How to Pack Toiletries⎜TSA Carry-On and Liquid Rules

In today's video, we're going to talk about how to pack your toiletries for travel. We're also going to review and keep in mind TSA's liquid rules to make this step of packing less stressful. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Meg. I'm Ian's wife. I tend to be the one who brings more toiletries on our travels, like our medications and makeup and things like that, so I am taking the lead on this video to show you guys things that I've learned along the way. Make sure to stick around for the end of this video when I answer commonly asked questions about what can and cannot go in your toiletry bag. First, we need to talk about TSA's liquid rules. This will help you decide how to travel your toiletries when packing a carry-on bag. So, TSA follows this 3-1-1 rule. What that means is you can carry 3.4 ounces of any liquid or gel or as many of those as you can fit in a one quart size bag and that is per one traveler. Let's talk about some tips for packing your toiletry bag. First, we like to keep a minimalist mindset while approaching what sort of liquids or toiletries we need to bring. Keyword being need. Almost any place you travel will have some sort of convenience store, grocery store, even a gas station where if you forget something, you will be able to find it and pick it up. We have found that the less you bring through TSA, the better. It will be less stressful, less chaotic getting in and out of your bag and overall make for a more enjoyable security process. Number two, opt for solids over liquids when possible. For example, I like to travel with a powder dry shampoo and a solid deodorant. Some other things that you can swap out for solids versus liquids would be items like bar soap. Even toothpaste comes now on tablets that you can chew and brush your teeth so you don't have to bring that paste which would have to go into your one quart size bag. Tip number three, packing medications while traveling. When we're traveling, we like to use a little pill box like this mainly because it keeps them separate and you can see there's nice clear open containers. Awesome for traveling for those short little trips. Reminder though, if you have any prescription medication, it will need to stay in its original bottle with the prescription on it so make sure you don't transfer these pills into a box like this. Tip number four, this may seem obvious but pay attention to where you put your liquids in your bags. Personally, I always put in my personal item, not my carry-on bag since I know I'll already be opening my personal bag for things like electronics. If I put it right on top, it's gonna come out super easy and then on the conveyor belt it goes. Next, let's talk more specifically about what I bring in my toiletry bag. Now as a reminder, I'm a minimalist when it comes to things like makeup and products so this might not work for you but I am hoping that this video gives you some tricks or maybe even some ideas on how you could add or swap out things that you currently normally bring with you when traveling. All right, let's get into it. Starting with hair care. On shorter trips, I will bring travel size shampoo and conditioner but on a longer trip, Ina and I share all these products so we end up just buying a bigger bottle and avoid having any of these extra bulky containers. I do always bring a dry shampoo just to freshen up my hair. Sometimes you're in hot climates and it's nice to not feel your hair get so greasy so fast so I always dry or I always travel with this dry shampoo and I love the powder versus those aerosol cans. Plus again, easier to travel with. I do have a travel size brush which this is the brush I use all the time at home or when traveling. It just doesn't need to be that big. I would definitely carry a smaller one so it takes up less space. I carry a bunch of hair binders and bobby pins. Now I don't always bring all these containers but you can throw bobby pins and hair binders and personal items in your carry-on everywhere. Just have some in case they break or you lose them. You know how that stuff goes. I do also bring one clip. I know sometimes you feel like you have to have one that matches outfits. You don't. Just pick a neutral color, bring it with and it should do its trick to give you some variety in how you style your hair. Next we have personal hygiene. I have my solid form deodorant. Again just trying to avoid those liquid deodorants or aerosol cans will help in that TSA process. Travel size toothpaste and toothbrush. Pretty self-explanatory. Just easy small compact to bring with you. I do always make sure to travel with chapstick. There's nothing worse than being in the sun and getting those really sore lips so make sure a chapstick with you is definitely beneficial. Now kind of like a wild card item, we always travel with q-tips. We end up using them all the time so we have this nice little travel box that we do bring with us. Hand sanitizer. I mean definitely after the pandemic an item that you should always have with you. Just you know make sure you're avoiding germs as much as possible. We've got a tweezers, even fingernail clippers. Not just for the hair removal but again like splinters, things like that you might not think of that will definitely help your comfort when traveling. And then one thing you'll notice that I don't have on or I don't have out here is things like a face wash. And the reason why I don't is because we actually typically use head and shoulders shampoo which has been proven to be really gentle on the skin in cleansing. So we usually just use our shampoo as our face wash as well. Of course I'd also bring female hygiene products with me. Whatever your preferred choice of that works great but bring it with you just in case there's nothing like being in a situation where you need something urgently and don't have the opportunity to get it quickly. All right makeup. I don't use a lot of it so bear with me. I like to travel with a cooling stick. This is something that you use under your eyes. It's like a hydration stick. You can always use this for an all over moisturizer. So I kind of use it for dual purpose when I'm traveling. Then I have an under eye like brightening and correcting cream just like some concealer under the eye that blends really nice. Mascara. This is one of those items that I do use most often for makeup so it's nice to have with. Unnecessary to have a travel size I find. I think you can bring your normal mascara. And then a travel size perfume. Right it's nice to smell nice when you're traveling. I also love how you can sometimes link scents to memories. So occasionally I'll buy a new perfume before we travel so every time I wear it it reminds me of that trip. Finally medication. I already showed you this little box for a short weekend trip. Having this pill box with things like a pain reliever so ibuprofen or Tylenol. Tums just because you don't know what kind of food you'll be eating. Along those same lines Pepto-Bismol. You just don't want to be wildly uncomfortable on your trip so I think those are all key for everyday use while traveling. I would like to say though when we've traveled for more extended period of time our medicine box looks more like this. So a lot more comes with us and this isn't TSA ready right now but I just want to show you the difference of how much medication we travel with when we are going for let's say over a month when traveling. Most importantly it doesn't matter exactly what I bring but more so how I condense what I bring to make it easier to travel through TSA especially if all you're bringing is that carry-on item. Based on these items here's what must go in my one quart bag. As you can see I even have a little room to spare. Let me know in the comments some toiletries you never travel without. I love to add some things to my routine especially if they're things that you know and love. Let's answer some commonly asked questions regarding all things liquid and gels that you could find in your carry-on bag. First thing, is mascara considered a liquid? Yes. Due to its gel like consistency it is considered a liquid and must follow the 3-1-1 rule meaning it must be less than 3.4 ounces and in your one quart bag. Are wet wipes a liquid? Surprisingly to TSA no. Although they sit in a liquid solution they are not considered a liquid. Are foods like applesauce and peanut butter considered liquids? Yes. You cannot bring this large jar of peanut butter on the plane with you. Can I bring things like razors and fingernail clippers on the plane? Yes you can however I would suggest putting them in your one quart container so TSA can take a closer look at them if they need to. Can I bring liquid that was originally filled in a container more than 3.4 ounces? No. Even if you've used more of the liquid so the liquid itself is less than 3.4 ounces you cannot bring it if the original container is larger than that size. Does the 3-1-1 rule apply to my checked bag? No. You can bring liquids of any size in your checked bag. For products that are less obvious there is a resource that TSA has put out where you can submit requests. It's called Ask TSA. You can submit a request via text message, Facebook, or Twitter to find out if that product is allowed in your carry-on toiletry bag. Knowing what to pack in your toiletries is just one way to make traveling less stressful. If you want to learn more about how to make packing better for your next trip check out these videos about essential travel items. Give this video a thumbs up if you found this information helpful. Also subscribe to this channel for more content like this in the future. We'll see you on the next one.