Staying Organized

These are documents you printed off the internet, right? Some of them may have bar codes or those square thingies you see everywhere nowadays that get swiped on some kind of electric eye dealie. (Can you tell that I'm not overly techno literate?) Don't punch any holes in anything like that, or in part of a confirmation number or phone number you might need. Otherwise, I'd say whack away. Unless of course one of them says "do not fold, spindle, or mutilate."

I fold mine in thirds and stick them, sequentially, in a pocket of a belt pack I wear traveling (the "personal item" for flights). As I complete the hotel stay, visit the site, or whatever, I toss them (except for the all-important return flight document). Works for me. If I were hipper I'd have them all on a smart phone and use no paper at all. But too old to change now. ;-)

If these are all documents that you printed at home on plain paper, then most presumably could be reprinted from email in an emergency. I'd just be careful not to punch through any bar code, QR code, or important-looking dates, times, and booking numbers. I would not punch through any tickets printed on special ticket stock, since that could be code for the ticket having been used.

Keep your filing system as light as possible. I've used a plastic expanding folder to organize my tour notes and constantly wonder whether I can find something lighter. For a personal trip, I definitely use a smaller folder and simply stack all the papers in chronological order.

I put all printed tickets, vouchers, reservations in a big plastic ziplock Baggie which stays in one of the zipper compartments of my rolling carryon. They are in order of use, and I move them to my messenger bag on the day I need them. I throw them away once they are no longer needed.

I follow Zoe's filing system but am toying with going paperless with our phone on our next trip. It is only for 8 days so we might experiment. Would love to hear from any paperless travelers.

My practice is similar to Zoe's. All printed out, arranged chronologically for the trip, stored in this little black expando-file I've been using for years. I throw vouchers away as I use them. I've never used a notebook...I just fold them into the file....it's smaller than notebook size, maybe 8.5 inches by 4 inches.

When I get a confirmation or important document via email, I send it to a cloud account which can then be accessed on all my devices.

If I need to print it using a hotel's computer, I set up a free email account strictly for this purpose. I call it my "dummy" account. I will forward any document to this account from my real email and then print it from there. Once done, I delete the email from the dummy account. So, if anyone hacks in, they see an empty email account. And I don't have to log into my regular email on the hotel's computers.

Yes, I still carry paper. With 2-hole-punch holes in the top, in a file folder in chronological order and flagged with post-it notes. But I make sure that the holes don't impact the codes (usually at the bottom of train tickets)

mary,

I have a very simple system using two plastic document sleeves which are sized for 8.5" x 11" paper. I place documents in them using a "back-to-back" configuration like this.....

• Sleeve 1, Side 1: Itinerary
• Sleeve 1, Side 2: Lodgings
• Sleeve 2, Side 1: Transportation
• Sleeve 2, Side 2: Misc.

Using a Label Maker, I mark each sleeve so I can quickly determine it's function. As one document is used, I place it at the back of the pile in its assigned sleeve, so that the next document needed is always on top. The Itinerary also has the current page on top so that I can check it at a glance. With this system there's no need to punch holes or deface the documents in any way, and the sleeves protect the documents to some extent.

The document sleeves can be purchased at Staples or similar stores for a reasonable cost.

Not every place is able to accept bar-coded tickets on mobile devices.
Good idea to keep a paper copy, just in case. I always trim off what is not absolutely necessary to the actual ticket.

I just print and put them in a pocket folder - lighter than a ring binder. But yes, you can punch holes as long as you aren't going through bar codes or other important info.

If you print it at home then you can almost always reprint on the road. Save them to somewhere on the internet so you can access and reprint. Your email, a new email account empty except for these docs, kindle, google drive are all ways I've heard of people saving documents electronically.

I fold my confirmation documents in thirds and place them in a vinyl envelope that can be purchased at any office supply store. Most school supplies are on sale right now, so I just bought a few for a $1 each at Staples.

We plan on going to Italy next year and we plan on going to a few different areas. I write the area on the top of the page (Rome, Sorrento, Pompeii, etc) and then highlight it - each area gets a different highlight color. The highlighted color makes it easy to find things quickly. I also keep them in chronological order - but they do get out of order sometimes (I blame hubby LOL) so the color system works for me.

I also PDF my confirmation pages and email them to myself as backup. I like Frank II's idea of setting up a "dummy" email account to store the confirmation emails. I may start this procedure as well. Thanks, Frank II, for the tip. :)

My system may be a bit more cumbersome, with all documents in plastic sleeves in a traveler's 3-ring binder. We shared a compartment from Leipzig with a young German PhD on his way to Paris for a job interview. He was fascinated how a couple of Americans collected all this stuff, train tickets, bus schedules, transit maps, etc and got it organized. Of course he was probably thinking "Why don't these dinosaurs just put all that crap on a smart phone?"

Thank you to everyone. Great support and ideas!

I simply use a three ring binder, .5", maybe 1" rings, with a very thin cover just to reduce weight. Everything is stored in date order - day by day - reservations, tickets, etc., in the order needed. Sometimes printed material is reduced when copying to put more information on a page. At the end of day, the page or pages are tossed. Come home with nearly empty note book. All of our tickets will have three holes punched and never a problem. (Obviously no holes through critical info.) Critical tickets will have a back up copy buried in our day bag, and everything is on a file in the home computer's cloud as well as on the ipad. (The redundancy of my engineer training.) Keeps us straight with only one item to keep track of when traveling.

If you're going to bring a bunch of printouts and don't want to punch holes in them, I second the idea of using plastic sleeves, Whether you put them in a notebook or just use them as organizers, they work great and as a bonus, protect from moisture and tearing.

That said, I am glad more and more places are going paperless and offering bar/QR codes via mobile apps. Less stuff to carry around!

I use a system similar to what Ken uses but I use these Avery plastic pocket dividers

I place all my hotel reservations in chronological order on one side of the pocket & all my transportation tickets (also in chronological order) on the other side of the plastic divider.
I always also make a couple of copies of our passports, just in case...

I always take different size ziplock bags & keep all my small receipts (ATM receipts & credit card purchases) in a sandwich size bag & all my hotel receipts folded in half in a gallon storage bag or in the plastic pocket divider.

I actually upgraded to a smartphone this year & realized that I didn't really need to have all those papers I printed out for my trip this May/June.

I created a, "France trip", folder within my email & saved all my emails confirming my hotel reservations in that folder, along with all my transportation tickets.
I also scanned our passports (pdf file) & emailed to myself.
Since most hotels provide free wifi, I was able to check my emails on my phone.

My iPhone (5s) also came with a "wallet" app, & I was able to save some of my tickets there.

The airline I flew with also has an app & I was able to see my flight itinerary as well as our tickets on my iPhone ;-)

I used my iPhone more than I ever expected & actually kept it on "airplane mode", the whole time! I used Facetime to stay in touch with my family.

Have a great trip!

Thank you everyone for your comments and support! I feel like my notebook is like my "Linus' Blanket" lol! I won't leave home without it - but I will trim it down for sure. Thanks again :)

@marymaass, for an electronic backup, download Tripit and email your confirmations to that app. I still carry paper copies, but having the information in one place is handy.

Just a quick tip to add- I do the same plastic envelope, with Z folded paper. I write or type a large title on the top of each page. Like Hotel, or Museums, etc.

There are so many ways to stay organized. I'd say each trip I review my options and streamline further.

These days, I try to get everything electronic and organized in my email - then get a local sim card for my smart phone so I can get them anywhere. Less paper, less weight, all the organizing done before my trip.

Before that. I organized things onto an ipod touch and did pretty much the same thing. Kept documents on documents to go and had access to email using WiFi. I bought a cheap local phone to make local calls on.

Before that it was paper, I'd organize paper into stops. I'd have a ziplock bag with phone numbers, reservations, tickets, guide book sections, etc. relating to, say, Venice and keep it in a ziplock bag. When I got to Venice, I had everyting I needed in that bag. When I left Venice, I could jettison the contents and keep the bag for odds and ends or lose the whole thing if I had enough extra bags.

I am paperless except for any tickets that may need a hard copy. I use Tripit to organize all reservations. I do always have mobile data so info on my phone or stored online is easily accessible. Even all of my "guide books" are digital now as are translators.

Very liberating not carrying around all of that paper!

Oh my...all that printing, filing & transferring - not to mention carrying all that paper & folders...

Scared to go paperless, in case my phone/iPad die or go missing.

I don't make many advance reservations, so not much paper of that type. Unfortunately, these days I don't finish my research before leaving, so my suitcase typically contains several pounds (I am not kidding) of newspaper clippings, guidebook chapters, etc. I did a much better job of distilling information into a few pages of typed notes back when I was working...

Paperless is tough - some things still require paper, such as many train and museum tickets. Some accept tickets on the phone, some do not. If I rent a car, I also print the rental car confirmation with price so I can give it to the agent in case of language difficulties. But many things do not need to be printed. Do as you wish, but on a forum like this so committed to light travel I would think more people would be interested in reducing the weight of the papers and binders.

So, for those who are interested, here is my easy system:
I print what is necessary, like tickets without internet versions. For a long trip I will print the first week's stuff and print the next few weeks on the road somewhere.

1. I use the free app trip-it which keeps a record of all my reservations by day. You just forward it all your confirmations and it organizes them by day. It doesn't recognize the smaller hotels I stay at so I need to edit the info on the app manually a lot of the time. Can also add notes by day. Done from home. The app is on my phone and ipad and if my phone is lost/dies I can re-download the app (or put it on my husband's phone) and log in to my account to retrieve my data.

2. I keep all confirmation e-mails in a dedicated folder in my e-mail. I can then access them from any computer with internet. Someone had the tip of opening a dummy account for this, which is a good idea.

3. I make a PDF of anything I may want (sight maps, tickets, hotel direction pages, blog posts, my own notes) and e-mail it to myself AND save it to my phone and ipad AND send it to my kindle account. It can then be read anywhere I have e-mail, and on my kindle account on my phone, AND can be re-downloaded or printed if needed. If I have a lot of these I can organize them in folders. My last trip had a folder per destination, or per day if I was to be in a destination longer than 3/4 days. I have my phone, and therefore all my info, with me where ever I go. But if the phone is lost I have access to it anywhere else. Worst case I can get to an internet cafe and print everything.
   Looking right now, I have a Madrid folder with a PDF of a map of Retiro Park, a blog post about picking up a rental car, the Prado's highlights tour, a food blog about a tapas crawl, my hotel's directions page, a metro map, a map of the food market, a description of Picasso's Guernica painting, and other such random info that it helpful but would weigh a ton printed out!

4. I have paper maps if driving (you can hit low reception locations and get lost, but this has never happened to me), but for city or town maps I use CityMaps2Go. I mark all places of interest color coded (restaurants one color, museums another, etc). It has offline GPS so I can open the map, see my blue dot and navigate anywhere - just watch my dot move. I hear Google Maps now has offline, but I haven't used it overseas yet. It works even better than CityMaps2Go on domestic trips, when data use isn't a concern. My maps are on my account, so I can sign in from any device if needed.

5. I have a note on my phone, e-mail, and kindle that has a bare-bones itinerary (Day 1 - Paris, stay at Hotel X, address, phone. Day 2 - Paris, Louvre tour at 12...Day 4 - To London, Train out at 13:00 from Gare Du Nord, London Hotel Y info, and so forth). Just a quick glance and I have the basic layout.

One of the best organization tips I received from this forum was to always have the hotel name and address written out on a notecard when arriving in a new destination. I keep them in order and then just slip out the top one from the stack. If I need to get directions or try to tell a taxi driver where it is I am going, it is all right there and ready to go.

I bought a sturdy plastic zip-top pouch/folder thingy, expands to about 1/2" if necessary and anything on paper goes in there and into my carry-on, with tickets arranged in order of use. I put my receipts inside and that helps to reconcile statements when I get home, also any ticket stubs, brochures or handouts from museums, etc. I take a 4" x 5" notebook that's always in my purse and write my itinerary notes in that, a page a day, and use it as a travel journal as I go. I only bring my iPhone and although some tickets are on it, I seem to prefer paper still.