What's In Your Luggage?

More travel tips...

Even when I'm checking bags, I usually try to carry on a little overnight bag containing at least one extra pair of underwear and socks, and all my "toiletries" (also known in certain circles as "product"). The airlines rarely lose my luggage, but when they do, it's a disaster...

<...Flash back to me teaching my very first Extreme Programming Bootcamp with wild no-gel hair, no deodorant, and geeky logo T-shirts borrowed from Josh Kerievsky...>

This overnight bag, as the airlines will tell you, is permissible in addition to your purse or briefcase. It should be small enough so that even the most restrictive Alaska Airlines representative at Oakland Airport will not make you check it at the gate.

I have two tips on those nasty exploding bottles of shampoo/hair-gel/toxic face creams. But first we must face reality together: These messes are not created by careless luggage handlers. It's air pressure plus altitude. Plane goes up, pressure outside bottle drops, bottle squirts contents all over luggage. It's called "explosive decompression," and it ain't pretty.

Tip #1: Carry all the mess-generating tubes and bottles separately in a large zip-lock bag. Yes, you could use the cool bag that came with your luggage, but do you really want to clean it? Zip-locks can be tossed when messy. Though I'm not fond of filling landfills with "disposable" products, I have my limits. Besides, the bags last quite a while, especially if you follow tip #2, below.

Tip #2: Squeeze out some of the air from those mess-generators. While packing, shake the product to the bottom, open the cap, and squeeze a bit of air out. Also, be sure the cap is tight, but not too tight (e.g., Aveda bottle-caps will crack if you try to overtighten, thus defeating the purpose of this tip and leaving you again at the mercy of tip #1, above).

I've noticed that I now reflexively drain a little air out of any bottle after use. Even the milk bottle in the fridge... Clearly, I've been traveling too long.

How do I remember what needs to go in the zip-lock bags? I travel about every other week, so I keep two of everything that goes into the bags (gel, shampoo, tootpaste, toothbrush, floss, deodorant, nail-clippers, Tums, aspirin...). One set lives in the zip-lock for travel, and the other lives in my designated bathroom drawer at home. If you don't travel that often, build a printable checklist and record everything you may want to take.

Business Insomnia? Bring something to read that will stimulate, yet relax, your mind and has absolutely nothing to do with your work. If it's three in the morning and you're tossing and turning about that presentation, make yourself read a few pages. Contrary to popular myth, this should not be a dull book! It has to be interesting enough to take your mind off work. I use either Science Fiction or some book on Buddhism that I'm trying to work through. Stimulating yet relaxing! (Your Options May Vary.)

Another thing that I try to carry for Business Insomnia: A small, portable fan. Just enough to create a pleasant whirring sound. It's a white-noise generator, and it drowns out a lot of the noises you would otherwise hear when trying to sleep in a new place. I use one at home, too, and often sleep right through the Thursday Morning Garbage Truck Parade.

There are a number of other useful techniques: Milk, peanut-butter, stretching, alternatively tensing-and-relaxing muscles. But beyond suggesting you pack your own small jar of peanut-butter (without partially hydrogenated oils, of course), I'd be straying from the topic. Besides, if I knew how to handle all forms of insomnia, I wouldn't be writing this post from my Copenhagen hotel room at 4 AM.