Frustrated w/ 1 qt bag limit
 

How do you ladies do it when traveling for 10 days or more w/ carry on? I am only packing face wash, dry shampoo, curl cream, hair spray and deodarant and a few individual packets of coconut oil and the bag is bursting.

While I do check a bag, I take all my toiletries in my carry-on day pack. I guess I'd ask if you bring some of those home with you or do you pretty much use them up? If the former, get smaller containers. Also, your dry shampoo isn't liquid and needn't go in your quart bag.

I travel for a month with the things I carry in the little bag of liquids so maybe you just need to rethink sizes and exactly what you really need. Also consider shopping for items at your destination. I love looking in unfamiliar drug stores.

Muji travel-size containers (jars, tubes, boxes sized perfectly for a little bar of soap or q-tips) are my absolute favorites. I've bought them in their London stores over the years but they have them here, online:
http://www.muji.us/store/travel/packing.html

>>How do you ladies do it when traveling for 10 days or more w/ carry on?<<

Could not be easier.

And I don't use dry shampoo. I seldom take shampoo because almost every place provides it. I use the gift sized moisturizer/cleansers etc you get from Estee Lauder/Lancome/Clinique whatever. For eye cream I use contact lens containers. I take primer and even body butter. I even include nail enamel and remover.

For toothpaste/mouthwash/hair spray use the travel sizes you can find in any supermarket/target/walmart etc.

Why is the dry shampoo in the ziplok? And solid (as opposed to liquid roll on) deodorant doesn't need to be in the baggie either.

It sounds like you are taking a lot of fully 3 oz bottles -- otherwise those few items would not fill a quart ziplok. Most items I take are between .75 oz and 2 oz except for the listerine which comes in 3 oz (which is quite large) . Scope and other mouth washes come in 1.5 and 2 oz sizes and you can include multiple.

For my packing class as a demo I get more than 25 items in the ziplok - things like bengay, ear drops, nose spray, tiger balm --- just tons of things one wouldn't need to take -- but just to demo how much can really go in the ziplok if you need it.

SO and I have been putting our liquid toiletries into a gallon size ziploc for years and no one has ever batted an eye, either in the US or abroad.

Each item complies with the 3oz rule, and the gallon size bag is less than half full--neither of us carries anything much beyond the basics. It's just easier to throw stuff into a larger bag.

I do agree that you need to make sure you're only putting liquids into the bag. No reason to put dry cosmetics or dry shampoo or solid stick deodorant, etc., in there.

>>our liquid toiletries into a gallon size ziploc for years <<

You have been lucky -- just last Wed I saw a poor couple sitting on the floor at LHR shifting all their liquids from 2 too large ziploks into two 100 ml baggies provided by security -- and tossing everything that didn't fit.

Of course you did, janisj. Of course you did.

yup -- I did. They are very strict in the UK.

I don’t doubt it for a moment, janisj. I went through LHR a few years back and had to wait for absolutely ages in a long, long security line that reached down the escalator to the next level. Every couple of minutes a staff person would harangue us loudly about having the correct bag, holding up an example just to make sure we got the point. I think that was my most unpleasant airport experience ever.

Usually I put my liquids in a see through mesh cosmetics bag and don’t think it has ever been questioned.

Ladies, I got my info from the TSA website re: aerosols needing to be in the bag.

Liquids Rule
You are allowed to bring a quart-sized bag of liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes in your carry-on bag and through the checkpoint. These are limited to travel-sized containers that are 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) or less per item. Placing these items in the small bag and separating from your carry-on baggage facilitates the screening process. Pack items that are in containers larger than 3.4 ounces or 100 milliliters in checked baggage.
Any liquid, aerosol, gel, cream or paste that alarms during screening will require additional screening.

My dry shampoo is aerosol.

I don't bring regular shampoo..happy to use what the hotel has. But I can go 5 days w/o washing my hair and need the dry shampoo on days 4&5.

I did get some samples from my cosmetic store and am set moisturizer and face wash, so that eliminated at least one 3 oz bottle.

Do most of you take a backpack or a tote as your second item for carryon?

<Usually I put my liquids in a see through mesh cosmetics bag and don’t think it has ever been questioned.>

So--they don't care much about the outer bag, do they? I mean, you say they're strict, but evidence points to the contrary. I think they're strict about contents, less so about the bag.

janisj's example is so terribly convenient, though. And a couple, too--just like SO and me! Should make me scared enough to consider taking one of her classes...lol, except it doesn't. Nice try, though.

foolforfrance, yes, I usually take a daypack or a crossbody satchel as my carryon, and often a roll aboard as well. Hate checking anything.

NewBe -- believe what you want -- you will anyway. A mesh bag is totally acceptable - as long as it is quart/liter sized. In fact they sell mesh bags for that very use.

foolforfrance: >>Ladies, I got my info from the TSA website re: aerosols needing to be in the bag . . . Any liquid, aerosol, gel, cream or paste that alarms during screening will require additional screening.<<

Nothing we've posted disagrees w/ the TSA rules. Yes -- aerosols/gels etc need to be in the baggie. And they will all fit. (BTW even lip gloss and mascara technically need to be in the ziplok too)

I am packing now for transatlantic flight this weekend, for carry on only.

Solid anti-persperant stick, solid sunscreen stick, purell wipes in packages instead of the bottle; face cloths to wash face remove makeup.

Lancome has a 7-day challenge going so I got a week's supply of their resilience lift cream in little packets but will go in with 311 bag.

Contact lens cleaner takes up some space, even the small bottle; also bringing a tiny aerosol of Ozium air cleaner, as I share a b&b apt for a week. added creams (face day cream, sheer terracotta bronzing cream, will go into contact lens cases as mentioned above. Add mascara, small tube of toothpaste, Zquil tabs for sleep.

I've been able to get needed liquids in the bag without fail. But I wash my hair less often than I used to and I use the suppied shampoo. However I do bring Frizz-ease in the event I wash my hair -- last 3 trips I just got a wash and blow dry half way through and that was a fun outing as well as saving me on shampoo and the frizz factor. If I am likely to wash myself I do bring a small hair spray bottle.

I don't understand the reason for questioning Janis.
I also don't understand why people would lie or make up stories, but I'm learning some do it all the time on forums.

Anyway, some time ago my wife was checked at security - Charleroi, oops Brussels South airport - and she could throw away most of her (liquid) stuff. I remember her quite upset arguing that her bottle of shampoo was half empty so was ok with the limitation.

I suppressed my smile. Sometimes it is better to look outraged and tell your wife she is right, rather that saying 'I told you'...

My daughter when about 8 went on an oversea trip with a ball that I had brought back from China (the kind like Snowy little balls, except that was was without 'snow' and oversize). Security let her through both ways, both times looking at me with Rolling eyes.

Bottom line : don't count on security, they are sometimes lax, but less and less in my experience.

Some guy even took away my salted nasal lotion - less than 100 ml for sure.

Also don't know why people are questioning janisj. I have seen the same thing, although I don't remember which country.

I always check a bag, even though it is US carry on size - I take a corkscrew, scissors and a metal nail file, and in any case I don't want to schlep it round the terminal. The quart bag just has emergency supplies and a couple of things I would have trouble replacing. After all, you can buy most things where you are going - I travel for months at a time and have little trouble resupplying.

I think the bottom line here is to be wary of any advice that doesn't conform to the rules. Just because someone else has been using a gallon bag "for years" doesn't mean you'll be able to get by with it. All it takes is an agent who insists on you playing by the rules and you won't have a leg to stand on.

annw: >>Contact lens cleaner takes up some space, even the small bottle<<

For TSA (though it can be different in other countries) -- Contact lens solution is exempt from the 3 oz bottle in the ziplok. It is sort of considered a 'medical' product and can be larger just like a liquid prescription.

Per the TSA website: >>You may bring medically necessary liquids, medications and creams in excess of 3.4 ounces or 100 milliliters in your carry-on bag. Remove them from your carry-on bag to be screened separately from the rest of your belongings. You are not required to place your liquid medication in a plastic zip-top bag.<<

Though TSA agents aren't always - let's say <i>consistent</i> . . .

That's what I thought, Janis, but wouldn't you know I got an aggressive agent, LHR I think, who didn't accept my separate medical bag (contact fluid etc.) made a large fuss holding up the line and made me toss it to get the supplies down to the one bag; tried it again at FCO with new (larger) bottle and agent said dump half out or dump it all. In fairness I had bought it in Italy and figured I would have trouble. Agree that consistency would help.

janisj winkles free luggage from manufacturers for teaching (I use the term loosely) packing classes. It's in her interests to present packing as a Herculean challenge.

I, on the other hand, am not telling anyone to do as I do, nor am I inventing the perfect anecdote to illustrate my point. I'm sharing my experience. Our less than half full gallon ziplocs have attracted no attention from screeners on 4 continents. Draw your own conclusions.

>>I got an aggressive agent, LHR<<

Those guidelines are only for TSA (US) so yes, could be very different in the UK.

NewBe -- please get over yourself. OK? I don't get free luggage from anybody (though yes, years age a major retailer did give me a Travelpro crew bag for giving a session in one of their stores) But I don't even use that bag.

Sorry but packing smart doesn't take any sort of Herculean effort. I personally don't care if one takes a toothbrush and nothing else, a 21 inch roll aboard -- or a boat load of steamer trunks.

But the 12,000-15,000 people I've taught over the years mostly thank me (but then they don't have the axe to grind you seem to have)