5 Ways to Organize and Relive your Travel Memories during Quarantine

On an average year I am travel at least once a month and without fail I return home with every museum brochure, city map, and receipt. COVID-19 abruptly stopped all travel and in turn stirred up a lot of emotions for me. There is a lot that I about travel, I miss the mixture of excitement and nerves instantly sparked after landing in a new country. I miss how a casual conversation at a coffee shop can lead to an amazing restaurant recommendation. I think I even miss waiting in an airport security line.

After several weeks at home, I decided to use this time as an opportunity to relive my travel memories AND conquer piles of travel ‘papers’ that I’ve expertly stashed away in my studio apartment. I admit it has taken me awhile, but I truly don’t need to keep every single airline ticket. I decided to only keep the items with the most memories of an experience or place. Here are my top 5 tips to organize, display, and collect your travel memories during quarantine:

1. Pick one souvenir to collect – At the start of my traveling career, my uncle shared an idea to collect a magnet from every place I visit. In return I would have a decorated refrigerator covered in memories visible each and every day. I am thankful for this advice as now I may be the owner of the world’s largest OCD travel magnet collection. Every magnet in my collection is similar in size and shape. Souvenir collections don’t need to be as structured as mine, but I do recommend you choose your souvenir wisely. I know many people with expansive coffee mug collections who are running out of storage space! Not to mention you also have to carry your souvenirs with you while traveling. Magnets, stickers, and postcards are small and easy to transport. Choose an item you will love and isn’t a burden to carry around while traveling.
2. Commit or don’t commit to scrapbooking – For some reason scrapbooks and travel go hand in hand. It’s understandable, an organized book of photos, tickets, and maps is a great way to reflect on travel memories and an easy storage solution for travel papers. I admit, I am lacking the scrapbooking gene, but I have a creative alternative: Create an overall travel scrapbook where you devote only 1-2 pages of the book per trip. I find it manageable to select a few items and photos from a trip to add to my scrapbook in 10 minutes or less. Having one book with years of travel memories is a cherished item, I keep mine as a coffee table book and look through it frequently.
3. Organize your photos – We take many photos while traveling. It can be overwhelming and daunting to attempt to go through them. My biggest tip is to use Google Photos. Sign up for a free account and use it to store your travel photos in the cloud. The app organizes your photos for you and makes them keyword searchable, easy to share with friends and family, and deletes unwanted photos from your gallery. You can also search by location if you have location enabled on your Google account. Keeping your photos backed up in the cloud also puts your mind at ease. If you own a Google Pixel, Google Photos will store all of your photos, at the maximum resolution, free of charge.
4. Print out your photos – I am guilty of keeping travel photos saved on my phone or camera for years. Taking a few minutes to print, get a frame and display your photos as art is unbelievably rewarding.
5. Start a travel blog – No really, writing a blog or using social media is a perfect way to capture and share your travel memories. We are utilizing our time in quarantine to organize our travel memories online and updating our blog. I value our blog and Instagram as it’s a great way to look back on special moments and share them with our community.