organization of the travel kind...

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Living out of a suitcase for any amount of time is hard. Before I left for Australia, I tried to come up with some ways to keep all my stuff organized during travel and was hoping as well that it would help while I was staying with family. Customs can open any suitcase and rifle through, (yup, they did, too) so things needed to be easy to search as well.  These bags were the perfect solution.  And they were so easy.  I had several made in just a couple of hours.  I used them for everything from make up to vitamins to underwear and socks. (You're welcome for not posting a picture of my underwear and socks!)
 I used the heavy clear vinyl which made it more durable.  But my sewing machine didn't like it very well...  I didn't take time to make a tutorial, which is a good thing because I just looked on pinterest and found one here that someone else had already taken the time to do. It's actually a great little tutorial-I wish I'd seen it sooner!

I thought for a long time about how to keep my jewelry organized during my trip.  Our Princess came up with some good ideas, but in the end, I decided to use individual small ziplock craft bags to keep necklaces from getting tangled and broken.  It worked perfectly! That is how I'll be storing them for travel from here on out.

 

They all just slid nicely into a little pouch.

Without fail, whenever it's time to leave, the straightener is still hot and I end up packing it around out of my case until it cools down enough to be put away.  I saw this novel idea for hot irons on Pinterest, I'm sure.  In fact, I probably pinned it, but it's one of those that you see and think, HA! I can do that!

All it takes is a hot pad.  Really!  Just fold it in half and sew around one short side and the long side.  I added a ribbon to tie the cord up in to make sure that it all, once again, stayed organized. The straightener slides right up inside and it's ok if it's still warm!

My curling iron has a handle that pokes up, so on this one, I left an opening at the bottom for it.

I am sad to say that my straightener blew up the first time I used it over there.  I was absolutely distraught because I totally loved that guy and it was really new, too!

This was a great idea that I got (once again from you-know-where) to put your shoes in cheap hair nets to keep them from getting everything around them dirty.  It also helped with organization, because both shoes in the pair are together and I didn't have to search for missing shoe-mates!

After I unpacked it all, all of it fit perfectly inside the largest pouch to slide into a cupboard to store.

And because sometimes I'm a little bit nuts-o, at the last minute I made these little luggage tags with the left over vinyl. The tutorial is from make it and love it.  They were super fun and super easy.  I should probably make some more sometime for my girls.

Happy Crafting!