11 Things You Should Always Pack In Your Carry-On
Most airports have a filtered water bottle filling station. At least the ones I’ve been to recently!
I live in Colorado so I’m always flying out of DIA and there are filtered water bottle filling stations at every terminal!
Also, traveling –especially on a plane– can be very dehydrating. Personally, that tiny cup of water you get halfway through your flight just doesn’t cut it for me.
So, I always make sure to bring an empty water bottle and save myself a few bucks on an overpriced one at an airport store!
5. Cord Organizer
I literally travel with a million cords. Okay, maybe not literally, but that’s what it feels like.
When I’m packing for vacation I bring my phone charger, an extension cable (so I can lay in bed and charge my phone, feel free to steal this hack LOL), my FitBit charging cable, my laptop cord, and my Kindle charging cord. SO MANY CORDS!
My carry-on has a designated pocket for my mass of cords that I don’t dare open.
However, I use my phone for pretty much all of my entertainment when traveling, who doesn’t? And sometimes you need to charge it before you fly so you can stay entertained and you need to go fishing in the cord pocket and dig around and unravel your cord. SO FUN! Not.
These cord organizer babies seriously save you all of that wasted time and energy you spend digging around in your cord pocket by keeping everything nice and organized.
You can group your cords together and keep them raveled and neat and seriously, I consider this a necessity for your carry-on!
6. Snacks
I love snacks. I’m a snacker and I’m proud. I’m getting hungry just talking about snacks, it’s a good thing I keep some in my carry-on! (See what I did there?)
But in all seriousness, pack yourself some snacks because there is nothing worse than your stomach grumbling while you’re sitting on your plane en route to your destination.
Maybe you’re looking at the menu, questioning if the $7 bag of chips is really worth it, or if it’ll make you bloated so you’ll have to drink a bunch of water from your water bottle (that you filled up at the airport) before you can go swimming when you get to your hotel.
Or you could remember that you packed yourself some healthy snacks in your carry-on! Woohoo!
7. Valuables
A few years ago when I was traveling with my family our luggage got lost. Which is something that’s happened two more times since and is just oh so much fun (JK, obviously).
Anywho, my sister was with us and when we were trying to figure out what to do next at the airport, form a game plan, since our luggage was GONE and my sister remembered she left a piece of really nice jewelry in her checked bag.
I think it was a few hundred dollars worth, but nonetheless an expensive piece of jewelry. In the checked. Lost. Bag. That was gone.
Don’t let this happen to you! On the bright side, we were able to recover our lost bag and she got her jewelry back, but regardless, always bring anything valuable with you on your carry-on. You never know if it’s going to get lost or stolen.
8. Earphones
You’re probably thinking, duh Ali. Fair. However, headphones are a necessity you should always have packed in your carry-on, so they belong in this article, thank you very much.
We both know those cheap plastic airplane headphones that they give you when you forget your own suck and hurt your ears. You might as well not use them.
Save yourself the hassle and make sure you put them in your carry-on.
9. Wipes
You should always keep a package of travel wipes in your carry-on. You can get them in the travel section of the store and are the greatest thing to bring with you.
If you think about it, hundreds of people are sitting in that seat and you don’t know the last time it’s been sanitized.
I guarantee you when they clean the plane in between flights they are not wiping down and sanitizing those trays.
If you plan to use the tray for any reason, I highly recommend wiping it down before you do. Especially if you are going to put your food or drinks on it.
10. Toiletries
Unfortunately, sometimes your travel plans don’t go the way you planned them.
Whether your flight gets pushed back, canceled, or your checked bag gets lost.
Hopefully, this won’t happen, however, if it does happen to you, you’ll be happy you are prepared for it!
I always bring a pair of undies or two, tampons/pads, and a toothbrush and toothpaste in my carry-on. Just in case!
Something that would make losing your luggage or being stranded at an airport for several hours or overnight even worse than not being able to brush your teeth or put on a fresh pair of undies.
11. Medication
This one goes along with my previous items of in case your checked luggage gets lost.
You would have a bunch of hoops to jump through to get another prescription on top of trying to get your checked luggage recovered.
Save yourself the headache and just throw it into your carry-on even if you know you won’t need it on your flight.
There you have it! 11 things I think you should always have packed in your carry-on when traveling on your next trip!
