My travel kit

When I fly, I try to do it with only a carry-on suitcase and a backpack, no checked luggage. That means that I have to deal with the TSA and their rules on liquids, etc. At first, I did what most people do and limited myself to 4oz containers of my shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, etc., stuffed in a quart-sized zipper bag. But even the best little containers can and often do leak after being subjected to the back-and-forth pressurized/depressurized of just a few plane trips. There had to be a better way!

So I started investigating ways I could reduce the number of liquid products I needed to bring along with me.

I started with my hair products.  I bought a few bars of J.R. Ligget's Old Fashioned Shampoo as well as their Natural Traveler set. This worked great! I love the container that came with the NT set. However, J.R. Ligget's is all the way on the East Coast, and thus has a large carbon footprint, so I started looking for something more local. Dr. Bronner to the rescue! Their bar soap works just as well as the Ligget's shampoo bars, and their factory warehouse is only a few miles from my house. Dr B's has the added bonus of being Certified Fair Trade and Organic.

JR Ligget's Shampoo bar & Natural Traveler,
plus a bar of Dr. Bronner's soap.

Next up was my hair gel. Those little travel size tubes of hair gel are convenient, but are very expensive compared to buying hair gel by the gallon from the beauty supply store. Not to mention the waste! (The tubes are wasteful, plus you can never get all the gel out of it!) I started using hair paste or putty instead. The TSA does not consider it a liquid -- according to them, a liquid is anything that "pours" - so I don't need to put it in a 311 bag. I just buy the whatever brand is on sale.

Hair Putty, plus a folding brush from Japan

For my teeth, things are a bit complicated. I am allergic to SLS, an ingredient in most toothpastes, so I have to buy special toothpastes that do not have SLS or even ALS in them. Fortunately, this gets easier every year, but special toothpaste can be expensive. When I am traveling over just one or two nights, I usually forgo the toothpaste and make sure to be extra vigilant with flossing. When traveling more than that, I suck it up and put a tube of toothpaste in my 311 bag. I thought about just taking some baking powder or other special tooth powder along, but the TSA gets antsy about anonymous white powder in your luggage. Go figure. This picture is of my travel toothbrush, plus some floss made from organic silk -- because it can be composted and regular tooth floss cannot. I am experimenting with the use of a miswak stick, but have only been using it a couple of days & so haven't formulated a real opinion about it yet. If I end up using it - even if I only use it for travel - it would eliminate the need for toothbrush and paste or powder. Not pictured is my Listerine Pocket-Pak - obviously I am out of them and need to get some more! - which is meant to be used as a breath freshener through the day, but I have found that one or two strips on the tongue, plus a mouthful of water makes an acceptable substitute for mouthwash while traveling.

travel toothbrush plus compostable silk floss

Then of course, there's the usual deoderant and q-tips. I only cotton swabs that have a paper stick, never plastic. With the paper stick, they are compostable. I used to keep the q-tips in the special plastic box for travel that they sell, but the lid kept getting broken, or I could never get them all back into the box so the lid wouldn't close, whatever, so now I just keep them in a small plastic bag. I buy whatever deo is cheapest.

Also in my travel kit are some items that are not daily use, but I have found if I *don't* have them with me, I wish I had brought them!  

Towels. The one on the left is a travel towel in a little pocket holder like you can get from REI or any other camping store, while the one on the right is a compressed towel that opens to 10"x10". To use it, I just have to take it out of the wrapper and pull it open.

towelage

Tide To-Go Pen and Dr Bronner's lip balm. Tide To-Go, or a similar product, is a MUST HAVE for traveling, especially if you don't know where/when your next laundry stop is.  My lips get very dry, so I often have 3 or 4 tubes of lip balm stashed about my person.

Tide To Go and Dr B's organic lip balm

Speaking of laundry, on longer trips when I know I'll have access to laundry machines (not just a sink) I take along some of these Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets -- detergent, softener, and dryer sheet all in one. My friend Barbara turned me on to these - all 3 of her boys were Boy Scouts, so she understands about packing! Unfortunately, I see now that Purex has discontinued these things. Mutter. Hopefully, they'll either bring them back or someone else will start selling something similar. For trips in which I'll be washing in the sink, I have some powdered detergent that I put into a bag and take along. TSA is ok with laundry detergent powder. Also pictured is a stretchy laundry rope thingy to hang wet clothes on.

3-in-1 sheets and Flexo-Line clothesline

When one travels, one doesn't always know what state of cleanliness the toilet facilities will be in, so I also carry a set of Whizzies with me. There are a lot of products along these lines to help women out in this kind of situation, but I like the Whizzy because it's just manilla paper and can be composted. Reusable products are great, but if water is in short supply, how do you clean them? or keep their case/bag clean? These are great when camping, hiking, or just stopping at a highway rest stop!

Whizzy!!

And of course, what travel kit would be complete without tweezers, a combo nail clipper/bottle opener, and a wine opener?  I keep these in my 311 bag because TSA likes to have a look at my corkscrew. It does NOT have a knife on it, so they let me keep it, but they always have to pick it up and look at it, so I make it easy for them to do that.

The essentials!

So, the only things pictured above that go in my 311 bag are the opener, clipper, and tweezers. Everything else here can be packed into whatever nook & cranny can be found in my carry on bag - though I do usually keep them all together in one clear rectangular zippered bag for ease of use. 

Someday I'll write a post showing how I pack a carryon suitcase for a 5 week trip. It's easier than you might think!

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