I am an anxious traveler. Well, actually, I’m an anxious person, but that manifests strongly when preparing for a trip. There’s always the nagging feeling that I am forgetting something while packing, or that I’m going to pack the wrong clothes and really actually miss that rain jacket when going to the desert. This results in me switching between staring at my closet and a pile of clothes until I eventually just throw a bunch of things in my bag and hope for the best.
So, to manage what is left of my sanity, I have invested in several travel essentials to make packing as smooth as possible. This post highlights everything that has helped reduce the amount of thought and effort I need to put into packing so now I just wonder why packing didn’t take me as long and if I really have everything that I need. Baby steps, I suppose.
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Away Roller Luggage
If you’ve been on social media over the last few years, you’ve probably seen an ad for Away. It’s easy to think that it’s going to be all flashy advertising, but my husband and I have bought several Away bags at this point and we love them.
I love the compartmentalization of the interior. I love the built-in dirty clothes bag. The roller wheels are super smooth and the bags feel sturdy. After several trips there are some scuffs on the exterior but nothing out of the ordinary. I can’t vouch for how Away compares to other brands on the market (because a lot of hard sided luggage companies have popped up) but we’ve liked ours enough to invest in several pieces, which should tell you something.
If I had to redo anything with our Away purchases, I would get the expandable zipper version in all of our sizes, as I regret only getting the regular zipper in the medium size. I would also wait until they released a seasonal color that I really enjoyed. The Coast color that I have is fine, but I still managed to have my bag next to an identical one in an overhead bin, so having something more unique would be nice. (If you’re worried about that scenario, I always put colored tape or luggage tags on my handles so it’s easy to identify in a hurry.)
Makeup / Toiletries Bag
I searched a while before finally settling on this specific Bagsmart makeup bag. Before this I had been using those free bags that come with makeup bundles, but without any pockets, sifting through those to find a single eyeliner became tiring.
I like this particular style of toiletry bag because it has a fairly small footprint for the amount of things it can hold, so it can still fit on a smaller sink. I like that it has two compartments, which I split into makeup and regular toiletries. It also has a plastic zipper pocket to store wet things like toothbrushes, and other small pockets to help further organize. The outside is also water-resistant, so I worry less about accidentally placing it in a puddle of water by the sink.
Go Toob+
Before I purchased the set of Go Toob+ containers, my toiletries were a variety of garbage shampoos and soaps stolen from hotels, mini samples from Sephora, and maybe the occasional product decanted into a random cheap (leaky!) container. Changing to a dedicated set of toiletry containers means that I can easily take my good quality skin and hair care products with me. The dedicated containers permanently live in the above bag so that I don’t need to spend time individually packing shampoo, conditioner, face soap, etc.
I like the Go Toobs specifically because the large mouth of the container makes it fairly mess-free to decant from larger packaging into the travel container. I purchased the small size tubes, which I find to hold more than enough product to get me through even two weeks of travel. The lid has a flip up handle that locks in the cap, so it pretty much guarantees no leakage unless something isn’t tightened properly. The silicone material and wide cap also makes them super easy to clean if you want to swap whatever fluid you put in them.
The Go Toobs do have some cons, unfortunately. Their shape is not very stackable, so they can take up a weird amount of space in the toiletry bag. There’s also no built-in way to label them. I’ve ended up using my trusty label maker (as featured in my unique wedding registry post) to print out labels for each lid, which has worked, but is annoying if you want to stand the tube on its lid.
So far, though, they have withstood several years of travel with no leaks or other problems, so I’m willing to overlook the cons to recommend them.
Pill Organizer
Before buying this pill organizer I used to individually take bottles of whatever I thought I might need on my trip. Not only did that take up a ton of space, it also was inevitably useless when I remembered allergy medicine but didn’t pack something for an upset stomach.
I’ve found that this little pill holder is a great way to carry a bit of all the OTC medications I might need on a trip, without having to individually remember six different types of sickness I might run into.
I, of course, used the label maker again to print out labels with the drug name and dosage, which saves trying to interpret pill markings if you’ve forgotten what pill you put where (Seriously, just buy the label maker). Overall this little pill organizer is a compact way to carry the essentials for a vacation.
Cord Organizer
My packing list used to have multiple different types of cables to match all of my various electronics – MicroUSB, USB-C, Garmin watch charger, USB wall outlet, external battery, etc, etc. I used to try to nicely wrap all these cables before placing them in my backpack, but they would just end up turning into a rats nest of tangles.
Much like the above pill organizer, this cord organizer helped to wrangle all of these individual items into one place, so that I could just pack the cord organizer and not have to worry about forgetting something. It helped immensely with organization in my backpack, so that I could easily access the cord I am looking for without everything getting tangled. It also made it easier to pack around the cords, as the organizer is a roughly uniform rectangular shape versus whatever nebulous blob the cords would create on their own.
There are a few different configurations of cord organizer. I found that this one was the perfect size to fit my travel essentials, but if you tend to pack more electronics there are larger ones as well.
All in One Charger
Social media got me again with this one, with a slick video advertisement showing an external battery that has a wall outlet and a charging cable built in. I’ve purchased Anker products before, so I figured why not, all of my external batteries had the older MicroUSB connections so I might as well upgrade to USB-C.
The all-in-one charger has met my expectations. I really find it useful for traveling when the outlet in your hotel room is inconveniently far from your bed. Instead of trying to pull a long cable across the floor, or leaving your phone at a desk away from arms length, you can charge overnight via the battery, and then top up the battery charge in the morning or when you’ve left the room for the day.
It’s also great that everything is included, so you can toss it in a purse or a large pocket and feel secure knowing that you have everything possible to keep your phone alive.
Travel Essentials Verdict
So those are the travel essentials that have helped me become a little less stressed when packing for a trip. I found that having designated items for travel has helped a lot. It’s much easier to pack a toiletry bag with all of the necessary toiletries already inside versus trying to track down all of the individual items that you packed last trip.
What do you think? Is there anything that has altered the way you pack for trips that I’ve missed on this list? Let me know in the comments!
If I find anything else in my travels, I’ll update this post with the details! If you want to keep on top of the latest reviews, be sure to join my email list so you don’t miss out!
