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Hotels are home away from home. They are beautiful structures which are erected for comfort. A lot of people book hotel rooms for recreation, fun, business meetings among other things. The services a hotel provides are so mouth-watering that some rich tycoons spend most of their days in the confines of hotels instead of buying houses to live in. In simple terms, hotels are paid lodgings mostly on a short term basis.
It should not come as a surprise that even the most frequent customer at a hotel can forget their most valuable items at a hotel. If you are a regular victim of this situation, don’t beat yourself up, you are not the first and you certainly would not be the last person to forget valuable items at a hotel. There are some items which are frequently left behind in our hurry to leave the hotel after a long weekend of fun or business. Below are some compiled lists of items which hotel customers frequently leave behind at the “home away from home”.
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Underwear
This might sound ridiculous right? These are like the most private of private items which we wear under our clothes. Yet, it should not be a thing of shock that some people actually forget their underwear in hotel wardrobes without noticing. Some under-wears are usually very small items which could be easily missed while packing up for any journey. Some people who have the habit of washing their underwear immediately after use might forget them on the line in the bathroom while they leave it to dry off. This raises the rhetorical question ‘why’ in our minds. It could be because they were in a hurry while packing or the under-wears were too many that the owner did not even notice that a ‘blue thong’ is missing. Whichever the reason might be, it would be very appealing not to forget the underwear at all. They are very small but essential items which would be painfully missed if they are gone. As such, it is worth picking up no matter the rush.
Tip to Remember: Even if you are in a crazy rush at the time you are about to leave the hotel, it is advisable for you to always have your underwear box neatly packed at all times. Do not wait until you are about to exit the building before packing it up. Try to keep them in one place immediately after use. In addition, before you leave the room, take a step backwards into the bathroom to check around carefully for any washed underwear. By doing this, you would be able to pick every bit and pieces before saying a beautiful goodbye to the hotel.
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Wallets
Those little purses which we slide into our back pockets or handbags are so vital to our existence. They contain most of our important materials like our credit cards, identification cards, passports, condoms, money, keys and even some of our anxiety pills which we need to take at intervals. When one forgets them, it usually feels like we lost our pets to a dreadful disease. As important as they are, they are also very easy to forget because they can be dropped on the hotel tables or even under the bed after returning from a late night drink with the boys. The funny thing about wallets is that unlike cellphones, they do not have ringtones which can be heard when one tries to find them. We cannot put a call through to our wallets like our cellphones. Hence, it usually drives us insane when searching for them.
Tip to Remember: The simplest thing to do is to always have the wallets close to us whenever and wherever we go. It won’t be a bad idea to also place it on our bedside table whenever we take them out of our pockets. While packing up to leave the hotel, make it a habit to always pick up your wallet last. Let it be the last thing you would pick up from the bedside table and put it in your clothe pocket or your bag. That way, you won’t have to scatter your neatly packed travel bag in a bid to search for a tiny wallet.
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Jewelries
These are priced possessions. An adage would say, “If you want to get on a woman’s nerve, steal her jewelry box.” This no longer applies to only women because even men own very expensive jewelries these days. Some can be so expensive that if they go missing, the owner might have a heart attack. Not all jewelry is big enough to find easily if it goes missing. This brings to memory a Bollywood movie where the lady refused to travel back to her country because her diamond engagement ring went missing. She wouldn’t give the tour guide a break until the ring was found. After severally searching inside the hotel room and different places she had visited, it turns out that the ring was lying comfortably in her purse. Weird, right? Some of them are so tiny that they could be easily missed even after searching the purse a thousand times.
Tip to Remember: The best thing to do with jewelries is to have a box for them. Boxes are big enough to see even when we are packing luggage in a rush. As soon as you take off jewelry, replace it carefully into the jewelry box. That way, you wouldn’t have to stress yourself. All you would need to do is pick up the box alongside your other travelling bags while leaving.
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Keys
The importance of these items cannot be overemphasized. They open and close doors. I cannot begin to downplay how embarrassing it can be to get to the front of your house with a guest and discover that your key is missing. Some of them are so small that they usually get mixed up with other items thereby making it very difficult to find them.
Tip to Remember: Putting all your important keys in a bunch saves you the embarrassment of searching for a key in the presence of your guest. Once you have a bunch of keys on a key holder, keep them safely in one of your bags. You do not need your house keys at a hotel so why bring them out?
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Chargers
People can spend the whole day glued to phone screens and even forget to charge their phones even if the light bulb was switched on throughout the day. The phones seem to be more important than the charger. Chargers are so sleek that they can be plugged to the bedside and still be forgotten by its owner. If chargers had voices, they probably would have cried out to their owners saying, “Please, pick me up.” They are too important to be forgotten.
Tip to Remember: I think it usually helps if you put something very precious to you beside your charger. If you place something you cannot do without beside the charger, once you turn around to pick up that valuable, you will see your beloved charger and scoop it up easily into your bag.
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Phones and Tablets
No matter how much of a perfectionist you are, you can get so pre-occupied with thoughts that you would forget your mobile phones and tablets in a hotel room. Some people can even remove the charger from the phone, keep the charger in the bag and forget to pick up the phone. This can be very heart wrenching as most people use their phones for very important business deals.
Tip to Remember: Cellphones and tablets should have their own carriers. This is very important for very busy people who might get pre-occupied with work thoughts. Getting a big carrier for these items could help you remember them easily. Also, before you leave the hotel room, do a double-check to make sure you got those items safely in your hand luggage or bag.
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Books
Books can be very good companions especially during lone moments. They can also be easily forgotten by their owners in a hotel room.
Tip to Remember: Just like your makeup box and jewelry box, your books should have a box or bag where you keep them immediately after use. This makes remembrance very easy.
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Toiletries
I once felt very embarrassed when I had to call up a hotel that I left my toothbrush behind. I should not have been embarrassed because other customers would definitely have left worst things behind at some point right? But, I felt embarrassed. Toiletries are very vital items that if forgotten and we find ourselves in a place where we cannot easily replace them, we could embarrass ourselves. A perfect example is the sanitary towels. To avoid embarrassment, we need to be extra careful with them.
Tip to Remember: To remember our toiletries, we need to make a deliberate effort to be careful. Toiletries should have a bag for safe keeping. This bag should also be picked up before leaving the hotel to avoid embarrassment.
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Medicines