7 packing tips you didn't realize you need

Whether you live out of a backpack, a suitcase, or multiple suitcases, we could all benefit from some packing tips. As a female traveler who cares about personal grooming, it’s even more difficult to pack everything I use regularly. Here are a few tricks I’ve been using, and a few of them have more to do with planning than packing.

Have A Home Base

It takes a highly skilled minimalist to pack your entire life in luggages, and the strategy is just not feasible for most of us. Have a home base you can return to regularly, and keep the majority of your belongings there. Take just what you need  each time.

Choose Destinations Strategically

Between your visits to your home base, choose destinations that have similar climates, so the type of clothing you need to pack would work for both. That way, you won’t have to worry about packing your swimsuits along with your winter coats.

Choose Light Clothing

This applies to clothing for all seasons. For example, choose a pair of cotton pants or leggings over jeans, since jeans are bulkier and are harder to roll up. For winter, grab a few essential sweaters and coats to wear while you’re on the flight, and fill the majority of your wardrobe with long-sleeve t-shirts that you can switch out more frequently. For women, switch out your heavily padded undergarments with lightweight sports bras and bralettes if possible.

Travel Sized Everything

When it comes to personal care products, it’s almost impossible to take them all with you, especially when it becomes a nightmare at the airport security. Before packing your favorite products into travel sized containers, try to eliminate first. You can thin out a full coverage foundation with some lotion and even mix your lipstick with foundation to get eyeshadow or blush (trust me). You can even mix your serums with moisturizers. Whenever possible, think of ways to combine your products so you’d need to bring just a portion of them.

Luggage Organization

Luggage organizers have become a life saver for those who are either living out of it or packing a lot. Use them to separate the odor of your dirty laundry from your clean clothes. The most convenient one is an organizer for toiletries that you can take with you directly to the bathroom.

Digitize Everything

Besides digitizing all the files you need for work, opt to purchase ebooks instead of physical books. Products such as Kindle are quite good at substituting for regular books. Back everything up on the cloud to make sure you never lose any important documents.

Buy It There

We tend to overpack because we worry what would happen if we forget something. As obvious as it sounds, if you forget something, you can almost always buy it (or a substitute) at the destination. Yes, it might take a while to find a darker foundation in Asia, or to find reasonably priced red party cups outside of America, but you will find it.