Where’s that travel-size shampoo bottle?

I travel a few times a year and always do carry-on with my luggage, which means I need to keep my favorite hair products and contact solutions in travel-size bottles, size 3.4 oz or less per TSA requirement.  All those bottles fit in one clear zipped bag. When I go through security, taking out the clear bag is easy and quick. There’s another reason for keeping small liquid bottles in a plastic zipped bag, if one of the bottles leaks, it won’t bleed onto clothes in the suitcase.

Once I return home, I fill up those bottles and put them back in the clear bag. I keep it in my suitcase. That way I don’t forget it and it’s always full and ready to go whether it’s a weekend trip, or longer.

Miriam travels domestically and internationally annually. Prior to working with her, she stored her travel bottles, camera, and international travel chargers in different rooms in her house. Packing was such a chore for her and she always forgot something which resulted in buying duplicates on her trip. She wanted to stop wasting money and acquiring unnecessary products. So we pulled all of those items together into one area to keep travel necessities. There was a big empty drawer in the guest room perfect for storing travel-related items including her camera. It’s also a place where she puts gifts for people she’s traveling to see so when the time comes to start packing, she knows where to go.  The key thing is, when she returns home, those items are returned to the same drawer until her next trip. That’s another way to store travel-related items together since Miriam often uses different suitcases depending on the length of her trip.

What’s your trick for keeping yourself organized when packing for your trips?

Side note: These blog stories feature real clients and their organizing solutions. To maintain client privacy, all names have been changed.