Aside from the normal everyday makeup and hygiene items, these are things that seem to become everyday needs when I'm away on holiday: tweezers and lip balm. I also always take a pen and my coloured felt frixion pens. And one or multiple puzzle book magazines (for which I need the pens). And when it's a road trip: yes to the pillow. I haven't experienced a pillow on holiday that meets my needs so it's so much easier and better to bring my own.
Car trip: my pillow comes. Normal stuff: Kindle, phone, camera, small notebook and pen. Maybe odd: deck of cards. The one time I forgot them, we needed up at the airport for 7 hours. We ended up buying a deck, and I was ticked to pay so much.
My crochet. Especially on car trips where my husband drives and I crochet to pass the time and feel useful.
I take all the current gadgets too and the chargers. I often wish I could poof my iMac into a 12" size and then resize it when at my final destination but...I don't have that magic skill yet! I don't take my own pillow, even for short car type trips, though I'm going away into DC for 5 days Monday and may consider that this time. Retreat houses understandably usually have cheap pillows. What I often do take is a bag of red (Australian kind) of licorice and/or that decadent 1lb Belgian milk chocolate bar from Trader Joe's. That's definite for a European trip. It solves all my travel irritations!
LOL! I'm about packed, the amount of fishing gear going, DH has joked about tying my pillow to the roof - at least i think it was a joke...
it's like you need a bag for just chargers alone these days - we have n occasion taken a powerboard as well because there is never enough power points to go around with all the big plug hogging size chargers! (i wish i had that skill too!!)
i usually pack snacks for the kids and forget me but yep, my pink filter bottle is always in the car - and i'm usually the one that calls for bathroom break time!
d'oh on the charger! that would be a major pain - i'm about to pack away my laptop but i think it was you that suggested vionic thongs/flip flops in another thread? well they are comfy (and pricey!) and seeing i usually break a pair of thongs every trip away (it has become a running joke) and end up trying to find another pair at some random nearby store, i went and bought the vionics to pack as my extra pair to circumvent that this time - and if it wasn't you, ignore this comment!)
Hearing aid batteries! I ran out of batteries while on the road once and had to pay triple the price I normally pay at Costco. Ouch. I always have my camera too.
I am on my second pair of Vionic flipflops. I wear them just about every day. They help so much with my chronic plantar fasciitis.
My list is pretty normal... but my newfound love that I have to have each trip is my set of packing cubes. Why didn't I buy them sooner? I'm not even a super organized person, I just love being able to fit more stuff into my suitcase I also have to have dramamine when we fly. I don't even get motion sickness really... but I have been on a couple really bumpy flights that made me glad I had taken it. I'm honestly more worked up about potentially throwing up in front of people than I am about some catastrophe. Plus it makes me just drowsy enough to relax the whole flight without being groggy.
I bring my laptop & EHD whenever I go anywhere overnight even when I'm not planning on scrapping. I feel like the one time I don't will be the one time my house burns down or gets broken into. I sleep with the EHD next to me on the nightstand so I can grab it and go in case of an emergency. My 4yo son sleeps with the blanket my mom cross-stitched for me when I was a baby. He's at the point where he doesn't carry it around anymore or want to take it in the van when we go someplace but he still asks for it at night so that goes with him if he's staying overnight somewhere. Oh, and a fan. I have slept with a fan on every night for the last 25 years. Most hotels have a noisy heating/AC unit that will suffice but I bring a small fan, anyways.
My husband bought us some packing cubes and they are wonderful! We actually fit less in our suitcase because of them, but there are five of us and we each have a set in our own color. I didn't realize how much trouble it had been digging out clothes for the kids every morning until I started just handing them their "cube" and letting them manage it themselves.
This is what I keep thinking about packing cubes -- isn't it just a matter of physics that, since they take up room, you actually have less room? @tkradtke - how do you have more room?? Do you use them to compact stuff? LeeAndra reminded me that my daughter and I also both bring a small, light throw blanket. Mine cost like $3 from CVS and takes up barely any room. It is just enough when you need a little extra warmth or to protect you from a gross seat or just to make a hotel room seem a little more homey.
I really cram them full... like roll all of my clothes and cram them in. Since they don't really expand, the tighter I pack them the better. I can pack for 8 days in a small carry-on sized suitcase (including having my makeup/toiletries in the suitcase). With just packing a suitcase, I can't quite cram things in the same way... and rolling the clothes keeps them pretty much wrinkle free.
I'm guessing she doesn't try to pack 15 of them in one suitcase, which is what I do. The material is very thin and the cases by themselves hardly take up any room. If you pack them full, and have just enough to fill the suitcase, than it shouldn't be much extra. In my case, if I packed all of them full, I would need another suitcase. To be fair, I'm still fitting everything into one suitcase, even though the kids' clothes are all larger than they were before; it just seems a little tighter.