Good Ideas + Beautiful Objects: The Hotel Room Edition
The resort may be five-star, but it’s how you live in the space that makes all the difference...
Feeling put-together while on vacation or during work travel is under-rated—and a little more elusive than most of us think.
All travel is mildly stressful. A small stack of unfamiliarities and inconveniences can stack up to chaos quickly when you’re off your sleep schedule in a new space—no matter how luxurious or tropical.
While traveling, being immersed in a good aesthetic is half the fun for me. The resort may be five-star, but it’s how I live in the space that makes all the difference.
A note: as Joan Crawford-adjacent as a few of these tips may read, the goal here is not obsessive perfection—it’s about maxing out the mood on a stay that you’re probably paying through the nose to enjoy!
If you’re unapologetically intentional in your efforts to curate vacation looks, resort stays, or even successful work trip itineraries, these little hacks are for you. If you’re the type who needs to go completely feral on vacation, that’s okay too—in fact, most of these tips are really simple to put in play while still going full Jell-o-brain.
Final thought before jumping in: recent studies show that visual clutter is a significant stressor—one that disproportionately affects women! Disorganization spikes levels of the stress hormone cortisol, leading to heightened anxiety, cognitive overload, sleep disruption, and decreased life satisfaction.
Continue reading at your own risk, my B-type friends…
The Suite Is Pretty—Don’t Ruin It.
The photos of your dream destination and it’s best suite are free from the chaos of your shopping habits.
Consider packing things that won’t terrorize the terroir.
How? Shop and pack with restraint.
In fact, I have a theory: The more bored you are when you shop, the better your style becomes.
Why? Objects don’t live in a vacuum. Just like the beautiful suite you booked, a good aesthic requires layers of cohesive elements.
If you’re a fun—but unstrategic—shopper, your natural inclination may be to pick the most fun products from the menu in the moment. You select a dress, a piece of luggage, pajamas, a water bottle—all within the context of the options available while shopping. A fun way to shop, for sure—but a poor way to curate the final results once all those objects animate your life.
I’m not suggesting that you buy everything in beige and white (I mean, maybe…). I’m not even suggesting that you go full minimal, maybe you’re a maximalist and want to mix prints—even that takes thought and care.
All I’m pushing for is a pause: consider the way the pieces you’re shopping for will come together. Not every item should pull focus or you’ll look like a slob you may kill your own travel vibe.
Again, it’s not about maddening perfectionism—just a little strategic planning.
Become a more boring shopper and watch the style of your home and wardrobe rise through the roof.
Everything In It’s Place: A Good Catch-All
Leather Merino Catch-All $72 | African Woven Bowl $35 | Round Leather Tray $62
By nature, hotel rooms are already clean and clutter-free, right? No stacks of books on the nightstand, no paperwork on the credenza—so why would you need a tray, dish or bowl for keys and other necessities?
You know why—it’s that pre-pool, pre-dinner, pre-meeting scramble for the missing card key/lip gloss/sunglasses—the ones that you swear you placed on the entry table.
No matter how meticulously organized you may be at home, you have no built-in habits in this space—all bets are off.
Pack along one little item for a guaranteed 15% improvement to hotel life: the catch-all.
Weirdly useful, easier to pack than you might think—and incredibly calming for A Types:
Toss a tray on the bedroom or entryway credenza and dump your keys, sunglasses, earrings, or etc. there every time. Leaving the room becomes as elegant an endeavor as your well-planned linen set.
Negate that low-key stress you feel when you set a piece of jewelry on a nightstand, wondering if you’ll remember where you’ve placed it in the morning. A little bowl like the one above on your nightstand will keep things from rolling around on an odd table or—worse—the bedside floor.
I’m not a germ freak, but none of us can afford to think too much about how many people have stayed in a room before us. I have a habit of plugging my phone in bedside on the floor (not on the table near my head all night.) I’d never put anything that touches my face on the floor next to a hotel room bed, so—throw it in a catch-all.
These trays and bowls are also great buffers for the annoyance of living out of luggage. If you’re planning elite vacation outfits or have an early morning meeting, use one to set out accessories or materials you know you’ll want first thing, instead of rummaging around in bags.
The perfect catch-all is light to pack and hard to break. You might be surprised how easily a shallow leather or fabric bowl, tray or dish packs right in amongst your clothing.
Pack Silk Pillowcases + Bamboo Face Towels
You pack your full skincare routine.
You bear the mild social insult of an in-flight sheet mask.
Yet, when you reach your destination, you’re washing it all away and laying that face down with fragranced or bleached towels and sheets.
As someone with sensitive skin, this hack took me a minute to figure out—honestly, it just seemed a little too extra to think about.
But what’s the point of a private pool suite in a private pool suit, if your skin is reacting to the property’s conventional cleaning supplies?
Hotel towels and sheets can be varying degrees of irritating and there are two easy ways around this:
BYO-Pillowcase—preferably satin or silk. Throw an extra pillowcase or two in your luggage and swap them out when you arrive. Your skin will thank you, especially if you plan on late nights or long mornings in bed. These satin cases from Kitsch are pretty affordable.
Bamboo cleansing cloths. I’m not a fan of the disposable face cloth trend in general—too much unnecessary waste. But, while traveling, it could be worth it. Bamboo is the sustainable choice, and a set of these could save you a lot of irritation from hotel face towels.
In-Room Beauty—Without Breaking Down
Pre-party micro-break-downs? They can happen to the best of us, especially if you’re on a girl’s trip.
When my nerves are on the brink, nothing irritates me more than a hot tool cord coiling the wrong way or dipping across a wet countertop.
Compact Ceramic Curling Iron This favorite new find recently came to me from the MOMA Store—a beloved resource to be sure, but an unexpected place to find beauty supplies (especially as this is a brand exclusive).
This curling iron is cordless and charges for a good amount of time from a USB-C cable. Why does this matter? If you’re getting ready with more than one person, you can do your hair anywhere—outside, in bed, maybe even in the pool. Cutting the cord means you’re not fighting for bathroom mirror real estate and just make life a little bit easier.
Sheet masks in the mini fridge. Not enough hotels are stocking sheet masks in the mini bar—they could make a fortune off of us. Pack a few of these along and use them before nights out and especially after a day in the sun. A few favorites lately:
Biotherm Life Plankton Essence-In-Mask - Expensive, but elite. I found these in the process of doing some scientific ‘burn victim recovery’ research (I won’t explain more). “Biotech Plankton is infused at its highest concentration for intense skin regeneration and professional treatment-like results.” Yes.
Another brand I found in that process: Repechage Vita Cura B3 Lifting Mask. This mask is less about sun recovery and more about creating an instant lift when you’re jet lagged or exhausted before a big night out.
100% Pure Matcha Green Tea Antioxidant Hydrogel Mask - Super-affordable and well made. All the benefits of green tea, plus aloe and cooling, calming herbs.Memorable occassion perfume - One of my best friends used to buy new perfumes for every important trip—most notably her honeymoon. I think it’s a great idea. Scent is so closely linked with memory. Now, you’ll be able to spritz something from Heretic or etc. on during a rainy week and conjuring up memories of that week in Paris. I’m eyeballing this fig scent lately.
Packing Cubes + Giant Envelopes
Use packing cubes in-room too. Packing cubes aren’t just for your luggage. They can also corral an explosion of unused outfit options, laundry, and—to be real—your travel partner’s chaos (with light suggestion). My ‘fluffy robe with room service in bed’ fantasies are quickly deflated if the room look like the inside of a closet.
Giant envelopes to wrangle on-going documents. No matter how digital your travel documents are, inevitably, important little papers stack up when traveling—copies of bills, menus, flyers, memorabilia. Having a giant envelope to tuck it all in means you can access them with ease, know where important things are when you need them (unmixed with the random in-room paraphernalia)—and your passes and tickets don’t accidentally become late night coasters.
Can you travel without this? Of course! But will you avert a few silly arguments and suppress needless cortisol spikes just because you remember to pack one? Probably.
I literally wrote a full story on this last year: Leather Envelopes For The Thrill of Travel Organization. (So sad that the blue Khaite pouch sold out.)
I love a real paper envelope like this, a leather envelope like the one above, or even a thin laptop sleeve.
Silk Scarves + Pareos Cover A Lot of Sins
A special mention for scarves of all sizes.
I like a huge top handle bag in the every day, and it’s usually stuffed to the gills with god knows what. I stuff a scarf in last. Is anyone super-curious about what’s in my bag? No! But I like to keep it that way and throwing a light scarf on top works.
Same goes for luggage (and pool totes): if you’re going to keep some or all of your things in your luggage in a closet or on a rack, just cover it all with a scarf—it’s completely effortless, but hides the “cognitive overload”.
If you really want to be efficient about things, you could also use a pareo to drape over luggage early in the trip, then wear it to the beach or pool: this Sea Urchin Pareo in block print is a favorite. I love, love, love it as a mini skirt.
For bags, smaller silk bandanas are great: I love Chan Luu and Ozma’s 1930’s bandanas (shown above).
A Travel Speaker.
I’ve never regretted packing one—and I love this one.
The In-Room Supplement Stash
My in-room supplement stash for travel and vacations invariably includes: astaxanthin for suncare, charcoal for any wine-soaked dinners, HCL for after sushi or questionable travel foods, and plenty of immune boosters like this liposomal vitamin C.
I don’t skip my usual supplement routine on vacation either, if anything I like to super-charge it so I feel my best.
What did I miss? Tell me in the comments if you have an addition or which of these you end up trying…