What cruise cabin hacks should you use in 2025? — featuring CruiseTipsTV

0:00 If your goal is to have a cruise cabin that feels less cramped, stays organized all week, and helps you settle in a little faster on embarkation day, you are in the right place. If you've seen one of my stateroom hacks videos before, don't skip this one. I update this guide every year because you guys, cruise

0:19 cabins, cruise line policies, and travel gear, they all change. And this year's list has several new ideas that have earned a permanent place in my suitcase for a reason. So, whether it's your first cruise or your 50th, these are some practical tips that can make your stateroom work better from the moment

0:38 you walk through the door. Let's get into it starting right over here at the vanity. One thing that is out for me this year are wimpy little magnetic hooks. Instead, I'm packing more clever magnetic options like these ultra heavy-duty magnetic hooks that have two little hooks on the bottom. They hold

0:58 things that are way heavier like purses that actually have things in them, and they work wonderfully. My favorite hack though that is brand new is this little magnetic pouch. You're going to notice that the back of it is a magnet, and the front of it is designed to hold little paper products, pens,

1:16 sticky notes. My favorite hack for you for this particular item is to get your shore excursion ticket envelope that you get at the beginning of the cruise and slide it right on in here. It's also a great place to keep a Sharpie and some sticky notes so you can leave a note for your room steward or for your cabin

1:35 mates when you take off and go do something, and it just sits on the wall just like that. Now, of course, I'm still packing these little magnetic clips as well. These work perfectly for hanging things like your itinerary or perhaps your daily newsletters as well. One cruise line policy that has changed

1:55 drastically over the last few years is what kind of a power unit you are allowed to put into a stateroom. And these days, most of the time, if anything is brought on board that has an AC power unit in it, it's very likely to get confiscated on day one. So, instead, I'm still sticking with my handy-dandy

2:16 USB hub that has a combination of USB A and USB C. Now, here's where I have changed my ways and what's sort of in for me. In for me are these new fast-charging cables because a fast-charging unit really does nothing if you don't have a fast-charging cable. And in addition, I've got color-coded

2:39 Apple Watch base chargers for my family's Apple Watches. So, mine is pink and that is how I know which one is going to be mine. And lastly, I've gotten really into these little Velcro wraps for storage. They're super helpful with your cables and keep everything nice and tidy, which I love. Okay,

2:56 speaking of cable management, have you ever been in a situation where your curling iron cord just feels like it's taking up a ton of space right here on your desk? Here is a hack that one of our subscribers sent me. She said that she actually puts one of these hooks up on the wall and threads the

3:14 curling iron cable through it so that keeps this area tidy. And I think that is absolutely genius. I love it when our subscribers give us amazing tips. So, if you have any tips while you're watching this video, be sure to leave them down in the comments so everybody can benefit. Packing a folder of some sort

3:31 to keep all of your paperwork tidy on a cruise is also very helpful. You will inevitably have shore excursion reservations and even your boarding passes that you can keep in here on day one. But as you go throughout the cruise, sometimes we accumulate a lot of newsletters and receipts. Put them in

3:47 here and then you can tuck them into your suitcase either as mementos or for the receipts just for handy storage when you get home. Always grab these at the dollar store. They're super cheap. A trend that is out this year for your cruise packing is packing those big, bulky fans to keep you cool at night.

4:03 Instead, there are these little inventions that are such game-changers for your sleep. This fan actually has magnets on the bottom of it. And in some staterooms, you can affix them to the wall above or beside your bed and point the fan down at you as you sleep. It's amazing. Interestingly, the cruise ship

4:23 that I'm on this week does not have magnetic walls, at least above the bed it doesn't. I think it has some wallpaper on it. But, if that is the case for you, you can just put it right here on your bedside table. And this one has a whole bunch of different speed settings to make sure that it

4:38 accommodates you. Another thing that I find that people sometimes don't take advantage of in their cruise cabin is the storage that can be found next to your bedside table. These little side tables can have a ton of space in them, but some people think because they're so small that they should go unused or they

4:57 just forget about them. What I like to put inside of my bedside tables is a little nighttime kit. So, in mine, you're going to find earplugs, my reading glasses, a sleep mask, pajamas, and sometimes if I get a few chocolates here and there on my pillow, I'll stash them away and take them home with me.

5:15 But, don't forget to take advantage of the space bedside. It can be very, very helpful. And lastly, while we're talking about bedside items, don't forget to pack a cable that is long enough to go from your plug area to your actual device. Sometimes, the plugs can be located more than a foot away from the

5:35 bedside table, which would leave your device hanging. So, make sure that you bring a cable that's at least 1 to 2 ft long just in case. By now, you have most surely heard of packing cubes. Packing cubes are a great way to stay organized on your cruise, and these days the trend is to use compression packing cubes,

5:53 which have two sets of zippers and help you to keep things nice and compressed in your suitcase, so that you can pack more and pack more efficiently. But, one of my favorite hacks once I get to my cruise ship is to keep my items in my packing cube and open up one of those zippers, put it into the drawer, so that

6:11 it acts like a bit of a drawer for your items. So, you're simply pulling the flap back on the item to expose whatever it is you need to grab. This works particularly well for smaller items like socks, underwear, bras, and swimsuits, and it's also great for kids clothing. These next two hacks have to be some of

6:31 my favorites, and they were inspired by one of our subscribers. Now, you remember the fan that we talked about that can help you sleep if you run warm. It also provides some white noise. All of that is great, but listen to what you can do with this. Have you ever been blow-drying your hair or curling your

6:46 hair and your body just gets super hot and you feel like you are going to burst into flames while you're getting ready for a formal night? Place this fan either here, directly pointing at your body, or on the floor pointing up at your legs and your body while you were getting ready, and it will instantly

7:05 cool you down. I think this is the most genius hack. Now, here's another one from the same wonderful subscriber. You know who you are. You can take a little phone stand like this one. This is something that I pack with me all the time, and I actually use this on my flight so that I can watch

7:19 Netflix or whatever by placing my phone here on the tray table. But, sometimes when you're getting ready, you need to go hands-free. You can take a little portable makeup mirror just like this one that has a light on it, and you can place it right on the stand. I'm trying to get the light to work. There we go.

7:37 You can place it right on the stand facing either way, and voila, you're hands-free, and you can, you know, look down and do those delicate eyeliner applications, mascara, whatever it is. I think this is such a great hack and I'm definitely going to start using it. You might have noticed that some cruise

7:55 lines are getting a little bit stingier with handing out water bottles. For example, plastic water bottles are banned on some cruise lines. So, what I like to do is bring my own reusable water bottle and I discovered this one recently. What makes it different is that it's really light and slim, but yet

8:13 you can still keep your beverages hot or cold in this and it doesn't have one of those icky straws that you have to wash. It just has a nice little completely leak proof seal top. So, you just drink out of it like this without the straw and you guys, it keeps hot stuff hot for 8 hours, cold stuff cold for 12 hours

8:35 and if you ice your beverages, it's going to keep them cold for about 20 hours and I've found that that is accurate. I will wake up in the morning after drinking sipping on this kind of throughout the night and there will still be ice in it. It is a game-changer. Now, this is a classic cruise tip, but

8:51 it bears repeating, especially if you are new to cruising, you can slide your suitcase, in most cases in most cruise cabins, right underneath the bed to get them out of the way and save some space. Now, sometimes what I like to do is bring a little bit of bed bug spray, spray the suitcase, spray around the bed

9:11 as well to ensure that you're not bringing any bed bugs into the room with you or picking any up on your luggage during your stay on the ship. We have two more spaces in the stateroom that I want to cover and I'm sorry if you guys see the wobbling, the ship is really moving today. My first tip for you for

9:29 your closet organization are to buy these little S hooks. You can get them on Amazon. They're fantastic and what you can do is use them to hang things like shorts and jeans. And all you have to do is feed them through a couple of the little belt loops, and you're going to have a much more organized closet.

9:47 This is a great tip just in case you have limited drawer space in your stateroom, which honestly on this cruise, I have limited drawer space. So, I've been taking advantage of this with my jean shorts and also with my jeans. Now, if you don't want to pick up those little S hooks, what you can do is get

10:03 some foldable hangers just in case you have limited hangers in your closet. Next tip, I actually like to bring my own slippers on a cruise. All too often these days, when they give you the little packaged ones, if you're lucky enough to even get them, they don't fit my feet, they don't fit my husband's

10:20 feet. It's just not really fun. So, I've been bringing my own kind of plush slippers. They actually don't take up that much space in the suitcase. Sometimes I'll sort of put them together like this, plop them in my suitcase, and we're good to go. Another thing that is great to bring with you is a pop-up

10:34 laundry hamper. This is a great way to keep things tidy and organized and out of the way. And this one folds down to almost no space at all. And I actually leave this one in my suitcase when I'm not traveling. Since I only use it for cruises, what I do is fold it up, and I put it in the

10:52 zippered pocket on the top of one of my uh halves of the clamshell half of a suitcase, and it works really well because that way I can never lose it. A trend that is on its way out for cruising is packing large toiletry bags. A lot of times we just pack travel-size items anyway. So, instead of packing a

11:13 big old bulky toiletry bag that takes up too much space in your bag, instead, consider TSA-approved reusable bags like this. They kind of function like a Ziploc bag, only you can use them over and over again, and you can even wash them. They're super handy. Another thing that's nice to have is a small jewelry

11:32 organizer of some sort, if you can find one. There are tons of them on Amazon and I'll link to a couple of my favorites, but these really don't take up a whole lot of space in your suitcase and you can put everything from rings to necklaces and bracelets in them and keep everything nice and super organized. A

11:48 hack if you're traveling with necklaces and you're worried about getting them tangled, grab a straw that you've picked up at a restaurant somewhere along the way and you can thread your necklace right through it and that way it won't get tangled. It's a great hack. I also like to pack my own soap when I travel

12:06 and so I will bring it in a Ziploc bag. That way if there's any soap left at the end or if there's something that I want to tuck into this bag, I can reuse that Ziploc bag on the way home. A new tip that I've learned on the last few cruises is to buy a toothpaste that actually sits on your counter top. So

12:23 something with a flat lid. It just makes that counter top area stay a lot more clean and tidy and organized and usually these are less than 3.4 oz so you're okay to take them on an airplane. They are travel friendly. Now this next item earned me the badge cruise mom on one of my cruises this past year and it is a

12:44 variety of different pill cases that you can take with you. I love these and these come with labels. So you can take medication that you have in your home or even your prescriptions and pop a whole variety of different types of pills in here for your just in case moments and also you can put your prescription

13:03 medications in here as well. I have another set of of these uh pill cases that I really like. These are they have much bigger compartments in them. So I have both types and I think that they work just beautifully. I also invested in a toothbrush cover a few years ago because I like the idea of my toothbrush

13:24 staying protected when I travel. You know, the room steward comes in, they clean your room, things like that. This way you can be sure that it's just tucked away nicely and staying plenty clean. If your cruise ship cabin comes equipped with little glasses like this for toothbrushes, another thing that you

13:40 can do is store your makeup brushes and miscellaneous tall makeup items like mascaras and eyeliners in these. It works really well and keeps things nice and tidy. If you're really lucky and you find any spare shower caps in your cruise cabin or your pre-cruise hotel, save these. They make excellent shoe

13:58 covers to keep the dirt off of the rest of your clothing and luggage when you pack up to go home. I love these. I like to just buy them at the dollar store in large quantities. One thing that drives me absolutely buggy on a cruise ship is when you get a little soap like this and the bottom of it gets all sticky and

14:14 icky. One thing you can do is take a washcloth, if it's given to you, and place the soap right on top of it, on top of the soap dish. Just make sure it stays nice and dry, and usually that helps it from getting kind of ooey and gooey and breaking up and falling apart. A packing trend that is out this year

14:33 are suction cups that go on your mirror. You may have seen videos before, even from me, where I talked about trying out suction cups with hooks. But ultimately, what I found is that they just fall off of the mirror, so I do not pack them anymore. One thing I do pack though are sink suds or little Tide sink packs for

14:52 washing small amounts of things in my sink. Or if you have a bathtub, you could do that as well. It's great for things like socks, underwear, and even your swimsuit, which can get pretty heavily chlorinated when you go on a cruise. So, pack those little sink sud packets. They're almost always going to

15:07 come in handy. It seems fitting that we would wrap up the video actually in my shower. But here are a few tips for you if you are cruising and you want to make the most of some more of your bathroom space. If you are going to hang a swimsuit on a clothesline like I've done here, Before you hang it up, take it and

15:25 roll it in one of your bath towels to get out the excess moisture. Such a good way of making sure that it dries faster, then you can put it right back on the line. Now, if you've brought your own soap, but you find that it's also getting gooey right here like this one is on the shelf, what you can do is

15:41 press it up against the side and place something up against it like a little towel or even some of your travel size toiletries can work as well. Another thing I love is this clothespin attachment that you can put over a towel bar. This works great on cruise ships and also hotels and it allows you to

15:59 hang multiple items, multiple swimsuits, multiple things that you might have just washed in the sink in one handy little place. In my personal opinion, over-the-door shoe hangers are out, but if you do decide to use one, make sure that you don't put it over the top of your bathroom door because it can damage the

16:16 door. Instead, get the magnetic types that can go on the wall of your stateroom. All right, that is it for today. What did I miss? Do you have any cruise stateroom hacks that you want to share with us? Let us know down in the comments below. I'm going to pin all of the items that I showed you today, all

16:35 of the hacks, to the top of the comments and I will also put them in the description if you would like to shop these items on Amazon. Thank you so much for watching and until next time, we'll see you on the high seas. Bye-bye.