Last summer I flew for the first time and went to the Dominican Republic with my boyfriend and his family. Although I was excited, I didn’t have a passport and I knew I had a lot of preparation. Everything I’ve ever heard about packing for flying is it can be tricky and TSA doesn’t play around. I went on Youtube and found some hacks and tips that really helped me and I must say, I don’t think my experience through Atlanta airport could’ve been easier than it was.
When it comes to packing clothes, most people fold them and stack them vertically, but what they don’t know is it actually takes up more room and it’s harder to see what clothes you have. A tip that I found helpful for organization and to make extra room for clothes is to either roll them tightly or fold them but pack them horizontally. If you fold and pack them horizontally, you can actually see what clothes you have and you don’t have to dig through them. Hats are also one of the hardest things to pack. They usually get deformed when traveling by clothes, but this hack works for all types of hats. If you are bringing socks, try filling the center of the hat with the socks so the hat doesn’t lose its shape.
To keep things even more organized, I highly recommend going to Amazon and buying packing cubes. These packing cubes are a game changer; you can divide your belongings by different types of clothing, shoes, undergarments, and hats or socks. Shoes can be really gross and no one wants their dirty shoes touching clean clothes, so these packing cubes keep that from happening. They are pretty inexpensive and it’s basically zip up bags that come in different sizes to best fit the variety of items. Before I discovered these, I would try to pack neatly so everything would stay organized, but by the second day of living out of my suitcase, everything is mixed together and almost impossible to sort through.
One of the biggest stresser for me was trying to fit all of my liquids in a quartz size bag for my carry-on. I love skincare products and have to have my own shampoo and conditioner, so this was a challenge. Luckily, I found a pack of 3 3.4 ounce squeezable silicone bottles on Amazon. They are the perfect size and you get every bit of the product without wasting some. Because they are silicone, they form to the other products that are in the bag, making it easier to fit more things. Something else I found helpful with fitting products in a quartz size bag is using travel sized products. When I order something from Sephora or Ulta, usually they give samples of products too, so I keep them for when I travel.
Using these tips for flying will make the packing experience easier and you’ll be able to go straight into enjoying your vacation with a little less stress .
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