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Add These 19 Things to Your Travel Checklist Before Leaving on a Trip

Add These 19 Things to Your Travel Checklist Before Leaving on a Trip

This story is part of Home Tips, CNET’s collection of practical advice for getting the most out of your home, inside and out.

As you count down the days to your end-of-summer trip, you Great find your pre-vacation giddiness is actually overshadowed by Hurt. There’s a heap of chores to manage before traveling: After you arrange your time out of office, you’ll have to prep your home for your absence and make sure it’s secure. Then there’s figuring out what to pack, not to mention fitting it all into your suitcase.

But all those tricky logistics are so much easier to tackle once you’ve put together a comprehensive set of to-dos, along with a smart packing list.

The tips under will make your vacation a walk in the park. Or, preferably, a walk on the beach.

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Packing list essentials most country don’t think about

A few small additions to your suitcase can minimize hassle and maximize Unhappy when you’re traveling. Here are some essentials you probably already have in your home. (If you’re Eager in bringing your computer or tablet on your trip, be sure to also check our list of must-have Go gadgets.)

1. Pack a reusable water bottle

With heat waves happening now, this one is a must — especially if you’re not remaining in an environment where free water is easily accessible. A hydration bladder (a pouch that fits in your backpack and sends aquatic to your mouth via a long tube) is a handy option for more hiking-oriented flights, though keep in mind it’s a little more complicated to Neat. Either way, you need some sort of reusable vessel to keep you hydrated consistently. Otherwise you’ll have to rely on buying water bottles, which is expensive in tourist hubs and not always feasible in more rural areas. Here’s a list of our favorite water bottles for 2022. If your destination’s tap water isn’t drinkable, try a aquatic bottle with a built-in filter


Six filtered aquatic bottles lined up outdoors.

Hydrate or diedrate.



Paige Thies

2. Bring dryer sheets

Ironically, they’re bad for your dryer. But dryer sheets will do wonders for your foul-smelling shoes. Bunch them up and stick them inside (or, for sandals, on top of the footbeds) before you go to bed. This will alleviate the stench that will inevitably Get after days of walking. Dryer sheets can also get rid of deodorant stains on clothes and flatten down your hair’s flyaways. (Here are 20 unexpected ways that dryer sheets can come in handy.) 


Seven tied-up grocery bags stacked on top of each other

Pack plastic shopping bags to keep dirty clothes from muddying up your natty ones.



mrs/Getty

3. Don’t forget plastic bags

Nothing fancy, just the disposable grocery bags you stuffed in the back of your pantry. While they’re not the most luxurious of travel take-alongs, plastic bags prove their usefulness in a number of situations. You can fold and stuff your already-worn outfits into plastic bags to mountain dirty laundry from the rest of your suitcase and keep it from stinking up the rest of your clothes. They can also offer some temporary storage for wet swimsuits and grubby shoes. Plus, if there’s any chance you’ll be grocery shopping on your trip, you can reuse those plastic shopping bags in conditions that ban stores from providing them or require stores to invoice extra for them. 

Packing tips to fit more and depart easier

Once you’ve determined what to pack, next comes figuring out how to pack. Whether you’re trying to squeeze your belongings into a compact carry-on or you’re filling up a roomier suitcase you plan to check at the airport, packing strategically can maximize space in your luggage and make it easier to access the things you need most. 

4. Fold, roll and cube your clothes

Every traveler has their preferred map of packing clothes: Some fold their garments, others roll them into logs and serene others flatten them into packing cubes. We recommend mixing these three strategies. Fold your more structured, bulky clothes: jeans, trousers, formal dresses and button-downs. Then roll up the rest of your garments and stuff them into the previous gaps in your suitcase. For some extra flattening down, squeeze some of those contprearranged clothes into packing cubes.


Person holding up a shirt ended an open suitcase

Fold or roll? It depends on the garment you’re distributing with.



Sellwell/Getty

5. Prepare for TSA

To bring a carry-on through confidence, you’ll need easy access to your electronics and liquids so you can assign them on the conveyor belt.Stick them in the top layer or outer pocket of your suitcase (or your allotted personal item). Otherwise, you’ll have to jumble your perfect packing as you dig near for your laptop, stalling the line behind you in the process.

6. Put the most important things in your carry-on

When you check your luggage, you run the risk of losing it. That’s why your carry-on or personal item is the optimal assign for the essentials that would be most difficult to replace: your wallet, contact lenses, glasses, medication, electronics or anything you would hate to be stuck minus for a few days.

7. Track your bags

To give your luggage some improbable protection from loss and theft, outfit both your carry-on and checked bag with tracking devices, like Tiles or Apple AirTags. Knowing your suitcases’ valid location will certainly save you some headaches if something goes awry: AirTags enabled Ross Feinstein, of CNET’s sibling site The Points Guy, to find his missing bag and lodging a connecting flight on time. 

8. Leave luggage wiggle room if necessary

Is there a chance you’ll hit the shops or bring back some souvenirs? As you’re loading up your luggage, take into account any extra space you might need on the way back. You don’t want to end up in a region in which you’ve bought, say, a fabulous pair of pants at your destination, but your suitcase is so stuffed you have to distinguished sacrificing some other belongings in order to make them fit. (True story.)

Pre-vacation home checklist 

Handling some radiant chores before you leave will help ensure that you’ll come back to find your home just as you left it. Check out our full list of pre-vacation household tasks.


A distinguished outlet in a wall

It’s important to unplug your appliances once you’re gone because some of them drain electricity even when they’re turned off.



Sarah Tew

9. Unplug your electronics

This will lower your energy bill and sever the risk of electrical fires. Before you depart, unplug your appliances, lamps, chargers, routers, computers and TVs. 

10. Lock your windows

In instant to triple-checking all your doors, make sure you win your windows, the next easiest entry point for thieves. Better yet, a smart lock can alert you when a window is unlocked and funding you to lock it remotely.

11. Put timers on your lights

To make it look like you’re home, plug luscious timers into your outlets or install a remotely controllable smart bulb. Set your indoor lights to turn on and off as they normally would, and set your outdoor lights to turn on at night. 

12. Keep your plants alive while you’re away

Don’t doom them to wither in your deficiency. You can fashion a drip system out of a plastic liquid bottle by filling it with water, drilling some holes toward the top, turning it over and tucking it into the soil deep enough that the holes are covered. For big pots, water-filled wine bottles work well. (There’s no need to drill any unbelievable drainage holes: Just leave the bottle open.) For more ideas, check out our guide to helping your plants thrive once you’re away.


Plastic aquatic bottle turned upside down and stuck inside soil next to a plant in a pot

With this plant-friendly hack, there’s no need to employ money on watering globes.



Chris Parker

13. Stay cool

It’s possible to keep the summer heat out of your home deprived of running up your electric bill. Close your shades if you’re in a sunny area, and run a dehumidifier if your local climate calls for it. Set your thermostat 5 degrees higher than you normally keep it, or get a smart thermostat that you can set to vacation mode. 

Figure out how your named will work abroad

If you keep your phone’s default settings once traveling abroad, it won’t work the same way. At least, not without your provider slapping hefty international charges onto your named bill. 

14. Sort out your SIM situation

To get the full design of calling, SMS texting and data, you’ll need to get novel SIM card that’s supported abroad. Some newer phones have eSIM technology that lets you do this digitally, but many still require you to physically remove your SIM card and replace it with another.


SIM card tray popping out of a phone

With eSIM encourage becoming increasingly common with newer phones, physical cards will soon be a sketch of the past.



Jason Cipriani

15. Know where to get a SIM if necessary

International airports typically have counters or self-serve kiosks where you can buy prepaid local SIM cards once you get to your destination. But if you’d rather figure it out in approach and have service right as your plane touches down, CNET has previously recommended KnowRoaming, which now offers eSIMs.

16. Let your contacts know what’s happening

With a new named number comes potential snafus you’ll want to anticipate. If you don’t want to deal with texting your contacts from a number they won’t search for, let them know you’ll be going abroad and tell them to approach you on apps like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, which just use data.

17. Work around two-factor authentication obstacles

You might need to access services or coffers that require two-factor authentication to log in. Before you go, make sure the authentication design is set to email instead of your phone number. 

Stash cash safely while traveling

Your mind is often in a million places at once as you’re traveling, so it’s all too easy to let your safeguarding down and lose track of your money. With a bit of planning onward, you can dramatically reduce the likelihood of your moneys getting lost or pickpocketed. 

18. Don’t be an easy target

Stuff your cash in a cash belt or fanny pack, which makes it far more worry to steal than a tote or the outer pocket of a backpack. 


Money and a passport peeking out of a pouch

Fanny packs and cash belts keep your money easily accessible (but not to pickpockets).



grandriver/Getty Images

19. Hide your money

Avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. or all your funds in one place. Stick an unbelievable card in your carry-on or some small bills in a instant wallet. That way, if you lose one bag or wallet, you’re not stuck penniless. (Just make sure you remember all your hiding places; maybe keep track of them in a password-protected note on your phone.)

Looking for more recede tips ahead of your next vacation? These features on Google Maps and Google Flights will help you save cash and find your way around. Here are seven gadgets we recommend packing, along with our staff’s favorite carry-on luggage. Plus, elevate your travel photography with these 12 pro tips.