Essential Packing Hacks for Women Travelers Over 50
We’ve all been there, ladies. Rummaging through our closet, spewing clothes left and right like fabric geysers, trying to find the right outfits to take with us on our trip. It doesn’t matter if we’re traveling abroad, traveling to the next town over, or even heading to the next block over. Packing can be a source of contention and stress for many women.
But fear not, fellow lady travelers! We are here to provide several packing hacks for travel that will turn your next suitcase-filling sesh into an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy experience!
Essential Packing Strategies
Imagine traveling hours or even days to get to your intended destination, whether that’s a tropical island resort, a remote mountainside village, or a hotel a few hours away, settling into your hotel, Airbnb, or guest lodging, opening up your suitcase, and having a sinking realization: you forgot something important!
You don’t want to forget a bathing suit if you’re headed on a week-long beach vacation. You don’t want to forget your medication; especially if you’ll be outside the country. You also don’t want to forget a phone charger.
Thankfully, by implementing these packing strategies alongside others like the 54321 method, you can be sure that you don’t leave anything important behind from your packing list!
1. Don’t Bring Individual Items, Plan Outfits: Rather than packing a bunch of individual clothing items, aim to plan your outfits ahead of time.
2. Opt for Mixing & Matching: It may help to pack one or two outfits with items that only go together if you must. Choose clothing items with colors and patterns you can mix or max for the other outfits.
3. Pack Light Layers: Layers are your friend when traveling! They can help you stay prepared for inclement weather, unexpected wind, or cold fronts, and more.
4. Don’t Forget Swimwear & Swim Accessories: If you’re headed on a beach vacation, don’t forget swimwear! More than that, though, be sure to also bring swim accessories like a beach towel, sarong or wrap, travel sunscreen, water shoes, and even a reusable water bottle.
5. Use Packing Cubes: Pack toiletries, makeup, chargers, and other similar items into packing cubes for enhanced organization and consolidation.
6. Pack Comfortable Footwear: Choose your footwear like you choose your outfits ─ based on the activities you’ll be doing. If you plan on hiking, for instance, bring hiking boots. If you plan on attending fancy dinners, pack dress shoes. If you’re going to be getting wet, bring sandals such as waterproof foam flip-flops or Tevas.
7. Opt for Compact Toiletries: Instead of bringing your big-box store shampoo, opt for compact toiletries. For a greener approach than one-time-use products, try buying travel-sized refillable toiletries.
Travel Essentials Beyond the Suitcase
Whether you are packing to go on vacation or heading to the kids and grandkids to help out for an extended period of time, here’s how to pack efficiently so you don’t forget anything you need.
1. Don’t Forget Medication Management: We all have that friend who puts their important medications into plastic sandwich bags. If you do that approach, we recommend packing one bag for each day or even one each time you take pills. What’s much easier (and greener) is bringing both your pill bottles and a weekly medication minder with different times and days for days of the week. When you’ve taken a set of pills, we recommend flipping the container for that set upside-down. You can also use medication management smartphone apps!
2. Stay Connected With Tech Gear: An e-reader is a wonderful addition to any vacation, especially if you’ll be spending time laying out in the sand and sun. But don’t forget your charger! Don’t forget to bring your tablet or laptop if you’re going on a working vacation too, or if you want to browse the web on a device other than your phone. For every tech piece you bring, go through a checklist to ensure you’ve got the charger too!
3. Bring Personal Comfort Items: From sleep masks to block out light pollution (especially if you’re visiting somewhere with more daylight hours than dark hours), to your own pillow, make sure you have everything you need to keep comfortable, whether abroad or just away from home.
4. Don’t Skimp on Accessories: Scarves, sunglasses, jewelry (but skip the family heirlooms), extra socks and underwear, extra shoes, earplugs, and more are all recommended accessories.
5. Organize Documents Strategically: When it comes to luggage and how to pack, don’t forget document organizers. The last thing you need is to get stressed in customs because you thought you forgot your passport, but it was just buried under a layer of clothing! Document organization solutions also provide a dedicated area to keep these documents, making checking for them before leaving (which we recommend) easier.
Fill Your Suitcase with Outfits That Outshine the Rest
At Anthony’s, we offer a wide variety of brands that are tailor-made for getting you out of the workweek slog or everyday routine and into full vacation mode!
From Anthony’s Resort Wear to Coconut Row, shop them all now! We’ve got all the clothing items and wardrobe accessories you need to fill your carry-on bag or big suitcase.
