What To Bring - In Room Essentials
Now that we’ve gone over what to bring to the parks each day, let’s talk about items you keep back at your hotel room. Chances are if you’re visiting Disney or Universal Resorts on either coast, you’re spending at least a few days and nights there. A home away from home can always be a bit challenging to get comfortable in. Here are a few items I’ve found make life out of a suitcase just a bit easier to handle.
Packing Cubes - Each member of my family gets their own set of packing cubes. This makes unpacking from the suitcases a LOT easier. I recommend each person gets their own color to make it extremely clear what belongs to who. I pack these by item - tops, bottoms, undies & socks, swim, etc. I’ve also heard very convincing arguments to packing full outfits together. Honestly either way works great.
Closet organizers - These might seem unnecessary but keep in mind if you are traveling with more than two people those four dresser drawers are going to fill up fast. Throw one of these in the closet and that instantly doubles your drawer space. You can throw those packing cubes right in there and bam, done unpacking! I can also see a shoe version (linked below) being helpful for flip flops/water shoes, and toiletry bags to keep things tidy.
Fold up Drawer organizer - I follow a lot of organizing accounts online and one woman mentioned that she brings one of these with her to hotels because it folds flat and then she puts it on the bathroom counter to keep all their counter stuff together and out of the way. Mind. Blown. I will definitely be doing this on our next trip.
Pop Up Hamper - This is a game changer. Toss those dirty clothes in and away from the clean stuff. If you’re staying at a resort with laundry services, you can even carry this down and do a couple loads on your pool day and pack away CLEAN clothes to save you the three days of laundry when you get home (If you’re taking a shorter more fully packed trip do NOT waste time doing laundry! But our last trip to Disney had laundry services right at the pool and it was super easy to do a few loads while we swam and then take it back to the room when it was done. More on that in a future post).
Extra Outlet Extender - I covered this briefly in the park bag post, but having one or two of these in the room can really make it easier to plug in all your devices that need to be charged up. Between iPads, kindles, phones, battery packs and cooling fans, we tend to fill up those plugs fast. Also make sure you count how many USB ports you might need and account for that. Rooms usually have some but I find they don’t ever have as many as I need.
Dish soap and laundry soap - We packed very small packets of both of these on our last trip. With COVID we needed to wash masks and I insisted on washing our water bottles each night as well. This might be a personal preference thing, but being able to take care of that in the room was extremely helpful.
Clothes Line - I loved this one with the clips built in. Great to hang swim suits and masks to dry and the clips mean you could technically hang it anywhere.
I hope this list helps make your next home away from home a little more comfortable. As always feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
Let’s go plan another amazing adventure!
xo, Molly
