In this case, my husband’s fears are justified. With
airlines charging more and more for overweight checked baggage, my tendency to
push it to the weight limit pushes him over the edge. I’ve never been able to
travel light. My husband can leave the house for the weekend with a plastic
shopping bag’s worth of his belongings and not think once about a change in the
weather that would have him chilled and needing a sweater or a change in dinner
plans that might require a tie. His theory is that if we’re not going to a
place where he can stop into a store to buy what he needs, he doesn’t need it.
If the dinner plans now require a tie, either change the plan or go buy a tie –
but never take one with you “in case.”
Ah, it’s always the “in case” that gets me. Maybe being a
mother does that to a person. Maybe its having experienced the exhausting
search for a department store in a strange town just to find men’s socks
because he only packed one pair for the whole weekend and they got soaked in
the rain on the first day. Maybe it’s just my nature to be prepared.
I can tell you this: my “over packing” or “preparedness” as
I like to refer to it has allowed me to save the day on some of our travels.
Ok, perhaps the day wouldn’t have been ruined had I not thought to bring a
length of rope and some clothespins so that our swimsuits could drip dry on the
patio and be ready for an evening swim after dinner.
Here’s a list of some things I always pack for a trip away
from home:
- Small kid’s safety scissors – it just so happens that not so long ago I had a small kid and we have a few pairs of these hanging around. They’re the perfect size to fit into your toiletries bag and you’ll be happy to have them when you need to cut open that plastic encased set of earphones you had to buy because the ones your brought got left in the plane.
- Clothespins and a 3 – 4 foot length of rope – I have a zip bag in my regular suitcase with a dozen small wooden clothespins and a thin but strong rope. It’s been tied to chairs on a patio to dry our damp clothes and to lamps and a bedpost to dry travel documents that wafted into a puddle.
- Air freshener – it could be the air freshener/disinfectant combo to pull double duty but here I’m recommending anything to freshen a stale or musty hotel room and – more importantly – the smells that occur when people are traveling on vacation, staying in a small room, being thrown off their regular routines and diets, and well . . . perhaps you know where I’m going with this. Just get some – they come in travel size. If you’re concerned about your liquids for carryon, even a candle (don’t forget matches) will do.
- Zip bags – ALWAYS have zip bags. I have a handful of heavy duty zip bags in different sizes that I use over and over again. A larger one is used for my case of vitamins and medicine. (Have you ever had one of these open up in your luggage? I have.) Another holds my contact lens stuff together and there’s one I use for things that have the potential of exploding in your suitcase, like lotions and hair care products. Smaller ones hold jewelry or pens or an impromptu sewing kit. I have a small drawer that I keep my travel things in and when I return from a trip and unpack my stuff, I put the bags in there as well as the travel sized products I return with. AND I always travel with a few to spare for situations that arise. I’ve used them to protect my camera, printed passes, travel documents when at theme parks on wet rides. They’ve protected dinner leftovers and keep all my tech thingamabobs from raveling everything together into one ball of cords and plugs. They’re great to use to collect seashells and also keep souvenirs and receipts dry and in one place. I can’t possibly list all their uses when traveling. Best thing ever invented.
- Duct tape –Works to hold together a hair gel bottle that got crushed (and is now oozing) in transit. Works to identify your luggage on the airport carousel – just wrap the handle or stick it somewhere you’ll be able to see as it rounds the corner. It patches tears in clothing, shoes and bags, can be a child safety cover for the outlets in your hotel room, and can take the lint off of anything.
- Wipes (baby or not) – my mother raised four kids and then helped raise dozens more running a daycare and loving her grandchildren. The woman was always ready with a wet facecloth in a plastic bag. From wiping our faces at a barbeque to cleaning off the trays on the kids highchairs in restaurants, they served an innumerable amount of purposes. Now I rarely leave the house without some sort of wipes within reach. Disinfectant wipes to clean, well, everything. Baby wipes for the faces and hands. In the car they can save upholstery from costly stains, clean the dusty console when you’re stopped at traffic lights, and wipe sticky fingerprints or paw prints from the windows. Lysol or other disinfecting wipes are a necessity in a hotel room, from the door knobs to the remote control (yuck!) to the bathroom counters and toilet seat. Whether you’re there for a week or a day, it’s most likely that someone was there before you. I’m not a germ freak at all, and maybe I should be given the number of things that can live on for days on the surfaces we touch, but some things need wiping.
- Safety pins – as part of your travel sewing kit or not, safety pins are a multifunctional tool. Clasp the zippers of your day pack together to deter thieves; use in place of a missing button, zipper pull, or to mend other wardrobe malfunctions; tack kids' pant legs up when hiking through mucky terrain; even prevent static cling in a dress or skirt by slipping the safety pin into the seam of your slip (the metal has repelling properties). Bring a few to share. You could make someone’s day so much better by having one to offer a fellow traveler. Build up your travel karma bank.
- Luggage scale – referring back to my husband’s fears of the overweight suitcase, I bought this travel luggage scale from L.L. Bean. It serves triple duty – it’s got a built in alarm clock and flashlight. I find it especially useful on the return flight when I’ve added items I’ve purchased into the suitcase and there might be some wet clothes in there to just add to the weight. For years, I weighed the bag at home (me on the scale holding bag, me on the scale not holding bag, do the math = weight of bag) and that was fine. I’d often cut it close (47 pounds when the limit is 50 is one I remember) and then sweat it out as we approach the baggage scale at the airport, crossing my fingers that our scales weren’t too far off each other. So now I bring this luggage scale along, use it before the first flight then before the flight home, and in between to wake me for whatever adventure is next.
- Small soft sided cooler – we have a half dozen coolers: the big red plastic take-to-the-lake cooler, the huge soft side dual compartment cooler, several mid sized, just-enough-for-a-beach-day cooler, and a handful of take-it-to-work-for-lunch coolers. The one I usually pack for a trip – if flying – is a soft sided cooler without the molded plastic interior. I can fold it flat in the bottom of my suitcase and it acts as a cushion against bumps and jolts, then when we arrive and unpack, we have a cooler to use for our day trips. On the return trip it has held the damp and sandy swimsuits and flip flops and the muddy hiking boots so that they don’t ruin the rest of the bag’s contents.
- As always- The Book of Joy – a flexibly bound binder that holds – in order of their necessity (and in plastic sleeves) the boarding passes, the rental car reservation information, maps or directions to the hotel or resort, hotel reservation info with check in times and any prepaid excursions, passes or tickets. Make extra copies of each to give to your traveling companion. Include a copy of your passport and driver’s license, in case they’re lost. Reverse the order of the paperwork for the return trip (hotel, rental car drop off info, flight home info). NOTE: Somewhere else on your person carry a sheet of contact numbers, account numbers, logins and passwords to your credit cards, bank accounts, and your travel miles or frequent flier info. You could put it into your phone, too, but have a backup copy printed somewhere that someone you can contact can reach in case you need to have it. Another idea on this: often, if booking online as I do most of the time, I get an email confirmation of the travel info. I forward that to one of the email accounts I have that will not be cleared off the server by your Outlook or other account. Gmail, Yahoo, etc work fine like this. That way if you lose some of your documents and your phone, you can usually access these accounts from any pc and you can then forward the info to wherever you are or print it directly from the business center at the hotel or write down the numbers you need.
So,
if you’re wondering – I’ve never gone over the weight limit of my checked
baggage either coming or going on a trip. I know that what I’ve stuffed into my
carry on is at times, heavy and cumbersome, but the peace of mind I get knowing
I’m prepared outweighs the pounds I’m carrying.
And
once in a while . . . I get to be a hero. Need scissors? Oh sure, I've got that.
