If you frequently leave behind items while staying at a hotel, simply tie a bright ribbon around your important possessions. It’s as easy as that. The use of a brightly coloured ribbon is easy and inexpensive yet remarkably effective as a reminder to collect your items when leaving the hotel.
You are checking out of your hotel, your suitcase laying opened with clothes folded (if even), your phone charging somewhere and your mind is already at the airport. The rushing around makes it all too easy for smaller items like chargers, jewellery, medication, earbuds, and, if you really lose your focus, even your passport to disappear behind the larger and more obvious items like clothing and suitcases.
A majority of people forget things in hotels more often than they would like to admit. Most people think about the obvious when it comes to packing for their trip – their luggage and what clothes they will wear – but it is the smaller items that get left behind on nightstands, bathroom counters or desks.
According to travel expert Jamie, an excellent method to avoid leaving personal possessions behind is to tie brightly coloured ribbons onto personal items which you absolutely cannot forget. For example, tie a brightly coloured ribbon to your toiletry bag, camera case, tech pouch, or any other item that may look similar to the various hotel furniture pieces in your room.
In an all-neutral hotel room, the majority of items blend into the background when you first enter. But when an item is neon pink, electric green, or bright orange? You won’t be able to miss them; you’ll see them immediately. These bright colored items work like visual triggers to help you remember where you left everything during the last few seconds of a room inspection.
Instead of trying to remember where you’ve left everything (which can get lost in the shuffle if you’re in a hurry), think about how visible everything is when you walk into the room.
As soon as you get to your room and begin unpacking, use the ribbon to mark the things you take out of your suitcase – start as soon as you get there. You can even do this before checking out of the hotel. The sooner you mark the items you take out of your suitcase, the easier it will be when you’re done.
The larger the hotel room (and/or suite), the easier it will be to use this strategy. The larger the room, the more surfaces there are. The more surfaces there are, the greater chance you have of losing your items. For example, a charger might end up by the bed, a watch on the sink, and a tablet on the desk.
Without a visual cue, your items would simply become lost in the space.
Your ribbon is your spotlight!
Travel with Family—Use Ribbon to Color Code Your Luggage!
Create a ribbon color scheme for each family member. For example: blue for one suitcase; red for another suitcase; yellow for all the kids’ bags. Not only will color coding prevent you from leaving items behind, but it will also…
Prevent mix-ups when it comes to repacking everything!
Ribbons also come in handy during frantic family checkouts, when everyone swears they packed ‘everything’.
The reason this trick is so powerful is because it’s simple – no apps, no reminders, no expensive gadgets. Just a piece of yarn or bright fabric, tied at the right time!
Most of the time people make travel mistakes because they over-think things. They think they will remember, or they will do a quick sweep of the room. But the color scheme means you don’t have to think about anything; you just follow the colors.
So pack a few brightly colored ribbons in your suitcase the next time you take a trip. They are lightweight and inexpensive, and you’ll be glad you did when you discover you left something behind at the airport!
And if you have ever needed to call a hotel to have someone ship back something you forgot, you know that a tiny ribbon is much easier than international shipping fees!
