Tidy Tips

Today is the last day prior to the Festive Caribbean cruise disembarking in Miami tomorrow. It’s a day at sea. There’s nothing special on the list of activities … not that we participate in many of them anyway. We are able to easily entertain ourselves … and use these days at sea to recuperate, “physically and mentally,” from the often long run of ports that one enjoys on an Oceania cruise.

I thought I would take advantage of this time at sea to put up some photos that show how we are keeping our Cat B2 veranda stateroom neat and organized. I’ll put my notes here to explain the photos since the caption space is limited. Feel free to just browse the photos and skip the words … after all, what is it they say about the worth of a picture …? 😃

This will be a long footprint. It is primarily designed to provide tips for cruisers of long (really long) itineraries … and those people who opt to not be “minimalists” on such cruises. Feel free to skip it if it is not your cup of tea, so to speak. If interested, read on … and leave a comment with questions or ideas you might wish to share. (No snarky comments about how you might be a minimalist and don’t feel the need for all this stuff, please. It’s OK to have different travel styles.)

Let me first disabuse you of any notion that we travel like this all the time. Nothing could be further from the truth. But when you’re going to be away from home for 209 days — and in one place for the duration — it’s nice to have some of the comforts of home with us … in a tidy, organized fashion! I’m happy to say that we still have space in most of the cabinets and drawers. That, I think, is a good indication that while we brought quite a bit with us, we managed to limit stuff to what we will actually use. Besides, we might need that space for purchases along the way 😊

I previously shared measurements for Cat A stateroom furnishings at this link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2770541-d…. These measurements also work for Cat B staterooms. (The file is too large to upload here.)

(1) Stateroom Entry and Sleeping Area: over-the-door storage cubbies intended for shoes are something we always bring on a cruise. They are perfect for sunglasses, rolled up belts, and any other bits and pieces that can otherwise clutter up drawers. Usually, one is sufficient. On this trip, we have three of them … one of which I am actually using for the intended purpose of storing shoes. We used the hooks that come with the organizer to hang one each on the back of the cabin door and another one on the outside of the bathroom door (there are hooks on the inside of the door, so the outside works better). The one on the wall next to the bed was put up using heavy duty metal hooks on the ceiling. We customized this organizer by cutting out one pocket to maintain access to the thermostat. Hats are hung high on the wall with 3m command hooks since the walls are no longer magnetic.

The insets in the photo show the scarf hanger, which tucks in nicely up against the side wall of the corner shelf/cabinet unit (it is out of the way though it might not seem like it); the magnetic metal mesh pockets we put on the door are great to “grab and go” keycards; a collapsible box from IKEA sits on the nightstand next to Mui’s side of the bed for all the small accoutrements he likes to keep handy. The top drawer of the nightstand is the dispenser for daily meds … hence the removable label that identifies it as such … in case someone else has to come into the cabin to grab the meds for us (in an emergency … God forbid).

(2) Underbed Storage: normally, we use our suitcases for such storage, but that means having to raise the frame to slide the bags out to get to the contents. This time, we purchased inexpensive collapsible, zippered storage boxes from IKEA … which we can reuse at home. They are great to store excess meds, toiletries, cold weather gear (like our parkas and fleece pants for Antarctica), rain gear, and other things that we won’t need to access frequently. Putting them lengthwise under the bed allows us to pull them out using the built in handles. We kept our carry-on bags (which serve as storage for our cameras) and one small suitcase that fits under the bed without having to lift the frame.

(We stuffed the duffels we used for our Luggage Forward shipment in one of the larger suitcases we brought with us. They have since been removed by our steward for storage until we need them back in July. If you plan to do this, leave your embarkation tags with the stateroom number on the bags for easy identification later.)

(3) Collapsible Storage Bench: this one falls under the “best idea category” IMHO. It replaces what was an otherwise useless piece of furniture for us … the coffee table … especially since the post-renovation table’s legs are such that it can’t be tucked under the sofa. We purchased the larger size of the bench (which has three storage sections under the lid) and had it shipped to the pre-cruise hotel, from where Oceania delivered it to our cabin. We considered getting the smaller square ottomans (also collapsible), which we could have fit in the LF shipment, but settled on this 42” long unit because the color matches our guest bedroom at home and we can re-purpose it after the cruise. That the bench serves as a foot/leg rest is a bonus.

(4) Desk: there are two pockets (about 1-1.5 inches deep) built into the side of the desk that are used for Oceania brochures. I re-purposed one of them for my own brochures and booklets. A manila folder fits perfectly in the cubby and is a great way of keeping receipts and such organized.

The second photo in the collage shows how I organized one of the three drawers in the desk. The clear plastic trays were extras from a set I had purchased and work well to keep small stuff together (I have a similar tray in the middle drawer for pens, hi-liters, and such). Ziplock bags keep extra cables from getting all tangled together.

Though not pictured here, there is enough space between the veranda door side panel and the desk for Mui’s snorkel equipment, which is hidden behind the curtain for an uncluttered look.

(5) Under Sofa Shoe Storage: we purchased a couple of inexpensive mud trays from IKEA that fit in the bottom of our LF shipment duffels. The intent was to put three of them under the sofa vertically, but they can’t be pulled out easily with the bench in place, so we used two of the three trays horizontally. This space is perfect for Mui’s shoes, which don’t fit into the over-the-door shoe pockets. (His trail hikers are placed sideways instead of upright.)

Using the trays also makes it easier for the steward to pull them out to vacuum the carpet under the sofa. We’ll be leaving these trays behind so we don’t mind if they get banged up in the process of vacuuming.

(6) Pocket Storage Cubby: this is a new addition to our organizers. The pockets are bigger than the standard organizers, so it is good for larger items, such as bags and high heel shoes. We brought some heavy-duty suction cup hooks we had at home to put it up on the glass panel next to the sofa. The solid fabric backing keep the contents protected from the sun, and the curtain keeps it out of sight. It fits between the window frame so it doesn’t get in the way.

(7) Single Closet Storage: both of these fall under the “best idea category” IMHO. The collapsible fabric shelves are another new addition to our cabin organizers. We use these in guest bedroom closets at home, so we grabbed one to bring with us and cut it down to size to fit in the 38” or so we have available in the small closet … with room for jackets to the side. My folded t-shirts fit perfectly, and there is still space left under the bottom shelf to use the built in closet shelf (below which is the safe and four drawers).

Costume Jewelry Organizer: size-wise, this hanging organizer fits perfectly on the inside of the single closet door … you just need to make sure that the 3M command hook placement doesn’t stop the door from closing properly. The back side of the organizer has clear plastic pockets. I keep that side to the back of the door so that the necklaces hang freely and don’t knock against the door when the motion of the ocean is noticeable. (Any jewelry of real value is in the safe … not that I brought much of that on this cruise.)

(8) Plastic Drawers for the Double Closet: we purchased inexpensive plastic drawers (from Walmart in Miami) to use in the double closet. Packed in a cardboard box, the unit was delivered to the ship during the transfer from the hotel. Two drawers fit perfectly in the available space. Mui’s denims, t-shirts, and other foldable clothes found a home in these drawers. The space left over behind and to the side works perfectly for beach bags, towels, and such.

We took out the bottom drawer from the stack (with the frame intact it still slides in and out, although the top is open) and placed it on the top shelf of the closet. Since he is taller than my 5 foot 1 inches, Mui gets to use that drawer for his swimwear, and tighty whities and socks. The space left over behind and to the side of the drawer is where he stores the few bottles of wine we brought onboard with us.

These drawers, by the way, will be left behind at the end of the cruise for a crew member to use … and if not, to be trashed.

(9) Hangers: first off, we had all the clunky wooden hangers removed from the closet. Velvet hangers (purchased from Costco in Miami) take up much less space. They are also inexpensive enough to leave behind if we don’t have space in our luggage shipment to take them home.

I brought two of the four-clip hangers … perfect for skorts, shorts, capris, and such. Stacked like this, these items don’t take up too much space in the closet. Word to the wise … the metal ones I had at home are rather heavy, so if you decide to use this idea, you might want to look for ones that are sturdy but lighter in weight.

Clips: I set up a mock-up of the cabin closet space on a rack at home, which helped me to visually see how we could fit our hanging clothes into the available space. We purchased from Amazon the grey clips that are designed to work with the velvet hangers, thus doubling our hanging space by hanging bottoms and tops on the same hanger (clip-hanging takes up less space than folding pants over the bar of the hanger). In our case, every hanger has a top and a bottom … regardless of whether we would wear them together or not.

P.S. Someone asked me how many outfits I could make by mixing and matching the clothes I brought. I have no idea … at least a hundred … probably more. One-off pieces that could not be worn multiple ways did not make the cut.

(10) Bathroom: though we have not done this before, we decided to use an over-the-door shoe organizer in the bathroom this time to keep things like manicure sets and other bathroom type stuff organized. We customized the length of one of the cheap organizers we had at home by cutting off a couple of the bottom rows, hung the organizer from the ceiling with heavy duty metal hooks and used 3M command strip Velcro to tuck the bottom against the wall so it doesn’t sway out.

I prefer not to put my toiletries in the medicine cabinet that doubles as the mirror since keeping the door open to get to things dims the light too much. Instead, I use the two side ledges for my day-to-day make-up stuff. A clear plastic tray (inset) keeps things from sliding off the ledges (with non-skid liner under it all. There’s still space behind the plastic tray to place items like foundation, make up mirror, etc. The medicine cabinet, which has three shelves, has extra toiletries, Mui’s shaving stuff, our toothbrushes, etc. (the space between the shelves is high enough to accommodate our electric toothbrush sitting on the charger, plugged into the outlet inside the cabinet with a lay-flat-adapter.)

(11) Clip-On Light: this is a tip for those who share a cabin with a partner on a different sleep schedule. (Yes, Mui and I are both early birds, but I tend to stay up later at night.) Since I do most of my writing after Mui goes to bed, the clip-on light allows me to turn off the lights while giving me enough illumination to see the keyboard. This works for reading, too.

And there you have it … our tidy ideas. Do you have other ideas? As I noted above, leave a comment, and if you are not a “follower” add your name if you so choose.Baca selengkapnya