Top 5 Travel Items

London. Hong Kong. Dansville. Paris. Wherever you are going, I hope you have a wonderful time.

I imagine you clicked on this during business hours while you’re bored at your desk and wish it was 5, or whatever time you get off work, because you can’t wait for your upcoming trip. And in mentally planning for your trip at work, you wanted to know how to be as savvy of a traveler as possible. Well I hope I can help. Or at least waste 15 minutes of your time and get you a little closer to quitting time. Here are 5 items I find useful on a trip. Be it a weekend road trip, an overnight get away in my own city, or a international excursion, these items really help me with the small stuff.

DISCLOSURE: Links used are affiliate links.*

1.Knock Knock Pack This! Pad

I use this pad in so many different ways for a trip. Obviously I check off everything I need to bring. And I’ll use it as a guide when I’m running around the house 10 minutes before we leave to be sure I have everything. But I will also use it again to pack up when I’m coming home. I like to check off everything again as I pack it. This helps me avoid leaving things in hotel rooms, not realizing I’ve forgotten it until 8 days later when I finally get around to unpacking, the hotel have already thrown it, and then I just have to get a new whatever it was I left behind.

I got my pad from Barnes & Noble, but I have been able to find it on Amazon for much less. This brand makes a lot of other lists, I also use their All Out of note pad for grocery lists.

I recognize this is very much an item for those of you who like to make lists. Or are highly organized. But I believe it can help even those of you who aren’t organized list makers. Probably my favorite part about this list is that it gets me excited about my upcoming vacation. But I can understand if just reading blogs about travel tips is enough for you.

2. Packing Cubes

Are you a pack-realize-you-forgot-something-repack-add-something-else-and-repack-again kind of person? Packing cubes will be a life saver for you. With each repacking of your suitcase, you won’t have to attempt to keep your clothes folded and then refold them when that doesn’t work. (Unless you’re some sort of witch with powers over folded laundry, in which case, want to come over?) Instead you can move an entire cube around and keep your clothes neatly folded in their little cube.

To me, the smaller the cube the better. With a smaller cube it’s easier to organize, either by outfit, by clothing item, by certain activity type outfits, your clothes or your travel buddy’s clothes, and so on. I find the bigger the cube, the more you might as well have just packed in the suitcase. Because that’s basically what you’re doing. Only it’s a suitcase inside a suitcase set up.

If you’re skeptical about weather or not packing cubes are right for you and your travel needs,  don’t buy those fancy super durable packing cubes. Hell don’t buy them at all if you can’t think of a way to use them, none of these are 100% essential to a fun adventure, and they won’t work the same for everyone. I just happen to find them useful for my travel style. If you are intrigued at the possible usefulness, get a cheap set of packing cubes from Amazon, or borrow a friends’ set, or make your own via Ziploc bags in various sizes.

I have seen plenty-o Pinterest posts about mom’s packing kids outfits in sandwich bags for ease of day to day on vacation, and that seems pretty genius to me!  My only issue is my outfits don’t quit fit in a sandwich bag. 😦 My fabrics tend to be a bit bulkier than those of children’s clothes, go figure. And none of my friends had ever heard of packing cubes. So I went with the cheap set from Amazon, and I love them. I will likely buy another set, so I can more of the smaller sizes, and still not have spent a ton of money. I find these to be a decent quality anyway. If they wear out in 2 years, that’s well worth my $16 in my opinion. Especially considering some sites have a single cube for almost $30. So far I’ve had mine almost 6 months (1 international week long trip, and 4 weekend road trips), and their doing fine. I’ll update you if they don’t make it 2 years.

3. Grocery bags

The greatest thing about this item? It’s 100% FREE and has an TON of uses! I typically use old grocery bags for my shoes, and then pack a couple extra for just in case situations. The extras take up no space, and if they did I could just shove them into a shoe or front zip pocket on my suitcase or backpack.

The backup bags can be used so many ways. I use these to help clean up around a hotel room, extra cushion for anything breakable I purchased, backup bagging for anything that might leak, and dirty clothes. When I share a hotel room with friends the trash seems to take over every surface. The hotel trash cans are no match for the amount of water bottles we accumulate. So I’ll bag up all our recyclables and set them out of the way, which helps us feel less cluttered in a tiny room. If I buy an ornament as a souvenir I’ll wrap it in dirty clothes and then in a grocery bag to protect it. Sometimes the bag I had my shoes in rips, but have no fear, I have another!

Now the set up packing cubes I purchased came with a shoe bag, which I now use a ton! But if you’re packing more than 1 pair of shoes, and they aren’t flats or sandals, they likely won’t all fit in the shoe bag. I also don’t end up using those laundry bags the cubes came with for laundry, I end up using them for electronics (smallest bag), or shower supplies (medium/larger bag). So our dirty laundry will typically end up in grocery bags.

4. Samples/Trial Size Items

If you subscribe to ANY beauty box or have ordered makeup online from anywhere, you are going to get some kind of samples. Some might be travel size deodorant and body wash, some might be foil packet shampoo and conditioner. All of these are helpful for travel. The travel size bottles of course save space because they’re smaller, and if you’re carrying on, they adhere to the liquids rule.

Foil packets are seemingly worthless. Trust me, I used to this so, they aren’t enough product to really test if you like a shampoo, (if you’re like me) you tend to forget you even have them,  and you can get them free pretty much anywhere, so where’s the value in them? This summer I went on an overnight trip with some friends and I packed foil packet shampoo and conditioner. IT WAS GREAT! It took up no space, less than no space in fact. And I was able to use it, and toss it. And I didn’t really care about getting a really good test out of shampoo. If this shampoo was really going to do awful things to my hair, I’m pretty sure I’d have to use it more than once. The only gripe I have for these packets is that, and this may just be this brand but, it was terribly difficult to get those suckers open. They didn’t have a “Tear Here” corner, and I didn’t really have anything sharp to use, but eventually I was able to bite off a sliver and squeeze the product out. But most others have the easy tear, so I wouldn’t let this deter you. Or you should be able to cut the bag open with those tiny beauty/nail scissors, you just have to remember to pack them.

5. Portable Phone Charger

Most of us aren’t professional photographers. But with the camera quality on our cell phones now, we don’t even need, own, or want a portable digital camera. So while travelling we’re likely taking all photographic evidence with our phones. Not to mention, if you aren’t somewhere familiar, I bet you’re constantly looking up nearby entertainment, restaurants, directions, etc., with your phone. Plus you’re probably sharing all those wonderful photos you took via Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, whatever other new social media there is that I’m not cool enough to know about. But you get the where I’m going with this right? You’re draining the crap out of your phone battery.

The cute coffee shop you stop in mid afternoon for a pick me up may have outlets, but how long do you plan to hang out there? Until your phone is completely charged? Depending on what kind of traveler you are, this likely doesn’t fit into your itinerary. Especially if it’s a very detailed and time constrictive itinerary, because you absolutely MUST SEE EVERYTHING IN THREE DAYS! Even you aren’t the itinerary type, I’d bet you don’t really want to spend an hour(s) sitting at a cafe when you’re in a new place.

Maybe you have a super awesome long life battery or one of those battery life extender cases, well good for you! I am not that fancy, so thinking about my trip to London I realized my husband and I need something that would help us with our batteries. Between listening to audible on the train and looking up directions every 45 minutes, plus whatever else we wanted to do with our phones we knew there would be no way both phones make it through an entire day of exploring. So we bought this portable charger from Amazon.

This little guy did a great job in London.  It’s also very light weight and come with 2 short USB cords and a little pouch so I’m not fated to dig in my bag for 10 minutes because I can find the charger but not the cord. The one we bought is enough to charge one of our phones to 100%. And then it would need to be charged that night if we planned to use it again the next day. Since then I’ve used it for daytime outings where I may have spent too much time playing games on my phone in the car, road trips (my car only has one charger outlet), this gets the job done.
PRO TIP: Bring an extension cord with you on a trip, so if you’re sharing a hotel room with 5 people and their aren’t a ton of outlets, everyone can charge. Or if your abroad, this will prevent everyone from having to bring an adapter.

 

Of course, none of these are absolute must haves. I am certain you can enjoy any vacation without them. I did once, and I’m sure I would again. But I like to have some help with some small insignificant aspects of my vacation. Which is where these do-dads come in. Not all of these items will appeal to everyone, because I can’t stress enough that you need to know what works for you. Some of these things may have no place in your style of travelling, and that’s okay. We’re all different. If these items can’t help you, maybe they can help one of your friends. And next time you’re at Becky’s house talking to her about her upcoming trip to the Poconos and she mentions wanting to find a better solution to some travel issue, you can suggest one these items. You’re such a good friend.

Tag me if you use any of these items on your next trip! Also leave comments if you have any other items to suggest!

*The links in the blog are affiliate links, which means I will receive commission should you make a purchase through those links. If you don’t want to use those links I’ve listed non affiliate links below. This post was not sponsored and all opinions on these products are my own.
Pack This!
All Out of
Portable Charger
Packing Cubes