Surprisingly many travelers are savvier as to how to find cheap travel options, such as cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packages, than they are about how to pack efficiently.
The following are inventive and ingenious packing tips for organizing bags, packing better and lighter from readers of Smart Travel:
Save important documents electronically so losing physical copies will not pose as big a problem. Email your itinerary, passport, parking ticket, credit card details, hotel information, etc. to your email account so you can access this information from anywhere.
One month prior to departure make a list of what you want to take on your upcoming trip. Place a mark next to each item you use in a month. Anything with less than three marks should be left at home unless it is something you will be using it exclusively while traveling.
Pack a couple of clothing items that you will not mind not bringing back with you. Then if you buy something new on your trip, swap out something that you have finished wearing and donate it to a charity. This should help ensure that you always have sufficient room in your bag while traveling.
Space-saving compression bags allow travelers to maximize what will fit in their bags. Travelers have found that simply placing clothes into gallon size Ziploc bags and then squeezing the air out helps when packing. Packing in such a manner sometimes means that you will only have to travel with carry-on bags and not pay for checked luggage.
Pack wine carefully in luggage you plan to check. If you dont want to spring for a travel bag specially designed to hold wine in bags, then cover wine bottles with clothes and then Ziploc bags.
Create a perpetually packed bag. Keep a set of travel essentials that never get unpacked, such as toiletries, emergency medications, passport, bathing suit, running shoes, etc. Make a point to refill toiletries when you return and leave them in your suitcase.
Swap some of your clothes when traveling with someone elses so that if either persons clothes get lost, you both still have clothes to tide you over.
Pack a timer that you can set each night for the amount of time you want to sleep. This is particularly useful when you will be traveling to multiple times zones since you will not have to worry about remembering to change the time on an alarm clock.
Consider shipping some of your things ahead of your trip instead of packing them.
If you will be renting a place with a kitchenette, transport spices you will likely use in a weeks pillbox, such as Italian seasoning, curry powder, onion powder, rosemary, garlic powder, cumin, and black or white pepper.
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