With COVID restrictions loosening, we’re starting to travel more. I love traveling. Whether it’s road trips to see family or flying to far off places to explore new cultures, I love it all. And since I’m an organizational nerd, I love packing nearly as much as I like traveling.

To me, I want to be able to pack just enough for whatever we plan to do. I don’t want to pack the entire car or five checked bags for a week-long trip. If that’s your style, no judgement. I just love efficiency and HATE checking my bags. So, here are my five favorite packing hacks.

Minimize Liquid Toiletries

Hopefully, TSA restrictions have already pushed you to reduce your liquid toiletries. But if you haven’t already, see what you can eliminate to get you to the essentials. In my toiletries bag I have, starting in the top left-hand corner and working clock-wise:

• Bottle of olive oil (used as moisturizer)
• Contact solution
• Tongue scraper
• Silk floss
• Bamboo toothbrush
• Leftover David’s toothpaste
• Contact Case
• Extra contacts
• Lip balm
• Leave-in conditioner spray
• Deodorant in a cardboard tube

Instead of buying tiny tubes of toothpaste, when you get close to the end of your toothpaste tube, throw that in your travel bag. I use this David’s toothpaste which comes in a metal tube:

For any sort of liquids you need to pack, these GoToobs have a really tight seal and are the best travel liquid bottles I’ve found:

If you use liquid shampoo and conditioner, fill up these travel bottles instead of using any provided at hotels. Those are often thrown away after a single use.

And to read more about plastic-free deodorants, check out this post:

Pack Shampoo, Conditioner, & Soap Bars

No matter where I’m going, I like to pack some shampoo, conditioner and soap bars. Oftentimes hotels will provide tiny bottles of shampoo or soap bars, but since these are oftentimes thrown away after one use, it seems wasteful. So, I pack my own. Plus, since they’re not liquids, they save space in my liquids bag. More on shampoo bars in this post:

Use An Altoids Tin for Small Misc Items

For small items, I like using an Altoids tin. In mine, I usually have:

• Bamboo Q-tips
• Tweezers
• Nail clippers
• Wooden comb
• Hair clips
• Hair ties

Use a Packing Cube for Clothes

If you haven’t noticed by now, everything has it’s own little cube. Having specific cubes helps me be organized when I’m on the road. And with clothes, it helps compress them too! I’ve had these Eagle Creek double-sided packing cubes for years and now I pack my kids clothes in them as well.

In the front, I usually pack my regular clothes and in the back side with the mesh, I pack under garments, PJs, and bathing suits.

Designate a Laundry Bag

Finally, I’ve only recently started using this item but I love it. For road trips, when space is less of a concern, we’ve been using a designated laundry bag. My husband had one for camping that he used and I remembered that this Billabong one came with a suitcase I had bought. After we’ve worn our clothes (sometimes two or three times for me), we put them in the laundry bag so when I get home I just dump everything out of the bag and into the washer.

If you don’t already have a laundry bag, you can always use a reusable grocery bag or a foldable duffle bag.

What do you think? Would you use some or all of these hacks the next time you have a trip? What are some of your favorite packing hacks? Tell me in the comments!

For related and random posts, check out:

• What I Packed for a Day Trip to LA
• 4 Quick Tips to Avoid Plastic While Flying