Organization tips are all around us these days, from keeping things like your home, office, schedules, and even medicine or vitamins organized. Staying organized during the summertime can take some additional effort, with seemingly endless plans between kids being home from school, family events, weekends filled with plans, and the feeling of always being on the go.
There’s one type of item you may already have around the house that you can start using in new ways to help organize your travel plans during the busy summer months. If pill organizers are something you don’t already have on hand, you’re going to want to grab one—or several—in a few minutes!
Pill organizers are, first and foremost, a helpful and convenient way to store your daily medications or vitamins. With separate compartments that make grabbing your daily collection of pills a breeze—with some organizers even having separate morning and night compartments—using these as intended makes remembering to take daily medications simple. No opening several different bottles every day!
But beyond being used for medications, pill organizers can be a great travel accessory. Storing all types of small items in these small compartments makes organizing snacks, jewelry, or other items convenient and easy to access. Perfect for summer travel, here are some ideas of how to use them for organization:
- Jewelry: They’re a great option for small items like earrings, rings, or other jewelry. Necklaces are less likely to get tangled with other pieces of jewelry when stored in smaller spaces, and the small compartments are convenient to store a couple pairs of earrings instead of having to fish through a larger container with several pairs to find the right match.
- Office items: If you’re one of the many individuals who have transitioned to working from home and have the luxury to work from anywhere, you may be planning to take a vacation to somewhere you can also work from. We can’t blame you; why not work from a laid-back, sunny destination! For small office items that you might use for organizing paperwork—paper clips, rubber bands, binder clips—they will fit perfectly in these small containers.
- Craft items: For those who like to do crafts, small beads, bracelet string, or other small craft items would be great in the small compartments.
- Sewing items: If you’re the type of person who likes to be prepared for any situation, you likely have repair items like needle and thread not far out of reach at home. Transfer some of those pieces to a pill organizer to have them ready if needed on a vacation.
In the same category as pill organizers, reusable pill pouches can be a great option to travel with. A reusable, resealable plastic pouch is better for the environment than what you may use now since you don’t need to toss them after one use.
- Snacks: With kids, snacks are always handy to have in a plane or on a road trip. Pre-portioning snacks into small reusable pouches can help you save room in a carry-on bag or can help avoid an entire spilled box of snacks in the car. Or, if you want to use the pill organizer instead, you can fill it with a variety of snacks. If you don’t know what snack your child might want—because we all know that can certainly be unpredictable—they will have a variety to choose from.
- Spices: If you’re renting a house while on vacation, cooking your own meals can help save money on the cost of eating out. Instead of buying whole containers of spices while traveling, plan some meals ahead of time and bring small portions of spices from home. This will save money and be one less ingredient you have to worry about later. This idea also works well if you’re going camping.
- Daily necessities: Plan on-the-go “emergency kits” to have common items with you no matter where you go like lip balm, ibuprofen, tissues, and a little extra cash. Pack these or other essentials you choose together in a pill pouch so you can easily take them wherever—from your purse to your beach bag to slipping them in your pocket—so you’ll always have them handy.
If your vacation plans are flexible, use the organizers to help you decide what to do each day. You’ve likely been in a situation where no one has strong feelings of where to eat dinner or what to do, and no one wants to be the one to decide. With this option, you won’t have to! Write down options for what to do on slips of paper and randomly place them in the different compartments of the organizer. When you’re ready for an activity, choose a compartment and do what the paper says! For example, ordering pizza, visiting a nice sit-down restaurant, or having a picnic could be examples of dinner options. For activities during the day, you could write swimming in the pool, visiting local shops, or reading a book on the beach. This way, you’ll always have options of things to do but won’t have to have every day planned in advance. The uncertainty of what you’ll do each day adds to a bit of the adventure while traveling!
One great thing about pill organizers is the variety of sizes they come in. Choose whatever size is best for your needs—bigger would be better if you will use them for snacks, smaller might be wiser for smaller craft items or jewelry. And of course, don’t forget to actually use them for storing your medications or vitamins! Otherwise routine pill-taking can get more complicated during travel—especially if you need to take them at certain times of the day, need to always have a water bottle on hand to take them with, or if you have any that need to be taken with food.
Keep your medication routine as convenient as possible by using pill organizers and incorporate them into your travel organization. The options really are endless!