Confession: I Cheated on my 3-1-1

You know how the TSA limits your liquids and gels in carryon luggage to what will fit into a quart bag? Well, I cheated a little bit.

Allow me to plead my case, for those men and clean-face women out there. I wear contacts, wash my hair with color-safe shampoo and use color-safe conditioner. The best hotels don't ever provide samples that protect your hair color, let alone the cheap places I usually stay in.

I need hairspray for my layered hair to stay out of my eyes. I can't get my hair into a simple and neat ponytail no matter how many hairpins I add to the mess, or I would certainly ponytail it when traveling.

I was using styling gel until my hair stylist noticed recently that my hair is rather dessicated and falling out, so now I'm using hair serum instead. (That's likely a hormone hurricane causing this problem.)

I like to use my favorite body wash in the shower, too. Feels like home that way. :). Bar soap isn't my friend. Waxy, soap scummy, drying....

Even with my hormones being goofy, as they sometimes are in middle aged women, I'm still having to fight mild acne. It's been a thirty year fight. I need clear skin, and Nature has decided otherwise. So I use a four-step facial treatment every morning, which controls it and keeps my skin normal. Okay, dry. Those four steps alone would be too big for the quart bag, so I downsized them drastically. After all, I don't need a two month supply on a week-long trip, right?

Still, the more products you use, the more small bottles you have, and those bottles take up a lot of space.

Enter the contact lens cases.

Every time I get a new prescription, I get a new case. And I keep 'em, because I'm weird. Well, I don't have ALL of my old cases. Just several. I can put a week's worth of product into each side of the case. :). All four steps into two contact lens cases. Takes up very little room, and I don't put it into the 3-1-1 Baggie. That's where I'm cheating, though if it does fit, I put it in there anyway. What can I say, except that it works beautifully for me?

Lens cases can hold a lot of stuff. They're just little pots, with (hopefully) leak-proof tops. I've put small dry things in there too: earplugs, earrings, OTC drugs.

There's also that bonus that it really lightens up my baggage if I don't have to wag around full bottles of my stuff. :)

3-1-1 Baggie tip - use freezer bags with pleated bottoms. They're thicker and sturdier than the storage bags, but you can reinforce any of those bags with a little clear tape.