What are your packing exceptions?

I always decant a little bit of hair product from every single hair product I own. I probably could get away with two products (leave-in conditioner and a mousse), but my hair is curly and unpredictable depending on weather and humidity. I've been getting better at taking the most economical amounts for space saving, but it's often at least 5-6 products so I'm ready for anything.

I love this question

1: Flip flops for the shower and inside shoes, even if I'm staying alone. A full hairbrush. A wig hanger so I can dry them more easily. A heated hairbrush if styling is neccesary,

2: Also my stupid expensive hand sanitizer. My bags in general, I really want to like the aeshetic of what I use and I will pay (to a degree) for that.

3: Fluffy blanket for the cat even though it would be much easier to use the bed that's already in the little carrier. My Razer Kishi controller because I have all the old GTA games on my phone and nothing kills time better on a long flight.

Efficiency - agreed, I pack 2 different kinds of hairbrushes that I use for different purposes.

Economy - I suppose that would include my Bose wired noise cancelling earbuds - more expensive than either over the ear ones or in ear buds without ANC.

Excess - I can’t stand doing laundry on vacation, so I pack underwear and socks for every day. I do rewear other stuff, but can’t handle rewearing undies or socks.

Efficiency: my Kindle. I can read it all in my phone which I have anyway.

Economy: nothing really comes to mind, but now I want to try this premium hand sanitizer y'all are using

Excess: little stuffed bird animal for good luck

1. An electric toothbrush. I know a manual toothbrush is way smaller but I can't feel comfortable if my teeth don't feel properly clean.

Efficiency: I pack actual books, because I hate reading on a Kindle. I pack books from the lending library, so I can shed them on my travels and make room for souvenirs. I read about 150 pages a day so I calculate based on that and plan accordingly.

Economy: it'd be cheaper to take my glasses but I prefer my contacts which are dailies so I take all the dailies. And like you, I cannot travel without my hairbrush, which is a 3 inch round vented brush. I have gone on trips where I forgot the brush, and had the taxi stop me off somewhere so I could buy a new one. That brush is important!

Excess: According to this sub, my nightgown and silk robe are totally unnecessary. But I have been in too many hotels while traveling with colleagues with the alarm going off late at night to skip the robe. It takes up zero space. And it keeps me warm late at night/ early morning. And is good for modesty around company for family/friend trips.

This hits all three of your bullets: my Tom Bihn small travel tray. I got it with one of my bag purchases out of curiosity, but was skeptical that it would be worth the bulk and cost since I survived many trips without it.

It turns out that all the rave reviews were right. I use it as a tech pouch, and it conveniently holds my small devices while charging in transit or in hotels. On a recent bumpy train ride, it also kept all of my bits and bobs together so I wouldn't spill them everywhere. And while it is heavier and takes up more room than, say, a ziploc bag, it compacts enough that it fits into most reasonably sized pockets.

1. Full sized hairbrush, even though I only brush my hair right before I wash it a couple times/wk. The little brushes don't go through my hair.

2. I pack a total of at least 3 regular underwire bras. Nothing else gives enough support.

3. Full pajamas as I get cold at night and don't want to wear day clothes to bed.

A mini bug zapper tennis racket.

I visit a series of relatives in Europe and I know that flies and mosquitos are a fixture at most of their places, because sheep and rivers. I also know my husband and daughter can’t deal if they can hear a mosquito at bedtime, like a phobia. This gadget we discovered at an uncle’s house in Spain and now it comes with us as an MVP.

Not small, not chic, but there it is!

Excess! I pack a flat iron with me on every trip (as long as i’m not doing personal-item only). I’m not sorry and won’t be changing this habit: my flat iron is so slim i feel like it doesn’t take up much space!

A pillowcase, and full pajamas

1. Efficiency— Travel Skincare. I dislike decanting products like sunscreen or purely buying travel sizes (now), so I’m just going through whatever skincare I leave packed at all times. I probably only use toner, sunscreen, eye makeup remover, and a face wash. But I have a non-spf moisturiser, old travel sized items, and random samples. The only bad outcomes were the giant pimple and dry lips!

2) Economy—not sure what I’d choose for this one. Maybe my luggage and packing accessories? Everything I carry isn’t expensive/luxury, but I could spend a lot less. Do I need Baggu x Hello Kitty packing cubes/pouches/dopp kit or an Osprey Nebula? No!! All of these are much less disposable to me than a cheaper backpack or a ziplock/plastic grocery bags for packing. I do tend to buy new backpacks every 2 years…my secret shame.

3) Excess— I always carry my iPad mini or a Kindle with me, but I never end up using them on my trips! They’re purely just for the plane ride. I could definitely just use my phone for entertainment.

These seem like a mixture of 1 and 3:

I always pack my foldable stool as a squat potty substitute, a 40oz hydro flask to keep by my bedside AND a smaller 12oz bottle to keep in my purse, and jewelry. Jewelry is never necessary but it sure does give my outfits that extra ✨pizazz✨

1. My Moleskine Notebook and pen. I hardly ever use it but I don't like taking notes on the phone.
2. My travel kit. I've definitely overspent on getting the most joyful packing bits (Cotopaxi, baggu packing cubes) but to be fair I love packing so it does at least make me very happy! The curaprox dental travel kit as well but it's just so cute.
3. Definitely perfume, but with how minimal I pack, I like to at least smell nice haha.

1. Efficiency: My makeup bag has full size makeup for a full face. I’ve tried decanting my foundation before but I like the whole process of doing my makeup
2. Daily contacts with extra to spare. They just feel more comfortable for me. And always have extras in case I get stranded somewhere
3. Extra external battery chargers. I like to know my electronics can be charged at any given moment

I always bring my little Kirby plush for longer trips 🥹

I always bring an e-reader and an ipod. Yes, an old school ipod. I don't like whipping my phone out or carrying it in my pocket when I just want to listen to some music.

I also travel with a lot of nice jewelry. I figure I'm not going anywhere any less safe than the city I live in, so I might as well bring my nice pieces and enjoy them.

Efficiency: I am joining team jeans. I wear my jeans on travel day and i will wear them several times. The rest of my clothing is dresses which are the most efficient.

Economy: my travel wallet. It's super cheap, but I'd be a hot mess without it.

My Onebag might be considered economical too. I travel with a Topo Designs Rover Classic bag. I bought on sale, so it was like $50. I love this bag more than any other I've owned (and Ive had a lot of bags). It was the least expensive.

My cheapo travel wallet is the Zoppen Travel Organizer

Excess: Rx glasses.I wear a pair, take a back up pair, and an Rx sunglass. Could I wear contacts and just roll with a sunglass? Yep. Could I take my photochromic and use contacts as a backup? Yep. But no, I prefer to wear a pair of glasses, take a back up pair, and take an Rx sunglass.

Jeans, in spite of all the arguments that they are heavy and hard to dry if you do laundry. I like wearing them.

Airpods and my Bose wired noise cancelling earbuds because the AirPods only last so long and I am afraid of losing them on the plane (and I don’t have a Bluetooth dongle to link them to the plane entertainment system).

Plenty of underwear.

I don't have tooo many packing exceptions but here are some I can think of...

Efficiency: my over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones. they're not space efficient at all (not heavy though!) but I skipped them on a plane trip recently, just packed my earbuds, and I lived but it was a vastly inferior experience🤣I will never do that again

Economy: I could use cheap Amazon packing cubes, but I actually use a lot of Sea-to-Summit dry bags and stuff sacks from outdoor brands for organization because I prefer the shape and water resistance. My fave little ditty bags are from Allmansright

Excess: My film cameras. I just love the results from film and have been taking my film cameras on my travels since I was in college and no one ever sees the photos but me but I love them! I even took my chonky Nikon F4 on a snowy backpacking trip in Tahoe, my first time camping, and it was a fantastic decision

Great question. Efficiency: a spare iPhone (earlier iterations) “just in case” one with better tech gets lost or stolen. Economy: over the ear head phone buds that don’t stick directly into my ear. Standard buds give me headaches. These special ones are not entirely noise-canceling bks I want to be aware of what’s going on outside my Pink Floyd bubble. Excess: I pack my favorite dark roast ground beans—zip lock—a foldable Melita-type cone, oh, the filters, too, so I can make pour over cafe the way I prefer it.

Both 1 and 2. General toiletries and hair products. I pack an excess of sunscreen and all hair products because sunscreen (unless you are in Japan or Korea) often can be a highway robbery, particularly if you go to beach destinations, and it’s a necessity that you need to sell your kidney for. Hair products, I spend a lot of money and time at salon getting my hair chemically treated, so I absolutely refuse to use non-purpose bought hair products, and I bring a variety of hair products, shampoo, conditioner are BASIC, hair mask, hair serum, hair oil, leave-in conditioner, various hair creams. My carry-on 1L bag is choke full of hair products. 3. I pack a handheld gaming console, although realistically I have no time for it, and whatever free time I have I could’ve just play on my phone.

For efficency (and excess), I pack multiple variations of bags to use during different activities throughout my trip because I require my bag to be appropriately functional for whatever activity I'm doing that day.

Sling bag = every day carry

Tote bag = shopping or grocery run

Evening bag = if I'm doing a nice dinner

And for efficiency sake, I also pack reusable cutlery. It's come in handy a few times!

For excess, I pack a cleaning kit that includes disposable bed sheets, pillow cases, a toilet wand (to clean the shower and bathroom floor before first use), sponges, latex gloves, bed bug spray, etc

1. Efficiency: What are the items you pack even though they are not the most efficient iterations? I use “ugly swan” hairbrushes as they are sensory friendly and keep my hair smooth and shiny. I have a small version I bring with me…it might be small but it’s still like 15x the size of a comb!

2. Economy: What are items you pack even though they are not the least expensive versions? I decant my very pricey shampoo and conditioner as they are specific for my hair. I also bring 100ml of the body wash I use at home because I know it works well and I don’t have any skin reaction to it

3. Excess: What are the items you pack even though they are unnecessary? Mine could be argued as a necessity but I’m in Vietnam currently and it is quite hard to get certain medications here and the medical system isn’t great for tourists. I came over with a 36L bag and I reckon 5L and approx 500 grams of it was my “just in case” meds. I was absolutely paranoid that I would have back spasm or a skin infection flare up and not be able to treat it. I had to come into the country with all meds in original boxes with a doctors letter which is why they used so much space.

Efficiency: Bose over-ear noise canceling headphones. I have NC earbuds, which are obviously much smaller, but the over-ear have better NC technology & are more comfortable to wear for long periods.

Economy: My Japanese sunscreen. Regular sunscreen makes me break out when I use it on my face, so I always pack it, even though it is ridiculously expensive.

Excess: Crystal Light or Mio liquid flavor drops. I always pack a water bottle and love the tap water in the city I live in; however, the tap water in other places often tastes horrible to me. I could survive without, but a few drops can mask heavy chlorine or mineral taste in local tap water.

1 & 3 Bose headphones. Certainly earbuds take up less space & I could get by without headphones.

I take my stuffed panda wherever I go. I used to take a down throw but it takes up too much room. I also always take a sweatshirt. Sweats are just cozy to me, and I am all about cozy. I’ll forgo makeup to take hair care products, but I always take a small medicine stash. No underwear, no bras, 2-3 pairs of socks.

I've got about 5kg of camera gear on this trip. That's worth it. Sometimes I wear multiple kg in camera gear around my neck onto the plane alone. Always worth having good photos. 

1. Efficiency (also qualifies for Excess): I bring an electric toothbrush because it cleans my teeth much better

2. Economy: I use a Sea to Summit lightweight dry bag, because I have one, as a laundry bag even though a free disposable plastic grocery bag would do.

3. Excess: I usually bring more electronics accessories (plugs, cords, adapters, etc) than I need because I don’t take the time to match everything up with what the devices I’m bringing on the particular trip, and don’t to get sucked without the right cord, and just take the whole bag

A nintendo 3ds. Not just for gaming purposes, but for streetpasses (it’s a silly thing where it collects game data from other users if I pass them within 30 ft or so). I just don’t travel without it.

Enough socks and underwear to last the whole trip, if less than 2 weeks. Just in case. And an excuse to not do laundry.

I bring two pairs of headphones. My over the ear noise cancelling ones and my Beats Pro. The beats don’t cut it while I’m flying and the noice cancelling ones are way to big to carrying around while I’m sightseeing (and I like having them because I’m an anthropomorphized ball of anxiety and use music to calm myself).

I also bring a kindle, which I’ve seen a few people on this sub exclaim “but how do you have time to read?!” Trust me, I do. All the time.

I am a skincare junkie so I decant a lot of things like hybiclens, SA soap, ceravee lotion. aHA, then all my other stuff for problem skin and then I use about 3 or 4 different types of sunscreens. My bottles are tiny so I am able to get them all into a quart size bag. I used to use 2 quart size bags but by decanting, I was able to reduce it to one bag. This has saved me much needed space in my bag for my electronics. I simply cannot be without my Nintendo switch, Bose headphones, phone, and (Ipad depends on length and type of trip), portable speaker for sound machine and portable fan plus battery. I also bring a round brush for blow drying and this brush is huge. I find it fits perfectly in the water bottle pocket of my backpack so I keep it in that zippered pocket along with my travel sized straightener. Some things I absolutely cannot get along without is my silk eye mask, silk pillow case( which zippers and works great as a laundry bag) and I bring my hair towel and face towel. If it’s a beach trip, I bring a microfiber beach towel because nothing says tourist like resort towel. 😂 Living without all of these creature comforts for me seems impossible so I pack light on the clothes. Have a capsule wardrobe is a must in order for me to bring all of this stuff.

1. Efficiency: My Teva sandals are my most efficient shoes. I can use them for sandals, water shoes and shower shoes.

2. Economy: My Bose earbuds or my Sony over the ear headphones depending on how long a flight may be. I hate wireless earbuds because I always forget to charge them and they aren’t as comfortable. Maybe if I was willing to spend as much on them as my wired earbuds they would be, but I’m afraid they will fall out. At least with the wire, I can clip the cord to my top so if one falls out it won’t get lost. I dislike needing the adapter for the iPhone lightning port but I keep it in the earbud case for the paid I use mostly for flying. Just bought a few extra in case it decides to not work and I can keep them in different headphone/earbud cases.

3. Excess: Clothes. I don’t think I can ever be a minimalist since I don’t want to spend time washing my clothes in a sink. Most of my trips are 5-10 days so they all fit in my 40L bag. If I go for a longer trip, I will plan on doing laundry.

1. mini notebook and 1or 2 pens. Sometimes there aren't any pens or they are gross.
2. I can't think of anything
3. silk pillow case and pajamas.

I subscribe to the philosophy that unless you’re on Antarctica, almost every item I would ~need~ can be replaced fairly easily. With this in mind, I avoid packing a lot of “just in case” things. That being said, there are two things I hate being without, and therefore will pack duplicate of: sunglasses and headphones. I am very photosensitive, and I listen to audiobooks to fall asleep and music very often. Being without either of those things would be a serious bummer.

1. Efficiency: like a lot of people here, I pack a full skincare routine in travel-size bottles and usually take along a sheet mask and/or hand mask to better enjoy my time in the hotel.

2. Economy: I have way too many toiletry bags, dry bags, and stuff sacks, all of which could be replaced with ziplock bags if I wanted to be more frugal. Same for merino tees and tanks - they’re more expensive than t polyester blend athletic wear, but I strongly prefer them.

3. Excess: I always bring clothes just to sleep in, including a soft bralette that doesn’t get worn outside my hotel room. I also bring a small ziplock bag with packets of (good) instant coffee and herbal tea because hotel room coffee is awful and I like to wind down with a non-caffeinated hot drink in the evenings.

I just want to say that it makes me so happy to read all the people here who travel with small stuffed animals. <3 I do the same, often buying one on a trip that I bring home, and I think that's awesome.