We have been traveling the Sunshine State for a couple of years now. One of the things we have developed is a Travel basket.

As we have gone from place to place it became quickly apparent that there were some things that we needed to bring along to make certain we were well prepared for our overnight stays.

We decided that a basket was the perfect place to keep things organized.

Our travel basket

What goes in our Basket

   Over the course of time we have developed a collection of gadgets. Our travel basket is packed with items that allow us to have all our creature comforts and safety devices at hand.  

Lighting

  The first thing is lighting. When we stay in a motel or hotel room, it can be disconcerting – especially when we are on the road for a couple of nights. The rooms have different layouts and coming to bed in the dark can be a challenge. In fact, waking up in the middle of the night is even worse because we’re just not thinking straight.

   While some places have a night light of some sort or another, other places do not. We found a wonderful little night light at the dollar store. Ours has a light sensor in it, so it comes on automatically when the lights go off. There always is a plug in the bathroom alcove and it provides just enough illumination to ward off falls, stubbed toes and the like.

Our night light, has a light sensor on the front – for just a buck.

  Our bag also has a small tactical flashlight which we keep at the bedside in case of an electrical failure.

Not Enough Sockets

  Making sure there are enough electrical outlets also can be a challenge. We generally have a laptop, phone charger,  and other power source needs for which some rooms are not equipped. Therefore, we carry a multi-plug to make certain we have enough outlets for our devices.

  At first we carried a simple 3-bay plug (another dollar store find). Later, we found a 6-bay model which also has four USB plugs for recharging our phones and other devices. This has turned out to be particularly handy inasmuch as most motel rooms are under-USB equipped.

An Aromatic and Decontaminated Room

  Another item we carry is a diffuser. This serves a number of purposes. Depending upon the kind of essential oils we use, it can detoxify the room, create a more calm and relaxing atmosphere, and simply make the room smell better.   Our travel diffuser is one we found on sale. It is a smaller model which is quite sturdy and is easy to assemble.

The URPOWER diffuser is a handy addition to our travel kit

  To run our diffuser, we usually carry some purified water. This not only makes for better operation of our diffuser, but the balance can be used in the coffee maker in the morning. You would be surprised how much better your coffee or tea will taste when you do not have to rely on the tap water in the room.

What Time Is It

  At home we have become spoiled with a clock that projects the time on the ceiling. You don’t have to break your neck or wake your partner to see the time. The nice thing about this model is that you can set it virtually anywhere in the room, project the image over the bed, and rotate the numbers so they are right side up overhead.

Other Things We Have

  We also have a couple of coolers that we take. They plug into the cigarette lighter adapter in the car and can be set to cool or warm food. They also have a 110 volt adapter so we can use them in the motel room in the event the motel does not have a refrigerator.  

Security

Finally, there is security. There are a number of precautionary measures we take and we won’t list them all here. But one little item we found has given us a great deal of solace. It is an alarm wedge we place under the door, If it is disturbed, it sets off an alarm that alerts us that there is a problem and we can respond accordingly.

  There’s also a variety of other items that we carry like extra charging cables for our phones, a multi-tool with pliers, blades, screwdrivers and the like. It all stays in the bag and is pretty much ready to go each time we leave.

  This might sound like quite a lot but it is not. We carry all these items in a converted picnic basket that comes along on our trips. Most of the items remain undisturbed from trip to trip so all we have to do is open, scan, close it and go.

  You can read about all these items and more in our “gadgets” section.

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