Wal Mart (7.00)- great for and for bathing suits and beach towels (we bring our own pool towels). I know theey have the string thing in the bathroom shower, but when you wanna use shower you have to take everything down and put it back up-this was was easier!

thats all I can think of off hand.

7 days to go baby!

 

[nkereina]

I haven't tried this at WDW but at some other hotels, I'll put my empty suitcase under the bed to save room. Some people like to put their dirty clothes in their empty suitcase until they leave, which saves having the dirty clothes out in a hamper.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

RFrank9504 reminded me - I get a pack of clear suctions cups at the Dollar Tree. I use them to hang bath puffs, washclothes and sometimes swim suits (If I can get good, sturdy big cups) in the bathtub.

 

[auprincess]

I store our suitcases on that rack above the closet (or for values on the shelf above the clothes rack). I also hung a laundry bag on a hanger (had one of those so I didn't want to have to buy a collapsible hamper). I also packed some of those mesh bags laundry bags for socks and things ~ I lose them at home, so I figured I'd lose them on vacation, too. Also, when I did laundry, if I knew it was something no one would wear again, I put it back in the suitcase. Every person had a drawer for their stuff. Oh, and for the girls, I packed their outfits in gallon size ziploc bags. Just made it easier to grab the right thing and didn't have to search for matching tops/bottoms/socks/etc.

 

[mousiemom]

my dh and i have our own duties when we check into our resort and mine is unload the suitcases and put clothes up, my dh is to organize the room. we drive down so we put our suitcases back in the van but we carry the big totes with stuff in it like our coffeemaker, fans, etc. and we place one of those in a corner a puts stuff on top of it. my dh always moves the table and chairs around to make more space. we do the hanging toiletry bags so we just keep them hanging on the towel bars and out of the way. we always take an extra mickey cup to put our toothbrushes in and i have to have handsoap @ my sink. we bring lots of hangers. try not to overpack with clothes. the cabinet where the tv is holds a lot of stuff and you can organize it where it looks neat. we always bring a candle for our room too. our room stays pretty neat the whole week but it is just me, dh and dd. we do the laundry bag too in the corner of the closet.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I like to unpack completely too.

I bought a collapsible mesh hanger from the Dollar Tree. It had three sections and was meant to hang stuffed animals in and had round openings in the front. I hung it in the closet area (for extra security, I put a safety pin at the top and through the velcro hanger) and we put our deodorant, hair spray, toothbrushes, etc. in it. It worked very well.

I also bring the mesh laundry bags found at the Dollar Tree and we put our dirty laundry in it. It stored well over in the corner of the closet area. I did laundry about half way through our vacation and simply took the laundry bag with me.

For all of the receipts that I accumulate, I bring along a coupon pouch. Since it is divided into sections, I can keep our dining credit receipts separate from the receipts where we simply bought souvenirs.

Every evening, we would go back to our room and put all of our pocket change into one of the glasses provided by Disney.

I am a ziplock bag user to the max and found that they work well for storing the little things that I save for my scrapbooks (stickers, napkins, etc.)

 

[jenneth79]

I love the packing envelopes and cubes from Eagle Creek, we can just take them out of our suitcase (the cubes especially) and put them straight in drawers, without having to refold anything!

I love the other user's idea of the suction cups, I might have to go and see if I can find some for the bathroom!

 

[Main Street Matilda]

I'm a ziploc bag fan for organizing. I use the really large ones like a packing cube to organize clothes. I also use ziplocs to organize toiletries, receipts, chargers and power cords, etc.

There are some other really great ideas in this thread ... I'm going to be sure to put a few of them to good use!

 

[Princess Steph]

One thing that works great and we just did on this trip: use the ironing board as extra shelving in the closet/sink area. We were at CSR and I put the ironing board along the right side under the closet rod. There was room to put the pop up hamper and one piece of luggage also. I could still hang up hoodies and rain coats. Then I used the extra room for my makeup kits, shaving kits and kids toothbrush kits and to set out the kids clothes each night for the next day. This also freed up the sink area bc I move the coffee pot to the sink. It's right by the water and did not wake everyone once I shut the slider doors to the sink/closet area.

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

Great suggestions all - thanks!

 

[Junebugwv]

Like the OP, we often travel with 5 and I like to have a folding cube (12") lined up against the wall for each person. Each of us put our park things in it: sunglasses, hat, wallets, fanny packs, water bottle, lanyard, etc. Sure makes it easy for each person to set their items in their cube when they return to the room.