Do you wish you had a magical Disney wand to wave and have your luggage packed with everything you need? While I can’t provide you that magical wand, I can help you to be more efficient at packing and take some stress out of the process.

Whether you are packing for a business trip or family vacation, remembering what you need to pack can be daunting.  If you forget to pack an essential item, a great summer vacation or superb business trip may turn into a trip with obstacles.

Whether you pack well in advance or are always up late the night before a trip packing, the key to packing quickly and efficiently is having a packing checklist to refer to. Relying on memory alone can be risky. A “what to pack list” will keep you focused and provide you with confidence during the packing process. 

You’ll want to create a packing list that can be used trip after trip. Start by creating a comprehensive list that includes all the items you’ll want for travel in the summer and non-summer months as well as items for business and non-business trips.

As I mentioned, I can’t provide you a magical Disney wand but I can provide you a comprehensive packing checklist so you won’t need to create one from scratch. Feel free to download Diane Albright’s Free Packing Checklist by going to www.DianeAlbright.com/free_packing_checklist.

The next time you are preparing for a trip, print a copy and cross-off the items you won’t need this time around. As you begin gathering items, keep the list at hand as you walk around your house or apartment. As you collect the items, place them along side of your luggage and check off the items on your list. Once you have all of your items collected as well as the clothing you need, you are ready to begin packing your suitcase.

If you want to fine tune your packing list a bit further, place your list in your suitcase on your next trip. If you find yourself in need of an item while you are away, add the item to your list. When you return home from your trip, update your comprehensive list with any added items. With this tweaked list, you’ll have the perfect packing checklist and be well prepared for upcoming travel.

Here are additional tips and tricks that may be helpful in planning your next trip:

Luggage to Love

Suitcase Packing Made Easy

How to Find Low Air Fare

Save Money on Hotel Stays

Car Rentals for Less

Preventing Travel Mishaps

Wishing you fabulous vacations and travel,

If you are in need of purchasing new luggage, I highly recommend buying luggage with 4 wheels on the bottom instead of 2. The 4 wheels allow you to steer and maneuver your luggage in any direction seamlessly. If you are going down a crowded aisle your can turn luggage the narrow way to easily squeeze by. Matter of fact, just spin your luggage around and you can easily fit down a narrow bus or airplane aisle.

With 4 wheels on your luggage you don’t have to tilt your suitcase down and bear the weight of the suitcase as you pull it along. With 4 wheels you can keep the luggage standing upright and just push it along. Pushing is easier because you have your weight behind the push.

The only downside to having 4 wheels on your luggage is that it can easily roll. It rolls so easily that driveways with a slope can be problem. You wouldn’t want to set your luggage at the top of the driveway, especially if you live in San Francisco. Perhaps one day they will add a brake lever to 2 of the 4 wheels, similar to a baby stroller.

Once you own luggage with 4 wheels I don’t know if you can ever go back. I have the Samsonite Spinner and love it. I know that if I was challenged to an obstacle course with my Samsonite Spinner I could surpass anyone with a piece of luggage with 2 wheels.

Happy luggage maneuvering!

This morning on The Sunrise Show Diane enjoyed sharing with the viewers tips and tricks on travel planning and packing.

Whether you are looking to save money on travel or simplify the packing process, you’ll find lots of helpful information by clicking on the links below.

How to Find Low Air Fare

Save Money on Hotel Stays

Car Rentals for Less

Preventing Travel Mishaps

Luggage to Love

Suitcase Packing Made Easy

Packing Checklist

We wish you happy and safe travel!

Diane is on Facebook and Twitter!

As you leave from home for a trip to you ever have that sick feeling that you forgot to pack something? Instead, wouldn’t it be great to have the confidence that you are leaving home with everything you need?

Do you dread packing? Do you repeatedly go back and forth wasting time gathering items you need as they come to mind?

Our tips below should help cut down on your packing time and provide you with a stress-free vacation.

•  Create a packing checklist to use over and over again. Save the list in your computer. Each time it is time to pack, print out the list then cross of the items that don’t pertain to your upcoming and travel and jot down additional items you need. To help you get started, we’ll share our travel packing checklist with you.

•  Gather all the clothes that you would like to take and put half back. Keep the clothes that are in the same color families so you can mix and match. Don’t keep browns and blues for example.

•  Lay clothing as flat as possible and as full length as possible. Having clothing in dry cleaner bags in a suitcase is a great way to prevent clothes from wrinkling.

•  Place the clothing you will need first, on top.

•  Divide clothes and other items between different bags in case a piece of luggage gets lost en route.

•  Stuff shoes with sunglasses, other items you don’t want to break and electronic items such as cords.

•  To prevent shoes from getting other items dirty, place in Ziploc® gallon size bags - especially on the return trip.

•  Put items such as brushes that can snag or scratch things in a cloth or Ziploc® bag.

•  Put toiletries in Ziploc® bags. If your toiletries are going in a carry on for air travel, prevent getting tied up at security by following the TSA (Transportation Security Administrations) rule of 3-1-1*. Each liquid, gel and aerosol must be in a container of no more than THREE ounces. All liquids, gels and aerosols must be placed in ONE quart size ziptop, clear bag - which makes it easy to pull out and place in the bin to be x-rayed at the security checkpoint. Each passenger may carry on only ONE ziptop, clear bag of liquids, gels and aerosols. Consider putting this bag in an easy to reach part of your carry on such as a zippered pocket. Travel size containers can help with the packing of toiletries. Bed, Bath, and Beyond carries a nice selection of travel size items and containers.

*Medications, baby formula and food, and breast milk are exempt from the 3-1-1 carry on rule in reasonable quantities. You can check out the TSA’s website http://www.tsa.gov/311/index.shtm for the most up to date information.

•  Weigh your luggage at home. Don’t wait until you get to the airport, for you certainly don’t want to have to pay a fee or frantically try to move items from one suitcase to another to make the weight requirement. Check with your airline if you are concerned about their specific weight limits for luggage - typically for an economy ticket the weight limit for checked luggage is 50 pounds.

•  Before leaving for the airport tie a colored ribbon to your luggage handle or place a large unique sticker on the side(s) of your suitcase. This way as the luggage carousel goes around you’ll be able to easily identify your luggage. 

Wishing you packing success!

To make your trip as smooth as possible take the time before you leave to perform some preventative measures. A little time invested will enable you handle the unexpected curve ball thrown your way. The following travel tips and tricks should have you well on your way to a stress free vacation or business trip.

•  Before leaving home, add important telephone numbers into your cellular phone. Enter the telephone numbers for your hotel, airline, car rental agency and travel agency. This way if you have any delays or problems, coming or going, you can easily place any necessary calls.

•  If you’ve missed your flight or connection, call the airline directly instead of standing in line for a ticket agent.

•  When making a hotel reservation be sure to clearly state the type of beds that you want, i.e., king, queen, etc. Confirm the type of bed that is on your reservation. At check-in request a room that does not face traffic or is near elevator or vending machines. If you are a member of the hotel’s rewards club, check to see if the hotel offers a late checkout.

•  Afraid you might lose your cellular phone? Don’t wear a watch. This will force you to check your cellular phone for the time which will alert you more quickly if you misplaced your phone.

•  It is easy to misplace a purse if you are bringing along a carry on. The carry on may feel like your purse at times and make it easy to forget you should have two items over your shoulder instead of one. If you are afraid you’ll lose your purse, wear a waist pack instead. 

•  Print out a local map, review it ahead of time and bring it with you. It will save stress.

•  Call the airline ahead of time to make sure you are earning frequent flyer points.

•  Download pictures from your digital camera before trip. This way if your camera gets lost during your trip, you won’t lose any other precious memories.

•  If taking a picture of your hotel room is a vacation tradition, snap a picture of your room before you unpack a thing. This way everything will still be neat, tidy and in place in your room.

•  Have a medical condition or allergy to food and traveling out of the US? Prior to leaving have someone who is fluent in that language write down your allergy and problems/questions that may pertain to it. Such as, “Are there nuts in this item?” or perhaps you may need to state, “I need immediate medical attention for …” Be sure to have the English translation written next to it

Wishing you a safe and problem-free vacation!

If you are trying to find the cheapest flights, consider going through a local or online travel agency. Travel agencies can bundle different airlines together to get the lowest price, so you don’t have to travel on just one airline - your return flight might be through a different airline. You can also get great hotel and flight pricing when packaged together.

Be cautious booking through a discount site. It may save you money but you may have less flexibility if something goes wrong and you need to make a change.

Happy flying!