Until now, all of my “Travel Tips” and “What to Pack” posts have focused on what to take on vacation. You know, the must-haves for mom, families and children alike. However, it occurred to me this morning that often, we needlessly complicate the process. Packing cubes! Reminder notes! To-do lists! We know how to keep on top of the things we need to take, but what can we leave at home?
Today, I’m pleased to share tips for things you can absolutely, positively, totally leave home without.
(Sounds like your kind of list? Me too!)
1. Your Life Story. Take a peek at your wallet. If you’re travelling with your Social Insurance Card, every credit card and store card you own, your membership cards, frequent customer cards and more, you’re travelling with too much damned access to your entire life story. Edit, friends! In the unfortunate event that your wallet is misplaced (or stolen), you don’t want to add identity theft to your list of troubles.
2. Emergency Clothes. What the heck are “emergency clothes?” Pack a minimal number of mix-and-match outfits that you can wear at least once for a 3-4 day vacation, twice for a 7-day vacation. Leave busy, memorable patterns at home and opt for pieces that complement a variety of styles and colours. My best tip: denim is extremely heavy! If you must wear jeans, take one pair and wear them on the airplane.
3. Stress. It’s VA-CA-TION, amigos! You can totally leave stress at home. Whether you’re ready or not, you’re on borrowed time now – time to unwind, relax, take a break, take a nap. Remember, your vacation will only be as rewarding as you make it! My proactive technique is to turn on my “out of office” alert a full day before I leave, so I won’t be tempted to put out fires when I should be slipping into vacation mode.
4. Full-Sized Toiletries. Okay, we know it’s a no-no to bring full-sized bottles of shampoo and cleanser. But it’s not always easy to find clear, travel-sized plastic bottles – especially last minute, when you need them! That’s why I always save small hand sanitizer bottles; I rinse and re-purpose them for travel. Think about it: they’ve been storing an alcohol-based product so they’re already quite sterile, and they’re the perfect size for carry-on travel, too.
5. Arranging a Travel Pack for Mobile. Still purchasing a travel pack before you leave? You *need* to roam like home! With Rogers Roam Like Home, you can search, share and connect just like you do at home when you use Roam Like Home with your Share Everything plan. It’s true! You can get unlimited calling and messaging to Canadian numbers and to local numbers in the destination you’re visiting, plus you’ll use data from your Share Everything plan. In the U.S., it’s only $5/day, and now you can roam for just $10/day to Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico, South and Central America, Asia, South Africa, Oceania and the Middle East!
The best part? Text travel to 222 to enroll once in Roam Like Home, and you’ll be automatically covered for each successive trip. Nothing to arrange. Just leave. Just go.
I hope you’ve found my list of things you can (totally) leave home without, helpful! Did I miss something? What would you add?
Great tips! You also don’t need to pack shoes to go with every outfit. Pick a couple pairs that will go with anything.
Wow, so true, I’ve never though about travelling with all those cards could be such as risk
great tips, especially leaving the stress at home. But then I won’t want to go home when holiday is done. I love holidays, so fun and relaxing. Get idea to leave lots of unneeded cards at home too.
great tips!
Emergency Clothes! That is me. I always pack way too much.
Great Tips!
Good tips – I really like the idea of reusing hand sanitizer bottles for travel bottles!
I am a notorious over-packer whenever I travel. I try, but I always fail :)
Thanks for bringing this to our attention,these are great tips.We have to be prepared and protect ourselves
A great list, and like you I do scour my wallet and purse to remove as much as possible before going away. :-)
leave your personal data at home as well. wipe your phone and only store the bare essentials. phones can be subject to search by custom’s officers
Love these tips especially editing your wallet of excess cards!
Thanks for the great travel tips Lena.Editing your wallet is the best one!Going forward,it’s going to be # 1 on my travel list.
what a great idea to save small sanitizer bottles and use those for your shampoo conditioner etc! i don’t travel much but it’s nice to know those things for when the day comes along :)
$5 a day!? that’s a great deal! tfs
you should also leave your gadgets home. just carry the absolute bare essentials. consider a cheap smartphone (used even) for travel purposes.
My husband laughs at me each time I clear out my wallet before vacation…then the last time he lost his wallet. ‘Nuf said.
I always bring the local currency as well so I don’t have to worry about trying to find a ATM or paying with credit card. It helps me stay on budget when I pay cash too!
Great advice. I’d definitely say packing stresses me out. lol
I always have to bring local currency, I seem to ALWAYS have trouble with my atm card when I need it. Makes for some sticky situations
Thanks for all those great tips. I like the tips about leaving stress at home and editing your wallet. My problem is that I always pack too much clothes.
leave behind the air. use a vacuum sealer to pump the air out of your clothes and reduce the amount of space it takes up in your luggage
I leave my phone at home
Thanks for the tips!!
Editing for travel is such a good idea. I even edit my wallet before I go out for a night of drinks with girlfriends in my own town because all too often someone will leave their purse behind, have it stolen, etc. So this also applies to more than just travel!
These are some fabulous tips & ideas, never thought about minimizing the wallet content! Thats a great one. Thanks so very much
a lot of great tips! Plus wear sweaters and heaviest shoes on the plane instead of packing it into your luggage
Wow, these are some great tips. Thank you!
Great tips Lena as per usual. I need to work on leaving my stress at home! :)
Great advice. I have been told before about not carrying your SIN card around with you.
Wonderful tips! Thanks! I’m always over packing and its not really necessary!
Wonderful list!
Great tips. I made sure my wife read this as well as she always over packs.
Its a great tip to only have what you really need in your wallet when traveling,i have passed these tips on to my daughter who travels quite often and usually takes everything.It can be expensive sometimes depending on the cards you lose.My sister lost her wallet and she found out later that they spend all her points at Shoppers and she had around $450. worth.
Fantastic tips!! I usually take only two pairs of shoes – runners and a dressy neutral colour
Guess we are all guilty of taking out all our cards and putting them in a home safeplace. But sometimes they always manage to end up all together again. Will have to be more diligent, may not be a bad idea to take a picture of ID that I carry at one time in case my purse gets lost/stolen.
This is such a great list, especially your wallet contents because I was told years ago to never carry my social insurance card because someone can steal your whole life with that one card. So I took I took it out immediately and I keep it at home.
awesome tips , thanks for sharing :)