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Thursday, May 27, 2010

TRAVEL WITH SERENA--PACKING TIPS

Serena Brower is our travel editor at American Woman Magazine.  I have to admit, I’m green with envy at times because she gets to explore the world on an expense account.  Serena will stop by from time to time to share travel tips and discuss vacation ideas for those of you (unlike moi) with the time and funds to have a vacation.--AP


Benvenuto! Willkomen! Beinvenue! Welcome!  Serena Brower here, and today I’d like to share a couple of great packing tips with you.  Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, overnight or a week, to a world class resort or cabin in the mountains, you need to pack for that trip.  And you’d probably like to do so in such a way that you don’t have to spend the first few hours at your destination ironing the wrinkles out of all your clothes, right?  So here’s how you keep those wrinkles to a minimum:

First, hold on to any large pieces of cardboard that come your way.  Cut them to fit inside your suitcases, several sheets per suitcase.  You can store the cardboard right in the suitcases.  They’ll be out of the way and handy when you need them.  Next, go out and buy a large box of gallon size plastic zip bags and a package or two of tissue paper. 

Fold your garments and wrap each in a couple of sheets of tissue paper.  Place the wrapped garments into a plastic zip bag and seal, but don’t squeeze all the air out the way you would for freezing food.  Leave some air to act as a cushion.

Pack your shoes and any hard items in the bottom of the suitcase.  Place a sheet of cardboard over these items.  Lay your bagged items in one layer on top of the cardboard.  Place another layer of cardboard on top.  Repeat layering bagged garments and cardboard layers until your suitcase is full.  Following this packing method may not eliminate all wrinkles from setting into your garments, but it will reduce your ironing time to a bare minimum.

What a great idea!  Thanks for sharing Serena.  So dear blog readers, do you have any travel tips or stories you’d like to share?  Let’s hear from you.  Remember, anyone who posts a comment this week is entered in the book giveaway from our guest mystery author on Book Club Friday. -- AP

5 comments:

Theresa said...

Thanks for the hints. I travel a lot and just started using large plastic bags to sort my clothers-pants, tops, shoes, etc. It makes it much easier when living out of a suitcase and prevents having your suitcase a jumbled mess. I used to be a travel manager in my previous life and could have used your help. Thanks again.

ANASTASIA POLLACK said...

Serena will have lots more travel tips in the weeks and months to come, Theresa. Hope you stop by often.

Kathy said...

I've put my shoes in platic bags, but never the clothes. The layers of cardboard between layers of clothes is a great tip. I would never have thought of that. Now I wish I had a vacation to go on so I could try the tip out.

Word Actress said...

Wow - thx so much for the tips. I just shove crap in, until my LL Bean duffle bag is exploding, then I wonder why I can;t find anything at my final destination - duh??? Mary Kennedy Eastham, Author, The Shadow of a Dog I Can't Forget and the upcoming novel Night Surfing

LaShaunda said...

Wow! I sure needed this info when I went on my cruise last week. I did learn rolling the clothes takes up little space. Cruises don't let you bring irons, so the less wrinkles you can get the better you feel in your clothes.

Thanks for sharing.