I'm a Dork - My Travel Planning Notebook

Today we're gonna talk about what a dork I am...specifically relating to my list-making tendencies :).

I love notebooks.  I love making lists.  I love writing things down.  I have about a million notebooks.  And even more pens :).  

One of the things I use notebooks/paper for is travel.  Ever since we started traveling regularly (the joys of having family all over the country) I have grabbed whatever notebook was closer and jotted down details and packing lists.  As a result, I have travel info and packing lists everywhere.  This year, in a quest to be more organized, I started a travel notebook.  

I grabbed a set of white Moleskine Volant notebooks to use for this purpose (and another planning notebook, but we'll get into that another time).  While in Texas for Christmas, the ladies took a trip to Michael's and Hobby Lobby where I picked up some travel related stickers, because I'm a dork and wanted to decorate my notebook :).

I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out :). And those Florida themed stickers made me simultaneously extremely happy and homesick :). 

Inside, I have a cover page, followed by a travel bucket list, because why not.

For each trip I use a post-it tab to make them easy to turn to.  I use a couple pages to plan the trip, writing down dates, reservation details, things I want to do, etc.  Then a couple of pages are used for my packing lists, where I write lots of (redundant) lists of outfit ideas, clothes & accessories to pack, what to pack in my toiletry & makeup cases, and what to pack in my carry-on.  You'd think that with as much traveling as I've done the last decade or so I'd have all of this down, but I'm a worrier and am convinced I'll forget something if I don't have a list and can check things off as I go. 

As you can see, I haven't gotten much use out of it this year, but have begun planning our Disney trip, had a trip to Chicago that didn't happen, and a last minute trip to Florida.  Having this system really helped to ease my mind a bit for that trip, though the weather tricked me and I didn't end up packing the best clothes for the trip.  I had everything I needed though, which rarely happens with last minute trips.  (And by last minute I mean I bought my plane ticket the day before - nerve wracking!). 

So, that's my travel notebook :).  I guess it's maybe not that dorky...though may be a little nerdy.  I do feel like a dork putting it out there though :).  Hopefully it continues to work for me!  What do you guys do to keep your travel plans organized? I'd love to hear and planning and/or packing tips you have! 

Thanks for stopping by!