Travel Hacks That Will Save Your Next Flight Trip and Bags

Today, you're going to see ordinary items used in extraordinary ways. I'm going to share my ultimate travel hack list with tips and tricks, some classic ones that I've shared before, as well as a lot of hacks that our viewers have shared. As a pilot's wife, some of the travel hacks just come to me when I'm traveling, and others I have learned from a flight attendant, like using the coat hanger from the hotel room pants hanger to close your curtains. If you've ever seen flippy socks, they're a pair of socks, and one of them has a hidden pocket on the outside that'll fit maybe one or two credit cards in it. But the awkward part is that you have to reach down on the side to unzip and get out your card. So Gemini Forever, one of our viewers, says that she wears that sock on the other foot so that the pockets on the inside and then she just crosses her leg up and opens it that way. Ordinary or extraordinary? If you want to shop any of the items, I can have some things pop up in the bottom left corner or they'll be in the more paragraph right under this video for you. Another travel hack is using your arch support insert sole and a no-show sock. And you're going to cover your arch insert upside down with the sock. And then when you wear your shoe, it's going to feel like you're wearing a sock and it's not going to show at all. Instead of buying a bag that's a little expensive, but worth it to me, that has locking zippers, you can use zipper clips. And that way you can put them on any bag for any two zippers that are beside each other. Another travel hack is to not use the pocket that the zipper clips on in the front of your bag. You're going to reach on the inside of your backpack to an inner zipped pocket. And that's where you're going to put your passport or some of your valuables. Another travel hack is to buy a cut resistant crossbody strap on Amazon. I cannot believe the quality of this and it's easy to just attach to whichever crossbody bag you want. It slows down a thief, much like hiding your passport or valuables in an inside zipper pocket. If you can slow them down, they will move on to an easier target. If you've never seen my coat with backpack straps, they are amazing. Bernardo makes them. And when you are in Europe and it's freezing cold or it's rained and then you go inside a museum or a restaurant, you just take it off and put the backpack straps on it. It is a brilliant invention. One of our viewers said you can find those straps and sew them into your coat from Etsy. Here's a travel hack using a rain jacket. You're going to move the hood part down and then you're going to start rolling up your rain jacket from the base of your jacket. And then when you get it all at the end, you're going to nestle everything in the hood and use it as lumbar support in your airplane seat if you need to. One of our viewers said that you could use a neck pillow as a phone prop. If you forget yours, my favorite one is the, I don't know what it's called, but it is strong enough for an iPad or any type of electronic to watch entertainment in the airplane seat. Another travel hack is to take a packet of antibacterial wipes and separate them into sandwich baggies. One of them is going to go in your personal item bag, your crossbody bag, a couple in your suitcases maybe, and they won't all dry out. Another travel hack I learned last year when I bought this hard shell AirPods case is for the end of a long flight when you've been uncomfortable and in a really cramped airplane seat. That's when you want to put in your cute earrings and this protects them while you're flying. And I just had the case in my seat back pocket and I just pull it out with the little wristlet right there. Okay, when you are looking for your cords that you're going to use for technology when you travel, a lot of them get tangled and they're usually all black. One of our viewers said that she buys a pink cord and that way she knows what that one goes with. But another travel hack is to use decorative tape from Michaels or somewhere or fingernail polish and you're going to tape that certain pattern on the block and the cord and the device. Another travel hack is to use the hotel paper or dish that sits under the glasses for drinking in the hotel room. That way your jewelry is going to be set apart and it won't blend in very well with the countertop granite. One of our viewers named Joy gave us this travel hack. Super easy. It's got to be the most ordinary but extraordinary travel hack and that is to wear your crossbody bag when you're touring on vacation and then tie a sweater or your jacket around your waist on top of the crossbody bag. It's just another level of slowing down a potential thief. This is one that I shared on one of the very first shorts video, the vertical videos that I've ever made and it's using a little snack container of Pringles that is empty and you've cleaned out and you're going to put a baggie of pretzel and Chex Mix snack mix and then you're going to put a baggie of cut carrots then you're going to put a bag of some granola bar cut up into chunks and then you're going to sprinkle M&Ms all down in the can for a nice little treat and that's your own container for mid-flight. One of my favorite uses for a little gum container that has like the best hard plastic in your grocery store aisle is to use it in an extraordinary way for travel and I have my newest find these pink q-tips. Are they not adorable? They're so so cute but one of our viewers Yvonne has another has many travel hack uses inside this gum container or the q-tip container. You can put little travel size nail files, you can put wet hand wipes, you can do those little blister packs that I love that are stretchy and waterproof as well as regular band-aids. Another viewer said you can keep keep another viewer said you can keep spare change in the little container in the glove box of your car. Let me know if you're making a penny Christmas ornament with the leftover pennies that you have. Okay with your personal item I want you to use this hack and that is don't just put your items into the top of your bag vertically. I want you to change the shape of them the way you put them in to build an organization inside your personal item bag and see if that helps. I have a freebie that I'm going to put below in the more paragraph. It's just a visual to help you be more organized inside your personal item bag. This one's by Nomad Lane. It's the bento backpack. It's a bento bag but vertically standing up. Another hack is going through airport security with family members who need a lot of extra time or you have a broken leg or they have PTSD or they have sensory issues or autism something Alzheimer's like that. The TSA Cares is an amazing program and it's free if you sign up for it five days in advance and they have it at your airport. The officers are trained in TSA to deal with those type of issues and you just fill out the form, wait for the email, show up and it usually means you get your own lane and you're not rushed or you do not feel panicked or rushed with loud noises or all these people behind you. I'll have my video where I interview the TSA officers and the direct link where you can sign up for it below. One idea especially if you're going to Hawaii or somewhere in Europe in the summer is just to pack a few colored ponchos instead of your rain jacket. They're easy to slide into your crossbody bag, a backpack pocket. Just an idea, I have the newest ones from Amazon that are colored and you get seven different colors. Now I'm going to show you some of the best travel hacks specifically for women. Fantastic ordinary uses for extraordinary women. One of the first travel hacks is for carry-on luggage. You can tie a brightly colored scarf, a scrap piece of fabric and tie it around the handle of your carry-on luggage and if it gets checked last minute it's easy to identify. One old travel hack that I have shared before is to just put a piece of blue tape like painter's tape on the outside or two sides of your carry-on suitcase to help identify it or buy a bright green carry-on suitcase like I have and that way other people will not mistake your suitcase for theirs. Another travel hack is to roll your clothes lengthwise if you do not fold. Sometimes I have an extra shirt or an extra thin sweater like this that I can fit in if I roll it lengthwise and then pack it lengthwise against the length of the suitcase. Another travel hack is to help you not have to pack as many liquids in your liquids bag and by that I mean you're going to pack just a little container of your special shampoo and you're going to mix it in your hand with only a small amount with the hotel's shampoo, a small amount. I've also packed only a Lush shampoo bar or they also have conditioner bars. I have Dry Scalp and there's only one at the Lush website. That travel hack is so that you do not have to pack so many containers in your liquids bag. This travel hack is for a hotel room. You can pack your makeup brushes in a crossbody bag purse and then when you get to your hotel room just put them in the little mug that the hotel provides. You can turn the paper cup that hotels provide upside down and poke your toothbrush in the bottom of it to stand up so it does not have to touch the counter. And also if you are in a pinch, sometimes the hotel room TVs have a USB thing on the back that your charging cord could plug into so you do not need a wall outlet, especially if you're in another country. If you're going to a dry vacation location like Las Vegas or Phoenix, Arizona, you might want to use this travel hack and that is to pack moisturizer and tinted moisturizer as your foundation instead of your regular makeup. Another travel hack is if you are in the airplane and you need a pillow but you do not want to take a pillow because the airline may charge you, you're going to fill a compression cube which compresses the air between the clothes and you're going to pack maybe two shirts, two pairs of undies and a sock. Zip it up, double zip it. There's no vacuum needed in my six piece set and then that's going to be in the bottom of your personal item bag. In your flight you're going to take it out. If you need a pillow you can put it there or against the wall of the airplane. If the airline checks your bag last minute and then they lose it, you also have an extra outfit ready to go. That helped me go viral on Instagram a couple of years ago. I want to remind you of this easy travel hack. If you have a raincoat or if you have a winter coat, wear it in the airport or drape it over your carry-on suitcase in the airport. The travel hack is this. Inside their pockets you're going to have a little trash bag. When you get into the airplane or to the gate you want to take off your jacket, roll it up and put it in that trash bag and then that can fit above your suitcase or above your personal item bag. Especially if you're traveling to two different climates and it's hot here but it's freezing cold there. That's worked for me being in Houston. Humid. Another travel hack is an easy one. Use scotch guard to spray on some of your shoes to help them be more water repellent or protect them from the stains and then also on any canvas bag like my love book backpacks. Spray them on there for stains. Here's a travel hack for your passport. This is one of the most watched videos in vertical form on my youtube channel and I tell people in case you lose your passport here's what you do. Open it to the very back cover and take a picture of that bar code and people are like well it's the same information that is on the inside picture page of your passport but here's why. If you have a picture of the bar code then some stranger does not see all of your personal information. Sometimes that passport number has your identity attached to it and which makes it easier to steal your identity so that anytime you want to replace your passport that's going to make it faster because the optimizing whatever machine can scan it and read it instantly but also other people who are in your hotel room who might look at the copy of your picture page of your passport and steal your identity that way that person may not if it's just the bar code. Does that make sense? So it's protecting your identity from the copies of your passport being stolen and one relief for all travelers out there traveling with a passport to know is if your passport booklet is open all the way that's the only time that a criminal could steal your identity from the chip that's in that book of your passport. Your identity is inside this little chip that is embedded in the booklet or the outer cover of your passport booklet which helps with stolen identity protection very much. Your credit cards definitely can have your information stolen from the chip and that's why you need to take like an RFID wallet that has the blocking technology or you can take the little sleeves that are RFID blocking for each card if that helps. Here's a travel hack for packing bras. One of my husband's favorite boxer companies is Tommy John and they suggest that you stack your bras and then in each cup pack it with molding things like socks like I did with my homecoming dress in high school. Stuff each cup with socks. Another tip is to have a packing cube not the compression kind but a packing cube. Have the cup be in the corner section and you fold the bra in half so that the cups fit inside each other. Match the cups to the corner of the packing cube or match them to the corner of your suitcase is what I have also done before and I would also do that with packing a hat. Pack it upside down and then fill the head of the hat with a sweater, shirts, socks. One travel hack that Tommy John suggested is this. You're going to pack your bra stack two bras if you need to inside a gallon baggie and you're going to blow some air like seal it halfway and blow some air in the gallon baggie and that air somewhat protects it once you seal the bag. These travel hacks are how to pack shoes. You can pack them in a shower cap. You can pack shoes in the free newspaper bag if you still get that like we do. You can pack them in a produce bag and remember they do not have to be packed together in carry-on suitcase. It's like Tetris. Just make them fit where there is space. One travel tip is to pack shoes first. You've got the bulky items first and then you can fill in the little pockets and pack socks or other items inside your shoes. One of my viewers named Vicky had a new travel hack and she says that she packs her makeup brushes in an umbrella bag like the travel size umbrella bag. I do now have this hard shell case. Oh my word you can pack so many different things in that hard shell umbrella case. So smart Vicky. You can also roll up a sweater especially a fragile sweater really nice or one that has like a waffle weave or holes all through it that you would wear over a tank top or something inside a shower cap. One travel hack that I do I finally bought I had a big one like a long one with a mirror but I found out I didn't really need that mirror or the space. So I pack a magnetized customizable little makeup palette. I've always used Mary Kay. My friend uses a Saint which they have a really pretty palette but you can just customize it and I only take like my neutral colors with maybe one or two accents for eyeshadow. You think you're going to dress up a lot or put on makeup sometimes on vacation and you end up being so casual and not caring sometimes. One travel hack that I figured out after about 10 years of packing an only carry-on suitcase because as a pilot's wife we used to only fly standby. I learned if you pack your liquid containers horizontally you can fit more in. Is that not so smart? But here is what I just learned in 2024. I was packing all my liquid containers like as one okay and I'll be like oh gosh I can barely fit anything else in there but look at all of the space that I'm losing. If you pack different sized containers my travel tip is to pack the small containers at the last and you're going to fill in those long containers first. I have two toothpaste tubes in there. Anyway that's going to help you as well so you're not wasting any space and then your long skinny containers like a Tide pen which is a travel hack in itself for any stain that comes up. Those or your eyeshadow primer or mascara those would fit lengthwise on the ends of your bag. This is my really skinny bag that I pack if I'm going to Europe because they have really strict airport security rules for liquids. Another travel hack that people love I love sharing it is this. It's very old. Instead of packing like your makeup remover in a travel size you just squirt your makeup remover on cotton balls and then zip them in a little Ziploc baggie and they stay moist and one of our viewers said that if she's on a trip longer than five days then she will add a couple of drops of water to the bag to add some moisture to the bag. Hope that helps. This travel hack is for checked luggage and what you're going to do is or what's what this is mainly for is if you need to pack like a fragile glass bottle of something or like a something fragile okay you're gonna put your socks over your hand like that and they're gonna fit inside your shoe okay for protection and then you're going to slide that glass bottle down in your socks before putting them in your shoe for added protection. The newest travel hack for me is if you are flying to Europe. I bought a dual voltage curling iron. Now I do not have to pack those bulky converter that will I can plug my curling iron into. Real quick the travel tip for converters versus adapters is your curling iron or hairdryer that you buy here in America they have to be plugged into a converter before they can be plugged into an adapter that fits that wall for that country. I have a whole video I'll make pop up up here somewhere for you that explains it in more depth and my river cruise trip video explains it as well but it actually worked it works just fine here plugging into my outlet and it worked totally easily in Europe. Another travel hack that I learned in Brussels for my Christmas market trip is pack more adapters. We have so many electronics in some hotels even this fancy Marriott hotel right off of the Grand Place in Brussels only had one outlet in the bedroom part so if you are traveling with anybody you need more outlets and you need more adapters which have the outlets in them. Mine has like three so highly recommend that. This travel hack is for washing your face. I absolutely love these wristbands now that came with this awesome headband that the younger people are wearing now for their videos on makeup and all that kind of stuff the wristbands stop the water while you're washing your face they stop the water from dripping down your arms especially if you're wearing a long sleeve shirt for your pajama shirt these block all the water well they are bulky I mean kind of but a travel hack is to just pack your little headband things and wrap them around your wrist twice and that would also block the water. If you've never tried those wristband things y'all they are like gold for this 52 year old lady. Another travel tip that's for safety is in different countries if you use a taxi ask the amount of the fare before you get into the car and then if you are using an uber always make sure the license plate matches what the uber app says the car is going to have. One travel hack to pack less is to pack several tide sink packets they do count as a liquid so they need to be in your liquids bag you can wash like three or four shirts lots of undies in just one sink full of that washing or use the bathtub and the hotel shampoo. Another travel hack especially for a long flight beside a crying baby is noise canceling headphones or noise canceling airpods. Mine I finally got these last winter I think maybe two winters ago for Christmas they close that noise immediately you need to listen when the flight attendants are making their safety briefing at the beginning. My husband just got noise canceling headphones this year and he's like wow that really blocks the noise they are worth it. Here's a travel hack for packing medicine make sure you have your essential must-have medicine in your purse lineup bag instead of in your carry-on suitcase. I have a whole video on how you need to pack it for international and domestic flights that is has been really confusing at the beginning but I give many scenarios through that video so please watch the entire video before asking me what if this what if that because I think that video is going to help you but if the airline has to check your luggage last minute and they are running out of bags so soon or either they want to get people on faster so they're saying oh now we have to check the bags and they lose your luggage you are out and that must have medicine needs to be on your person. Another travel hack is to divide your cash and stash it in different locations like the padding of your sports bra let's say you're not going to put it all in one item that could get stolen and I have a great video about Amazon products and tips and tricks that you can do to prevent theft when traveling. You also do not want to take your regular wallet because you only need a few cards that's why I recommend like a thin RFID type wallet. Here's a travel hack from a viewer in Australia she figured out what to do in the airplane seat by using a soft-sided lunch box you can pack items in that soft-sided lunch box and then if you're going to the beach just use that lunch box as a cooler with an ice pack. Love that brand new travel hack. All right thanks for your time make sure you get the freebie down below in the more paragraph and all links are going to be down there too. If you want to subscribe to my newsletter that I send out once a month that link is down there too. Thanks for watching.