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How to Create a Family Travel File
By Polly | June 10, 2008
A family with purpose is a family who strives to manage and balance their lives and who work diligently to prevent their lives from being controlled by outside factors. A family with purpose sets priorities and lives their lives accordingly.
You are thumbing through a magazine and find an article on a really neat fun place to vacation, or you are surfing the net and stumble on an incredibly fantastic resort. So you either rip the page out of the magazine or bookmark the webpage. The magazine page gets filed away in some drawer and the webpage gets added to the already thousand bookmarks you have created. A couple years later while cleaning out drawers or cleaning up your computer you find them and say “oh yeah, I forgot about this place.”
Does this sound familiar? If so, then maybe a family travel file will help. Organized by destination, a family travel file helps families keep track of all the information they pick up and want to save on either a vacation spot they visit frequently or a new place they may want to try. Here is how you create one for your family.
Things You Will Need
A working knowledge of your browser’s bookmark or favorites feature
How to Create
First decide if you want to keep both an electronic and paper based system. Since so much information comes to us over the internet it is helpful to have both versions, but if you prefer to keep everything in one place stick with the paper system for now.
If you already have a paper file started with information, begin by sorting through that file. Toss the things you don’t want or need anymore and save the things you want to keep. Once you have weeded this file out, sort all of the information by destination and put all of the literature you have for each destination into one pile. Once you have this done, you will have the titles for each of your tab dividers. Simply write in the destination’s name on each tab divider and place all of the literature you have for each destination in one of the three hole punched file folders and place the tab divider with the file folder immediately behind it in your three ring binder. If you only have one or two pieces of information on a certain place and not sure you want to make it a separate tab in your binder, simply create a tab and title it “Maybe Someday” or “Possibilities”. Be sure to have some extra dividers and file folders, so you can easily add to your travel file in the future. Also consider creating a “Useful Resources” tab to collect any website addresses or general travel information you want to keep.
If you are creating an electronic version as well, the process is very similar. Begin by creating a Travel folder in your favorites or bookmarks. In Windows Explorer you do this by clicking on Favorites, selecting Organize Favorites, Select New Folder, Type in Travel, and hit Close when you are done. In Firefox, you do essentially the same thing, but using the Bookmark feature rather than the Favorites feature. Next, start by going through your current bookmarks or favorites and if it is travel related and you want to keep it, save it to your family travel file. Once you have gone through everything, begin sorting everything in your travel folder by destination similar to what was done with the paper version.
If you only want to keep a paper version, skip setting up the Travel folder in your Favorites. Simply go through you current bookmarks and printout any information you want to keep and place it in your paper folder.
How to Use Your Family Travel File
Once you have everything set up it just becomes a matter of maintaining and using the information. Here are some tips to help you make the most of your Family Travel File:
Have it handy while planning your family vacation. Use the information you have saved to create your itineraries and plans.
While vacationing, remember to save brochures, menus, and flyers of places you want to visit again. When you get home you can simply add them to your travel file.
If you vacation to the same spot frequently, keep any notes on costs, budgets, and travel items in your file.
Continue to tear out important information from the magazines or newspapers and just save it in your file. Do the same thing with any new ideas or information you come across on the web. Simply save it to your electronic travel file or print it out for your paper based system.
Good luck!
Related Entries:
How to Keep Track Of and Organize Family Activity Ideas
Travel Printables
Planning Your Next Family Outing
Family Travel Goals
Family Vacation Jar
Topics: Conquering the Chaos, Family Organized, Family Travel Tips, Family Vacations, Home Organizing Tips, Organize Clutter |
September 24th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
[...] your family outings and activities or when looking for some new family night ideas. Similar to a family travel file, a family activity file can make planning a family outing or finding a new idea a lot easier by [...]