Flight attendants, the seasoned travelers of the skies, have mastered the art of packing to tackle bulky suitcases and overstuffed carry-ons. With their wealth of experience, they’ve gathered some serious packing hacks that can revolutionize your travel experience. Whether you’re gearing up for a week-long vacation or a quick weekend getaway, these tips can help you maximize space, stay organized, and breeze through airport security. Get ready to take notes and elevate your travel game with these flight attendants’ packing hacks!
Straws Keep Necklaces Tangle-Free on the Go
Traveling has taught us a valuable lesson: necklaces can be the bane of our journeys. Despite attempts to keep them organized in original boxes or specialized jewelry containers, they often end up hopelessly tangled. The sad truth is, once they’re in a knot, it might mean the end of a favorite necklace. However, fear not! There’s a clever solution: thread the necklace through a simple straw, close the clasp, and let the plastic straw ensure a tangle-free journey for your valuables. Bon voyage to hassle-free necklace travel!
Shower Caps Keep Shoes Clean and Organized in Your Luggage
Shower caps are a packing hack genius with multiple uses! Forget the hassle of cleaning the bottoms of your shoes before a trip—simply slip them into a convenient shower cap, and you’re good to go. These cheap and disposable items prove to be versatile for both hand luggage and larger cases. Imagine unexpected rain while exploring; a shower cap can save the day by protecting electrical items like cameras or phones. Talk about a simple solution with a multitude of practical applications when you’re on the go!
The Belt Trick for Keeping Your Dress Shirts Wrinkle-Free
The business traveler knows the struggle of dealing with wrinkled work clothes, especially when heading straight to a board meeting after a flight. Fear not, as we present packing hacks to keep your smart business attire looking sharp. Firstly, pack your suit or jacket inside out to minimize creasing. Secondly, maintain a crisp, stiff shirt collar by tucking a wound-up belt inside the neck opening of your dress shirt. Say goodbye to the stress of arriving with wrinkled clothes and hello to polished professionalism on the go!
A Pill Box Is the Secret to Storing Your Jewelry
Who needs fancy jewelry boxes or expensive solutions when simplicity reigns supreme? Enter the humble plastic pillbox—normally employed to organize medicines by days or times. Yet, it boasts another vital use when you’re on the go: jewelry storage! Just snap each compartment shut, and your precious items will travel safely and securely in a cheap and cheerful manner. Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the most ingenious!
Cotton Pads Can Save Your Cosmetics From Spilling During Travel
Opening your makeup bag after a day of travel to find smashed powders and eyeshadows is indeed a frustrating experience, especially when replacements are not easily accessible. The key to packing makeup for travel is to prioritize cushioning and padding. Utilize cotton pads and cotton wool as stuffing and padding to prevent breakages, particularly with items like powder foundation, face powder, blushers, and eyeshadows. Remember these keywords to ensure your makeup arrives at your destination intact and ready to use!
Stuff Your Sneakers With Small Things to Maximize Space in Your Luggage
Shoes, with all their funkiness and beauty, become a packing paradox – fitting them into a suitcase feels like solving a Rubik’s cube! They consume space and add weight to an already cramped case. However, here’s a sneaky trick: maximize the utility of shoes, especially sneakers, by using them as storage. Tuck away small items like watches, socks, and underwear, turning your shoes into space-efficient organizers. Who knew your footwear could be so handy in the art of packing!
Glasses Cases Keep Your Cables and Wires Organized
Say goodbye to rummaging at the bottom of your bag for the phone charger! When gearing up for a trip with multiple electronic devices requiring charging, grab an old glasses or sunglasses case to neatly pack cords, wires, and chargers. This simple solution eliminates tangles and prevents lost chargers upon arrival. If you’re traveling as a family, consider using different-colored glasses cases for each member or, even better, label or mark each one with a name. Keep your chargers organized and easily accessible with this smart packing hack!
Labeling Bags by Day Makes Traveling With Kids a Breeze
Traveling with kids can be a whole new level of organization, and being prepared is the golden rule. Kids have a talent for making messes and getting themselves messier! To simplify packing, especially for babies and young children, use the labeling-by-day hack. Pack two coordinating outfits per day for each child – clothes that match, even if a shirt or bottoms need to be changed. This practical approach ensures you’re ready for any messy adventures your little ones embark on during the journey!
Compression Bags Maximize Space in Your Suitcase
When all the rolling, stuffing, and squeezing just won’t make everything fit into your suitcase, it’s time to bring out the big guns: compression bags! Similar to vacuum bags, these bags can be a game-changer. They save space by compressing soft clothing items together, eliminating the air between them and allowing you to fit more into your suitcase. When you need to maximize space and minimize volume, compression bags are the ultimate packing saviors!
Small Glass Bottles Keep Your Toiletries Eco-Friendly and Cost-Effective
Since the introduction of the ‘no liquids over 100ml’ rule, the trend of purchasing those adorable travel-sized toiletries has surged. While they may be cute and convenient, the environmental impact of the plastic waste they generate is a concern. The solution is straightforward: transfer your daily use products, such as shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel, into small glass bottles. It’s a simple switch that not only adheres to travel regulations but also reduces plastic waste and supports a more sustainable approach to travel. Et voila!
Rolling Your Clothes Is the Future of Packing
Enter the great packing debate! When faced with the challenge of fitting numerous changes of clothes, partner’s attire, and outfits for the kids into your suitcase for an upcoming family trip, the question looms: how will it all fit? It’s time to abandon the traditional folding method and embrace the art of rolling. In the battle of packing techniques, rolling has proven to be far more efficient, allowing you to maximize space and fit everything snugly into your suitcase. Roll away and conquer the packing challenge with ease!
Say Goodbye to Stress and Unpacking Chaos and Use Packing Cubes
Indeed, some savvy parents have been using this method with Ziploc or vacuum bags for a while, but the travel industry has finally caught on! Enter packing cubes, providing a more efficient packing and less stressful unpacking experience on the other side. These cubes, made of soft material with zipper closures, eliminate the need to rummage around for loose cords, hairbrushes, socks, or underwear. Just pack similar items into a cube, and enjoy the organized bliss of hassle-free travel!
Protect Your Breakables by Stuffing Them in Layers of Socks
Breakables can be a significant source of stress during travel. Imagine settling into your airplane seat, attempting to relax, but the fear of fragile items in your luggage creates unnecessary tension. Nobody wants their breakables to turn into a sticky mess, whether it’s honey from Greece, jam from France, or wine from Italy. Here’s a packing hack that’s not just practical but also common sense: wrap fragile items inside thick socks or layers of clothing for added protection. It’s a simple yet effective way to ensure your delicate items make it to your destination unscathed!
Pack Your Hats Like a Pro so It Doesn’t Get Squashed
Hats are a vacation essential, whether it’s for summer or winter getaways. Yet, the journey can leave your beautiful hats a bit squashed. Fear not, for we have some clever hat-packing hacks to share! Start by packing your hat first, at the base of the suitcase, and build your packing around it. To maintain its shape, stuff the hat with items like scarves, socks, or underwear. With these tricks, your hats will arrive at your destination looking fabulous and ready to shade you in style!
Prevent Smelly Suitcases With Dryers Sheets
Long journeys can come with unexpected delays, sometimes overnight, leaving your checked-in luggage exposed to the elements on the tarmac. Here’s an easy and smart hack recommended by flight attendants and frequent travelers: dryer sheets. These compact sheets take up minimal space but can leave your suitcase smelling fresh and delightful. Place dryer sheets between layers of clothing or ball them up inside shoes to keep everything smelling pleasant, even after a long and unpredictable journey.
Leave Room for Souvenirs While Staying Within Your Luggage Limit
When it comes to memorable trips, souvenirs are a must – be it boomerangs from Australia, wine from France, wooden clogs from Holland, a poncho from Bolivia, or maple syrup from Canada. However, a classic packing mistake is not leaving enough room for these cherished mementos. When planning your wardrobe, always remember to factor in space or weight allowance for the potential souvenirs you might pick up while strolling through a market, souk, or Duty-Free. Give yourself the freedom to bring a piece of your travels home without the stress of luggage limitations!
A Mini Laundry Bag Is the Must-Have Packing Essential
One often overlooked aspect when packing for a family vacation or a romantic weekend away is the issue of dirty laundry. We meticulously plan outfits and consider if our shoes match, but what about the laundry that will be coming back with us? How can we store it to ensure the rest of our suitcase doesn’t end up smelly or damp?
The Ultimate Hack to Keep Your Luggage From Toppling Over
While daydreaming at work about stepping into the airport, ready to fly off to an exotic destination, there’s a potential hiccup: your luggage isn’t behaving as expected. Before you dismiss the daydream, consider this tip—it might be due to your packing method! For wheelie luggage, our hack is simple: pack the heaviest items on the bottom. This adjustment can make your luggage more stable and easier to maneuver, ensuring a smoother start to your dream vacation.
A Contact Lens Case Can Double as a Makeup Holder
This makeup packing hack is a true trick of the trade! Makeup itself can be bulky, and even a short list of foundation, powders, mascara, eyeshadows, lipstick, and concealer adds a lot to the hand luggage weight. The solution? Well, it’s in the solution! More specifically, the contact lens solution. The cases that usually hold contact lens solution are designed to be air-tight and spill-proof, making them the perfect makeup holders for a short trip!
Protect Your Clothes From Spills While Traveling by Packing Them Inside Out
Packing for travel has become a fine art, but one lesser-known trick for long-distance travel is the ‘inside-outer.’ That’s right—before beginning to pack, turn each item of clothing inside out! Airport suitcase handlers are unfortunately not renowned for their gentle touch. In fact, if the suitcase contains liquids like shower gel, hair products, or alcohol, it is almost a guarantee that there will be spillage. Turning your clothes inside out adds an extra layer of protection, keeping your garments clean and ensuring a smoother journey for both you and your wardrobe!
Be Prepared for All Weather
If the next adventure involves hiking, cycling, and camping, one of the best investments is a backpack rain cover. Backpack covers are a relatively new but smart hack; old-school hikers will testify to using garbage bags for cover, but they were neither long-lasting nor environmentally friendly! Pack covers are crucial for protecting external equipment from rain—meaning anything that may hang off the backpack, like a foam mat, tent for sleeping, stoves, boots, and more. They ensure that your gear stays dry and ready for use during your outdoor escapades.
Everything in One Place
Dealing with liquids is a recurring theme in the world of travel. On your checklist for transferring into smaller reusable bottles or containers: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body lotion, facial moisturizer, facial cleanser, foundation, sunscreen, hair serum, and toothpaste. When packing these numerous little liquid bottles into your hand or check-in luggage, a plastic storage bag is crucial. It not only keeps all those tiny bottles together but, more importantly, prevents leakage into your suitcase, ensuring a mess-free and organized journey.
Taking Charge
While not specifically a packing hack, one of the most essential items to bring on any journey is a portable charger. Where would we be in life without our chargers?! That being said, while most people remember to pack their electronic items, they frequently forget the chargers. To stay connected with loved ones, capture numerous vacation photos, or get some work done, fully charged electronic items will be necessary. A portable charger ensures you’re always powered up, allowing you to make the most of your travel experience.
Make Sure You Can Charge All of Your Electronics
A power strip is a device that allows multiple electronic devices to be connected to a single electrical outlet. The reason to pack them is simple: hotels do have outlets, but when traveling with more than one device (tablet, phone, camera, hairdryer, curling irons, etc.), a multi-socket power strip can prove to be extremely useful. When traveling with a family and kids, it becomes a top priority. Nobody needs the headache of a toddler, a tablet, and a 20% battery before a long flight home. A power strip ensures everyone can charge their devices simultaneously, making it a valuable travel companion.
Protect the Curling Iron and Make Sure Your Clothes Don’t Burn
It’s minutes before the cab arrives at the airport, and the curling iron is still warm from using it that morning – what to do?! Enter a packing hack extraordinaire: stuff it in an oven mitt! Yes, those handy padded gloves are not limited to the kitchen. Not only will the mitt protect other items in your suitcase if the curling iron is still warm, but it also helpfully shields the hair tongs from any damage during transit. This simple trick ensures a smooth and safe journey for your styling tools.
Why You Might Wanna Stock up on Sponges
Not the most obvious traveling accessory, but one of the best packing hacks out there: sponges! And no, not for cleaning the hotel bathroom. As ice packs, gel packs, and other frozen liquids are well and truly forbidden by most airport authorities, a smart way to bring along food for the journey, cold drinks, or snacks for the kids, is to pack them among frozen sponges. Lightweight and hassle-free at security! This clever trick allows you to keep things cool without any concerns about liquids at the airport.
Take Your Pick From These Folding Methods
The bundle wrap is one of the packing hack methods touted as the smartest and most efficient way to squeeze most of your wardrobe into a suitcase for a one-week vacation. The technique involves placing each piece of clothing top to bottom over each other, creating a little—or rather large—package of clothing. This method aims to save space and keep your clothes relatively wrinkle-free during transit, making it a popular choice for savvy packers.
Don’t Get Caught Unprepared at Check-In
The world is finally opening up again for travel, and the plan is for plenty of trips to visit family and friends! One of the simplest but most essential investments to make before embarking on those journeys is a handheld weighing scale, also sometimes called a suitcase or baggage scale. By clipping it to the closed, beautifully packed suitcase, a person can check their luggage weight at home prior to boarding. This handy tool helps avoid unexpected fees for overweight baggage and ensures a smooth and stress-free check-in experience.
Why You Should Leave a Paper Trail
The first rule of travel: keep those documents handy! Whether it’s passports, visas, tickets, insurance, vaccination records, or itineraries, make sure there are printed copies in each suitcase and with each adult traveling. In case any bags go missing during the trip or in transit, having copies of everything in more than one bag is crucial. This practice ensures that essential documents are readily available and can be helpful in various situations. Additionally, in the current era, ensuring accessibility to health insurance forms is particularly important for a smooth and worry-free journey.
Emergency Supplies
Always be prepared! The exception to the ‘do not bring anything “just in case”‘ rule is a First Aid kit. A seasoned traveler and backpacker know exactly what gets put in first: ibuprofen or paracetamol, alcohol swabs, antiseptic spray, band-aids, and gauze. Any medicine a person takes regularly should be included, as well as the basics of a good First Aid kit, such as antihistamine, antibacterial gel or hand wipes, scissors, and safety pins for keeping bandages or gauze in place. A well-stocked First Aid kit ensures you’re ready to handle minor health issues and injuries while on the go.
The Great Book Debate
warm sun, cocktails, tropical music playing in the background, relaxing on a lounger near the sea, ready to spend a couple of hours with a good book. Reaching over to grab the book—is it an E-reading device or a paperback book? The obvious choice is a lightweight tablet. It won’t take up room, has a long battery life, and is easily rechargeable. Tablets can also hold thousands of books, giving you the flexibility to switch to another novel if you’re not happy with your current beach read. A convenient and versatile choice for book lovers on vacation!
Fold Those Pants
Marie Kondo came into our lives with her book, ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing,’ and ever since then, we cannot tidy or throw away a single thing in our homes without her coming to mind. Does this item bring us joy? Shouldn’t all our books ‘live’ in the same space? So too with folding. She introduced us to methods for folding clothes that make so much sense that it doesn’t make sense that we ever folded another way. When it comes to packing for traveling, the KonMari method is the only way to save space and prevent wrinkles.
Take Care of Those Fragiles
Once upon a time, luggage handlers dealt with fewer flights and less stress and took more care with passenger luggage. Unlucky for us, the times have changed, and a dented or broken suitcase can often be par for the course when traveling internationally. Placing a ‘Fragile’ label on a suitcase in the past may have made a difference, but we hear that baggage handlers today pay zero attention to special labels on suitcases.
The Vertical Shirt Fold
Here comes another fantastic folding tip from the home organizer, Marie Kondo. The vertical fold is a really helpful, efficient packing hack for squeezing a lot of clothes into an unforgiving suitcase. Follow the instructions below for folding tops in order to achieve the vertical fold or ‘file fold.’ Marie believes that clothes come out of this fold a little bit “happier,” i.e., not wrinkled or crushed. And it’s just as good a method for your drawers as it is for your luggage.
The Skivvy Roll
We have explored various packing methods; rolling, vertical folds or file folds, layering, bundling, or wearing all your clothes, but one that hasn’t yet been explored? Commonly known among soldiers and military veterans – it’s the ‘skivvy’ roll! This packing method may yet be the ultimate packing hack. It involves tightly rolling three items of clothing – a t-shirt or undershirt, underwear, and socks – into a tight, light bundle.
The Travel Handbag Essentials
If there is one rule we want to imprint on the modern traveler’s brain, it’s this: keep valuable items in hand luggage! Laptop, money, credit cards, tablets – do not let them out of sight at any time during transit; they should always remain with the traveler. Whether it’s investing in a money belt, a crossbody bag, or a backpack with a lock, always keep valuables close to the body.
Pack Neutrals
When it comes to packing for a vacation or business trip, it’s tempting to bring every possible combination of outfits hanging in the cupboard! Who wants to be left without options if another dinner or event is added to the itinerary? Experts recommend choosing a few pieces in coordinating or neutral colors in order to mix and match. If no laundry will be available, pack essential items for every day of the trip.
Organization Is Key
Absolutely! Creating a thorough packing list is a fundamental step in ensuring a smooth and stress-free trip. It helps in organizing essentials, prevents forgetfulness, and contributes to a more enjoyable travel experience. Whether it’s a beach vacation, a business trip, or a ski getaway, having a well-thought-out packing list can be a traveler’s best friend.
Adaptation Is Key
A universal travel adapter is an essential item for international travelers. Different countries have different plug types and voltage requirements, and having a universal adapter ensures that you can charge your electronic devices safely and conveniently. It’s a small but crucial item that can make a big difference in staying connected and powered up while exploring new destinations.
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