How to Use Travel Organizers for Perfect Packing

Traveling before you have children is a breeze; in many cases, you can simply toss your stuff in a suitcase and hit the road at a moment’s notice for a weekend trip with your friends. 

While traveling may be just as rewarding—if not more so—when you have a child or children, packing for your trip can be more challenging when you have your little one in tow.

From prized stuffed animals to diapers to white noise machines, packing for a trip with your kid or kids often means bringing a whole lot more gear and trying to keep it organized and easy to find along the way.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to keep everything you need easily accessible when you need it: a travel organizer.

What are travel luggage organizers?

A travel organizer—often referred to as a travel bag organizer—is a handy way for your essentials to fit perfectly inside a larger bag, like a backpack, purse, or suitcase.

The Petunia Pickle Bottom Inter-Mix system is a prime example of a kid-friendly travel organizer which includes stackable packing containers called packing cubes to help you sort your items.  Using packing cubes, you can stay neat, organized and make sure everything is easy to find.

Better yet, all of the component parts of the Inter-Mix system fit within Petunia Pickle Bottom’s stylish caddies and bags.

What should I consider when choosing a travel organizer?

Before you purchase a travel organizer, it’s important to be clear about exactly what you’ll be using it for. If you’re bringing snacks or drinks along with you on your next adventure, you’ll definitely want to have an insulated packing cube, like the Cool Pixel or Cool Pixel plus on hand. 

If your next outing will keep you closer to home—like a trip to the park, for instance—you may want to use the Inter-Mix Deluxe System instead. 

This set of packing cubes includes a caddy, which can easily strap onto your stroller’s handle, making it easy to keep essentials like pacifiers, diapers, wipes, tissues, and stuffies accessible without digging through an oversized purse. 

And once you return home, all those must-haves are still in one place, ready to be put back on a shelf or into a drawer.

If you plan to be out for longer, the Pixels conveniently fit into Petunia Pickle Bottom’s stylish backpacks, like the Inter-Mix Backpack (which, in addition to backpack straps, has shoulder straps so it can be carried like a purse), the Inter-Mix Slope Backpack (a sleek carryall with a low profile), or the Inter-Mix Axis Backpack (a color-blocked backpack with an insulated lower pocket, a wipeable exterior, and both stylish rose gold-colored accents and leatherette trim).

"We recently took our new Axis Backpack on a trip to Disney World. First, there are the perfect amount of pockets and storage. Spacious, yet not bulky. Next, combined with the inter-mix deluxe kit, you can organize and separate out all of your goodies in the bottom compartment of the pack. When not using the inter-mix kit, you can also fit a few pairs of shoes in the bottom compartment for weekend travel. Lastly, the matching rose gold stroller clips are a must. it was SO SLICK to hang the pack from our stroller handle instead of killing our back all day long in the Disney parks. Highly recommend this backpack!" says a parent from Woodberry, MN.

If you’re looking for a great way to carry your essentials without using a backpack, there’s also the Inter-Mix Live for the Weekender Travel Bag. 

Roomy enough to pack all of your little one’s essentials—including those packed in Pixels—for a weekend trip and stylish enough to wear when you’re venturing out solo, this practical bag is easy to clean, has a water-resistant interior, has a front zippered pocket and large interior pocket, and even comes with a trolley sleeve, making it super-easy to attach to your suitcase when you’ve got your hands (or arms) full.

How should I use my travel bag organizers?

While every family will have different uses for their travel cubes, which can range from carry on luggage to a shoe bag organizer.  Its primary purpose is to keep all of your essentials neat and organized.

Here are some of the best uses for travel bag organizers:

Keeping baby or kid essentials contained: 

Keeping your little one’s must-haves handy is the primary incentive to invest in the Inter-Mix system for many parents. However, these genius packing cubes do more than just keep their things organized—the insulated Cool Pixels will ensure that snacks stay cold and the zippered cube organizers are perfect for ensuring that their pacifiers and teething toys stay clean and lint-free in your bag.

Storing jewelry: 

There are few things more frustrating than arriving at your destination only to realize that your jewelry has ended up hopelessly tangled—or worse yet, broken—from being thrown haphazardly in your bag. While bringing along a full jewelry box may be overkill, it’s important to keep those prized baubles stored safely. Luckily, the lightly padded Inter-Mix packing cubes are perfect for keeping your jewelry protected while you’re on the road.

Protecting small electronics:

If you’re bringing portable chargers, cameras, night lights, or other small electronics along with you on your trip, you definitely want to store them with appropriate care so they’ll arrive both functional and in one piece.

With the Inter-Mix system, you can protect and organize your electronics without lugging along bulky cases or other protective gear that will take up tons of room in your suitcase.

Storing makeup and other personal care products: 

If you regularly wear makeup, odds are you typically put your beauty personal care in a toiletries bag.  Unfortunately, most bags have just one compartment, meaning your brushes, foundation, eye shadow, bronzer, shampoo, toothbrush, razor and other grooming essentials are all jumbled together.

In the best-case scenario, this makes important products difficult to find. In the worst-case scenario, it can mean that when a single product breaks, it gets on everything else in your bag, leaving you with a major mess to clean up. However, if you have those products grouped together—and well protected—in your Inter-Mix packing cubes, you won’t have to worry about making an upsetting discovery about the state of those essentials upon arrival.

Organizing games and crafts:

With the Inter-Mix system, you can easily keep your kids entertained for hours by packing different toys in different cubes and giving them to your kiddos one at a time. 

Pack a puzzle in one cube, a notepad and some crayons in another, put a deck of cards in another cube, and keep their magnetic tiles organized in yet another one. Not only will this ensure those prized items don’t get lost, but it’s also a great way to keep your children entertained for hours—and eager to find out which game comes next.

Packing clothes: 

The Petunia Mid and Max Pixels are perfect for organizing individual outfits or clothing pieces. For Inter-Mix cubes are the perfect size to pack your kids’ individual outfits so that you can have one ready for each day of your trip. 

This will mean it’s easy to bring a change of clothes with you by grabbing a packing cube and popping it in your stroller, backpack, or purse.

Had a messy afternoon? Put the dirty clothes back into your packing cub or pixel to keep them separate from the clean clothing in your suitcase. 

Whether you’re heading out to the park with your toddler or have a long family vacation planned, practically everyone could use more organization in their life.

With the Inter-Mix system of pixels, caddies, backpacks, and weekender bags, you can keep all of your essentials neat, organized, and easy to reach, making any trip easier and less stressful for the whole family.

Additional Resources:

• 5 Essentials Every Parent Needs When Traveling with Toddlers 
• 5 Genius Tips That Make Traveling with a Newborn a Breeze

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