Don't Forget: Must-Do Checks Before Leaving Your Hotel or Airbnb
There’s a sinking feeling you get when your hotel or Airbnb door clicks behind you for the last time and you wonder if there’s anything you forgot. And it’s SO annoying when you get a call or an email from them to let you know that indeed you left something behind. We put together this checklist so we can avoid that unnecessary anxiety and instead move towards our next destination more confidently. TIP: We keep a version of it in a shared folder in our Notes app on our cell phones. This way we each can check things off once an area has been scanned. Sometimes we each do it as a double check. 😉
We talk about all of this in our video, 22 TIPS to AVOID Travel Day STRESS | Full-Time Travel Guide, if you want to watch that as well!
One of our best tips, however, is to do two things consistently:
Give everything a home each time you travel. I have only one place that I keep my earbuds when they’re not in use and that’s inside a small zippered pocket in my backpack. Our laundry sheets always go in an exterior zippered pocket in my rolling suitcase. Our passports are always stored in a specific RFID-safe pocket in Kevin’s backpack. They never get tossed on a counter or left in a pocket or purse. You get the idea.
Always put things away after you use them (e.g., nail file, tweezers, earbuds, jewelry). It’s a lot harder to leave things behind if you’ve always returned them to where they belong. I have a small hinged box that stores my jewelry. When I take off my earrings, they don’t go on a bedside table, they go back into that hinged box. And that hinged box has a specific place where I always store it in my backpack. It makes it so much easier to keep track of things because that will always be the first place I look for it.
We also don’t typically keep things in drawers, in a safe, or use hotel robes, but if you do, that’s fine. I’ve added these items to the checklist below so that you can give yourself a fat checkmark next to those places so that there’s no chance of leaving anything behind. Click the image below or go to the Downloads section of our website where you can print your own version on A4 paper (or print to fit to US letterhead).
If there’s someplace we didn’t remember to check, let us know in the comments! Also, thanks to Heather K. for suggesting we create this resource!
This downloadable checklist is a FREE resource!
