Preparing for a trip is always one of the most stressful things on my to do list. Most of the trips I take are incredibly short (thanks to America’s shitty paid leave policies) so I never take additional time off of work before or after trips in order to prepare or recover.
No joke. Half the time I travel, I leave straight from work for the airport, and on more than one occasion, I’ve gone straight from O’Hare to my office in order to make it to my shift on time.
So, doing everything I can ahead of time in order to fully prepare not only for my trip, but also for my return, is absolutely crucial.
I keep a folder in my iPhone/MacBook’s “Notes” app for traveling. I have a “master” note that I duplicate, and then modify to customize for every trip I take. My master note has two sections: preparation and packing, but I’m going to focus on the preparation part of it today.
The preparation list has two sections: General and international-specific.
If I’m going on a domestic trip, I delete the international-specific part of the list from my duplicated trip-specific note. If I’m going abroad, I leave it. Make sense?
So, here are the things I do to prepare for every trip I take.
- Clean my apartment. There’s nothing worse than coming home from a trip to a messy and smelly apartment. I always try to give my apartment a full top-to-bottom cleaning, but if I don’t have time, I do the bare minimum: Cleaning the dishes, wiping down my counters and bathroom surfaces, taking out the trash and cleaning out my refrigerator — coming home to expired and rotting food is disgusting.
- Water my plants. Luckily, because my trips are short, my babies are always fine when I head out of town, as long as I water them all right before I leave.
- Laundry. I do laundry a few days before I leave, just to make sure all the clothes I plan on packing are clean and I don’t have any sweaty yoga clothes piling up in my closet, but I’m also not a stickler about having an empty laundry basket when I board my plane. I mean, I’m gonna do laundry as soon as I get back anyway, so I never stress too much about having it all done before I leave.
- Refill my travel liquids. I keep my Travelon toiletry kit packed and at-the-ready in my bathroom, so I always do a quick inventory check to make sure everything’s still full. There’s nothing worse than going to shower in a hostel overseas and realizing that you packed a completely empty bottle of soap because you forgot to refill it after your last trip.
- Charge my devices. I have a lot of them! iPhone(s), MacBook(s), noise-canceling headphones, a Kindle, external battery packs — I plug them all in and fully charge them the night before my flight.
- Download offline maps. Even if I’m going on a domestic trip, I’ll still download offline Google Maps to my phone. Sometimes airports have bad cellphone service, and it’s just one less thing to stress out about if you know your Google Maps app is going to load regardless.
- Flight check-in. To be honest I’m such a nerd that I never have to set a reminder to remember to do this because I’m always so eager and excited for my trip that I’m counting down minutes until I can click the “check in” button.
- Set an OOO message and update my Slack status. Not only as a #humblebrag, but also so that nobody emails me and expects a response while I’m out of office — especially if I’m abroad and with poor cellphone reception.
- Send my itinerary to my parents. I always forward flight confirmation emails and hostel contact information to my parents, in addition to the contact information of friends if I’m traveling with them (which, tbh, I’m probably not). I also share my location with my sister’s iPhone as an extra precaution.
And, if I’m traveling to an international location, here’s what I do on top of the above list:
- Log my trip with STEP. I’ll always make note of all my foreign travels with the U.S. Embassy. It takes three seconds to do and is a great precaution — especially if you’re traveling alone, which is my preferred way to travel.
- Set alerts on my bank cards. There’s nothing worse than needing cash abroad and finding out your bank card was flagged for fraud and shut off because you didn’t notify your financial institution you were traveling.
- Exchange my currency. While I’ll wait and get the bulk of my foreign cash from ATMs in the country I’m traveling in for the best exchange rates, I’ll still suck it up and pay the extra fees just to get a little bit of cash ($40-$50 worth) in advance, just in case. I’m always terrified I’ll arrive somewhere foreign, need a cash-only cab, and not have access to an ATM right away. (Right now, I usually just get a bit of money from Travelex at North Bridge in Chicago — but if you know of anywhere cheaper/ more convenient, please tell me!)
- Create a copy of my passport. My parents both have copies of the ID page — and I have one saved to my iCloud account as well — but I also always travel with a paper copy of my passport, just in case. I store this in a separate bag or pocket, away from my actual passport.
- Double-check that my phone is activated for foreign travel. I have Verizon so I use TravelPass, which stays active once it’s activated for the first time. But, it’s always good to double-check!
So, there it is! The big big list of all the crap I do in advance to make my trip — and the inevitable return — go as smoothly as possible.
What are some of the things you do to prepare for a trip? LMK in the comments!