Tips for traveling light while still having everything you need

 

Over the last eight years my husband and I have travelled all over the world. Before covid we made it a habit of leaving the country usually twice a year, in addition to any random travel domestically. Because of this I have packed for a large variety of situations and here are some basic tips and items that make our lives easier. 

Clothes 

This should be the majority of what you bring and honestly most people way over pack on clothes. They also tend to be bulky and take up a lot of space. 

First rule of traveling light: Accept that if you are going to be gone for a long period (more than 4-7 days) of time that you will need to do laundry. 

For some reason my mother was extremely anti-laundry on vacation. Like when I went on vacation as a kid we just didn't do laundry. I mean I get it- no one really likes to do laundry but it makes way more sense to bring less clothes and do a load of laundry then haul more stuff everywhere. If we are gone for more than a week then I know we are going to be doing laundry while on vacation. I purposely look for hotels or air bnbs with laundry. My worst case scenario is going to a laundromat- but I've done it a few times (one time in Germany they gave me a beer while I waited for my stuff to dry). I also usually bring gain/tide pods because they are easy to pack and you don't always know your soap situation at a particular place. When planning a trip I will plan out what day that I'm going to do laundry and always bring an extra days worth of clothes just in case. For example if I plan on doing laundry on day 4 I will bring 5 days worth of clothes. Also before we leave for a trip I also plan what clothes we are going to be wearing the day that we leave because they will be factored into the rotation of vacation clothes. 

Pro Tip: Start packing as you do laundry. 

I tend to have a day where I do multiple loads of laundry. If we are leaving for a trip within the next two weeks I will start packing from the clothes I'm folding- this means I have less to put away (Work smarter not harder). Obviously this doesn't always work if you are drastically changing climates but your undergarments should be relatively the same. Typically two weeks before we go on a trip I will put a suitcase on the floor in our room and casually start putting things in or near it to be packed. That way a few nights before its mostly just organizing rather than gathering things to be packed. 

Additional Clothing Pro Tip: Wear your bulkiest clothes/shoes on the plane 

Going on a hiking trip? Don't pack your hiking boots- wear them on the plane. This saves a lot of space in your luggage. Yes it a little bit of a pain when going through security but it does save a lot of room. 

This also works well for bulky clothes such as jeans, or coats/sweaters. I'm usually freezing on planes anyway so this works well in my favor. 

The same goes with a random triangle hat that your husband randomly decides to buy just to annoy you in Thailand. 

My ultimate must have for organizing clothes:  Packing cubes

Ok so these aren't really a secret anymore but I would definitely recommend investing in some. They are great for multiple reasons 

1. They help compress your clothing down-so theoretically you can bring more clothes. 

2. They are very helpful for organizing- especially if you are packing for multiple people. For example I have blue packing cubes that I put my clothes in (because blue is my favorite color) and I have green ones that I put Max's clothes in. This way when we get to a location Max immediately knows where his clothes are.  I also have black ones that I use for socks/undergarments. These make it very easy to pick out and outfit out of your suit case- without destroying the whole suitcase.  

3. It's not super embarrassing if for some reason you have to open your suitcase in the middle of an airport. Your underwear isn't going to randomly fall out because it's all contained in a cube. 

4. They make great dirty laundry containers. I have red colored ones that I pack in my suitcase empty when we go on a trip. This is so nice if we are traveling to a different location mid trip and have half dirty and half clean clothes- you don't have to worry about them mixing. They also have ones that are waterproof so that you could put a wet swimsuit in it. (Like if you go to the beach right before your flight and it doesn't have time to dry-true story)

Whats the second largest component of your suitcase? Toiletries 

Pre-packed travel toiletries 

So what I discovered works well for us is that I have a separate toiletries that are just constantly packed and ready to go. I have a small toiletry bag that just has overnight basics (meds, toothbrush + accessories, brush and hair ties, face lotion). Then I have a separate toiletry bag that is all shower stuff. This is everything we need for showers packed into 3 oz  bottles. This stuff is constantly packed at my house this way I don't take anything out of our house and it makes it easy when packing for a trip. I just go to my linen closet and grab these bags and all the toiletries are packed. Every year around the 1st of the year I replace the toothbrushes, loofah and refill all the travel containers and give everything a good clean. 

When I am packing for a trip where I have to look nice (like going to a wedding) I have a separate bag that I put all my non-prepacked stuff in it (like makeup). This is usually where I forget something (like makeup remover)

Biggest recommendation: Don't bring full size unless you are going to use most of it. 

For example when we go to beach climates I bring a giant thing of sunscreen and we go through it because my husband is essentially a ghost- but everything else is travel size containers. Walmart/Target typically have a travel section that you can get small 3 oz containers for pretty cheap. I transfer our stuff into those containers to take with us. For toothpaste/floss I just use the travel ones that we get from the dentist every time we get our teeth cleaned. 

Random Items that I have found helpful for trips: 

Large Microfiber towels

One of my biggest packing pitfalls early in our traveling life was whether or not to bring towels. Especially if you are going on a beach vacation or if you are going somewhere and you're not 100% that they have towels (This literally happened to us in Taiwan- they didn't have towels at an air bnb- it was weird). This always irked me because towels take up so much space- wet or dry. Then I discovered Microfiber towels. Now these are not as fluffy as a nice beach towels but they are great for traveling. They are multi versatile- you can use them as a picnic blanket or when you spill a drink in your car- but they are very small when folded. These are also great for showering when camping! They also dry a lot quicker compared to a normal towel. We got ours at REI when we planned our Australia trip but you can also find them on amazon or any other outdoor store.  

Travel Clothesline 

I bought this on a whim and I have used it and loved it ever since. They are fairly inexpensive on Amazon. This is great for doing laundry mid trip or for hanging wet swimsuits in a shower. This one you can tie or clip in random places. 

Cord organizer 

This is another thing I bought on a whim and absolutely love. I was so tired of having a giant pile of cords at the bottom of my backpack and attempting to sort through them while on an airplane. These organizers are great. I keep all the cords, power chargers (see below) and headphones all together and they don't get tangled. 

Power chargers 

I usually pack at least one or two of these more as a just incase kind of a thing. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where I've used them all completely but they are nice to have to get you out of a tight spot where you don't have access to power.  This is getting better at the airports now because a lot of them have charging stations, but I've also used these for camping or at home when the power goes out for a long time.  The biggest issue I have it to remember to charge them a day before the trip. 

Extension cord/ Powerstrip with multiple plug ins

This sounds really silly but I can't tell you how many times I've stayed somewhere with only one plug in the room or all the plugs are being used by other things. Also if you are traveling out of the country and you only have 1 power converter having an extension cord with multiple plugs on it makes you able to charge more than one thing at a time. This also takes up minimal space in your luggage. 

Travel Wallet 

Do you really need to take your library card on vacation with you? I typically don't even bring a purse when traveling. We usually bring a small wallet with our IDs, 1 bank card, 1 credit card and our health insurance cards.  If we are going out of the country we also usually bring some sort of small coin purse for cash. 

A nurses guide to travel meds 

So as a nurse I've learned that when traveling with non-nurse friends they will most likely expect that you have a small pharmacy in your suitcase. Here is usually what I have packed: 

First of all most people either make one of two mistakes with medication 

1. They bring the entire packaging/bottle. This is way too bulky plus what are the odds that you are going to need 500 Ibuprofen for a one week vacation? You're going to need a stomach scope if you take all of that in one week. 

*** the exception to this is prescription medication- especially controlled substances. TSA doesn't really care that much about your blood pressure meds if you randomly get stopped but they will care if you've got something good like Xanax or Percocet and it's not in the original bottle. 

2. They buy the overpriced 1 dose packaged stuff. This is also bulky and you aren't going to get very far with one dose of pepto. 

To keep the bulk down you need a way to organize the medication as minimally as possible. I found this lovely medication organizer from Walgreens a few years ago and it is great for travel. I have two of these and depending on where we are going I bring one or both. 

This is the list of meds that I take on every trip: 

Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Benadryl, Ranitidine or Omeprazole (aka Prilosec or Pepcid), 

Plus as basic first aid kit: Basic band aids, Neosporin, medical tape, hydrocortisone cream, hand sanitizer 

If we are traveling out of the country- especially like central America where I'm worried about upset stomachs: 

Pepto Bismal (gods gift for travelers diarrhea), Meclizine (non drowsy motion sickness medicine), Dramamine (more powerful for nausea/motion sickness, but makes you drowsy)

I also always pack 1 dose of cold medicine. Cold medicine is so bulky that I don't like to pack a lot of it but I figure one dose will buy you 8 hours to figure out where to get more.  

If we are doing a flight that is 5+ hours I usually also pack baby aspirin and take a dose right before we get on the plane to prevent any blood clots. Obviously if you have contraindications to using aspirin don't do this.