the best time to book holiday travel—and how to save more, according to expert jet setters

Travel

The Best Time to Book Holiday Travel—and How to Save More, According to Expert Jet-Setters

Drescription

If you plan on stress-free traveling during the holiday season, it's common knowledge to book flights early—airports are notorious for being packed during peak travel periods. Wherever you choose to go, booking early could make the difference between a happy holiday and a stressful (and more expensive) one. But how early? And what else can you do to save money? To help, we've gathered tips from expert travelers on how to snag the best airline prices during the holidays.

When to Buy Airline Tickets for the Holidays

The best time to book tickets is ASAP if you want to save money on holiday travel. However, vacation times and holidays can be hard to plan, so aim to book flights by October 31st for travel during Thanksgiving and Christmas. "After Halloween, prices will increase considerably as Thanksgiving gets closer," says Phil Dengler, a travel expert and the co-owner of travel resource site The Vacationer.

Book 3 Weeks Ahead

Domestic flight prices can spike 40%—about $400 per round trip—from the end of October to the week before Thanksgiving, according to Adit Damodaran, an economist at Hopper. And waiting until the last week for both Thanksgiving and Christmas can cost more than $500 round-trip, Damodaran says. "In general, booking domestic flights three weeks in advance (or by Thanksgiving at the latest) should help travelers avoid the biggest price spikes," Damodaran explains.

Book Mid-Week

The day of the week you book tickets can make a difference, too. Book flights in the middle of the week for lower prices. "The best time to book airfare is usually mid-week—[fewer] people are searching for flights so [prices] tend to dip from Tuesday to the end of Wednesday," says money-saving expert Andrea Woroch. But flight prices during the holiday season will get more expensive the longer you wait, regardless of which day of the week you buy them.

"If you aren't sure exactly what your plans are, you may be able to book a portion of your flight to get the best deal on at least one leg of your trip," says Woroch.

Booking Tips to Save More Money on Holiday Travel

Booking your holiday travel in advance isn't the only way to save. Here are some more expert-backed tips to save money that's better spent on holiday gifts and family meals around the holidays.

Be Flexible on Flying Days

"Ultimately, [flights require] a bit of searching, so review airfare prices based on a 30-day schedule to find the best deal," says Woroch. One way to save money on plane tickets is to fly on the day of the holiday. Based on recent years, you can save about $50 if you travel on Thanksgiving day instead of the day before, according to travel search site KAYAK.

Being flexible with your travel dates can help find the best airfare prices: "It's better to be open to traveling based on when you can score cheaper airline tickets, which will fall ahead or before a holiday," Woroch adds. The day immediately after a holiday can be pricier for return flights, too, so it may make more financial sense to wait another day or two.

Track Flight Prices in Advance

Doing your research, comparing flight deals, and being on the lookout for when prices drop are key to finding reasonable airfare for holiday travel. One way to do this is to monitor flight prices using a tracker such as Google Flights, Hopper, or Skyscanner, which will alert you with deals for your route.

"Set your desired route and travel dates and receive alerts when prices drop," says Janet Semenova, co-founder of travel company Boutique Travel Advisors. "Purchase flights immediately when they reach your desired threshold," she adds.

Semenova recommends setting multiple alerts. Even if you aren't entirely sure about your itinerary, start tracking flight prices for your route early—and book when you find the lowest price to save money on holiday travel.

Leverage Miles and Points

Leveraging miles and points can also lessen the blow on your wallet around the holidays. "If you have a stash of frequent flyer miles or flexible bank points, don't forget to consider redeeming miles for your holiday travel," says Caroline Lupini, a managing editor of the credit cards and travel rewards vertical at Forbes Advisor.

In fact, Lupini says that she's been able to save hundreds of dollars herself each year by scoring holiday plane tickets with miles. "If you look early enough or can be flexible, award tickets won't drain your mileage balance either," she adds. "In 2023, my holiday flights cost only 6,000 Virgin Atlantic points per ticket, and this year, I paid the low price of 7,500 American AAdvantage miles."

Consider Visa Costs (and Airline Rules)

Antoinette Hannan Leon, vice president of ItsEasy.com, warns international holiday travelers to be mindful of potential visa costs, which can make a family vacation or a trip to visit relatives overseas even more expensive.

"Research the visa requirements of your holiday destination in advance," Leon says. "The timing for obtaining a visa depends on the country and the type of visa. Some countries allow you to apply up to six months in advance, some three months, some 30 days, and some two weeks. Also, look up passport and visa costs so you can factor them into your holiday travel budgeting."

Leon also advises checking your passport expiration date and renewing it one year in advance if you can. "Some countries require that a person's passport be valid at least six months beyond the dates of their trip, and some airlines will not allow a person to board if this requirement is not met," Leon says. The airline has the power to turn you away.

Use a VPN or Private Browser When Buying

"In today’s online travel market, consumers often fall victim to 'dynamic pricing,' a practice where airlines and online travel agencies (OTAs) adjust prices based on your search history and browsing patterns," says Michael DeLucca, travel tech expert and founder of Otsy.com. "To avoid paying inflated rates, travelers should consider using a VPN (virtual private network) or private-browsing mode on their web browsers."

By masking your browsing activity, a VPN or incognito mode prevents travel sites from being able to easily track your interest in a specific flight. Therefore, they can't raise prices after repeated searches.

"A VPN offers additional advantages by allowing you to set your IP address to appear as though you’re in a different country," he adds. "This tactic can be especially useful for finding better rates, as prices often vary by region and sometimes offer substantial savings when searched from outside the country."

Turns Out I’ve Been Blow Drying My Hair All Wrong—Here’s How To Get It Right

When trying to decide what to post on new year’s eve, we thought a good ole fashion “how-to” beauty post would do the trick. Hopefully, this will come in handy tonight so that you can ring in the new year with a perfectly blown out do (if that’s the look you’re going for;)) Turns out, I’ve been blowdrying my hair all wrong—and not only does it not look as good as it could, but I’ve been damaging it. I was recently at my friend Janine Jarman’s salon (Hairroin Los Angeles), complaining about how I can never make my hair look good on my own, and convinced that I’ll never learn, when she handed me the blow dryer and a brush and said “show me how you do it.” I did and she, horrified, said “I see…yeah. That is all wrong and now I understand why your hair is so damaged.” She was actually relieved because this is a problem that we can solve. To be fair my hair is a challenge and even she admits that. I used to have great long, natural-looking blonde hair. Then I had two kids and proceeded to bleach and chop it and it’s never been the same. It’s curly (therefore frizzy and fuzzy) and broken (so I have to be gentle with it) and it’s actually only shoulder length so while I try to grow it out, I have extensions. It’s also naturally blonde, therefore fine. All of this makes it VERY hard for me to blow it out. The extensions are long and straight, my hair is short and curly. It’s awesome. So to be clear, yes, I was doing it all wrong, but my hair is absolutely a challenge. Here’s what I was doing wrong: I was not using product, did not have the right brush or the right hairdryer (my good one broke a while ago and so Brian picked this cheap guy up at the drugstore). I was blowing the wrong direction, therefore opening up my cuticle and CREATING frizz. I was putting the dryer far too close to my hair while it was still really wet (more frizz and damage). I had no real order and started in the wrong place. I was doing it WAY too fast, creating more frizz. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Wrong 1 Here’s what it looked like “before” when I was done. I mean, I don’t think it looks that bad, honestly, but does it look like I just stepped out of a salon? Uh, no. It was still a little wavy, a little frizzy, not that shiny. Good enough for everyday life, but yeah, nowhere near what a pro could do. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Wrong 2 So yeah, the finished product, as you can see, is not great. Let’s move on to how you are SUPPOSED to do it: 1. First, towel dry as much as possible. There is no reason to damage your hair by going straight to the blow dryer with soaking wet hair. I hear that this hair towel is great and apparently reduces drying time 50%. (When Arlyn was reading through, she said she actually had that towel, and it indeed made her hair dry faster…though she said maybe by like 30% but she liked it because it was felt light and not like a big lumpy heavy towel that was always flopping around on the top of her head). 2. Next, you want to protect your hair with a product. It’s not like I haven’t tried this but I honestly didn’t know what do use for my hair, how much of it to use and at what point to put it in??? Janine gave me just a few sprays of invisible oil primer and told me to work it all throughout the hair, evenly, while it is still damp. If you have hair like mine, using something that is heat-protective is key. It will act as an SPF for your hair, and protect it from the sun and heat (and reduce frizz). I hate my hair feeling product heavy so at first, I resisted, but using this stuff really made a difference and my hair did not feel weighed down by product at all. 3. Use a gentle wet brush to brush out your hair. I was just using my other bristle brush and not being NEARLY as gentle as I should be. She recommended this one. 4. Then we added a quarter-sized amount of conditioning straightening balm and applied it evenly throughout my hair (avoiding the scalp, because it will get greasy). Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Right 2 New 5. First big thing I learned: You HAVE to start with bangs. Why? Because they are the most important part and it’s best to do them at the beginning before your arms are tired, while you still have the patience and before they get too dry and frizzy. She recommended using this brush, then pull the bangs to one side and blow-dry pointing the blow dryer down. Repeat the same motion on the other side. 6. For my hair, Janine told me to do a flat wrap where you use the forehead to help shape and bend bangs. When bangs are almost dry, use a large metal brush, which acts as a curling tool, and pull bangs forward in a circular motion for volume. 7. Before going into sections, rake through hair using hands and blow-dry (always pointing downward) to help get rid of some more moisture so you are not spending a million years drying each section. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Right 3 8. Then move to the crown using a bristle brush and roll the hair under and back using SO MUCH TENSION while pointing the blow dryer downwards and towards the back of your head. HOT TIP: Tension is the key to shiny and frizz-free hair. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Right 4 9. As you go along, clip sections to cool. Janine told me to clip it like there is a pretend roller in there. This allows your hair to cool down in that smooth shape. To be honest this is where I started to get REALLY ready for this to be over. It’s so much work and as Janine kept telling me “it’s not a race,” but I just wanted to be done. My arms were tired. I was tired. But I get it. If I take the time, a blowout can last 3 to 4 days so that 1/2 hour to 40 minutes it takes to do it properly is WORTH IT. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Right 5 10. Once you give yourself a pep talk to keep going (you’ve got this), move to the side sections of your hair, making your way from front to back. We used the big boar bristle roller brush for smoothness, and then moved to the metal brush to add more style, curl, and movement. Angle the brush tool the direction you want your hair to go (if you want your hair down and smooth, the brush will need to be curled under your hair, as opposed to just lose like in the top right photo above). 11. Repeat for the rest of the sections of your hair. HOT TIP: the sections you work with should not be bigger than the tool you are using. To give my hair a little movement, my normal routine is to add some curl with a curling iron until it looks nice and voluminous (I did this even when I was doing everything else so. wrong.) so that’s what we did here at the end. The finished product is a lot shinier, smoother, and healthier looking. And look, NO FRIZZ. You may notice the exhaustion behind my eyes from the effort, but okay fine, it was worth it. In case you forgot what MY technique looks like next to Janine’s expert advice, here’s a side by side of the first finished job next to the new and improved blowout: Emilyfinalsideandback Updated I kept saying to everyone in the office “are you sure the before is bad enough?” and they all would politely just laugh and say “yeah, it’s convincing.” So, what do you guys think? Did I succeed? Have I just become a woman who knows how to blow out her hair? I think so. We just put up a video of the process, so go check it out if the photos aren’t doing it for you.

Want Better Lilies Next Year? Gardeners Say You Should Never Skip This Important Task

Lilies are one of the stars of any flower lover's midsummer garden. But what should you do once those blooms begin to fade? Like many popular garden flowers, lilies benefit from deadheading—but maybe not for the reason you think. Here's why you should make a point to deadhead your lilies this growing season. Should You Deadhead Lilies? Lilies benefit from deadheading for a couple of different reasons. In addition to tidying up the appearance of your garden after its blooms have faded, snipping away the spent flower heads is important for next year's growth. Leaving the flowers on the plant will allow them to go to seed if the flowers have been pollinated. Instead of storing up energy in their bulbs for next year's flowers, your lily plants will expend that energy producing seeds. Removing the flowering portions of each stem once they fade means you'll have stronger, more vibrant flowers next year than if you let the plants go to seed.1 Note that, unlike flowers such as marigolds and zinnias, deadheading true lilies, including Asiatic lilies and Easter lilies, won't encourage the plants to rebloom this year. How to Deadhead Lilies Look for lily stems with flowers that have faded or are beginning to fade, discolor, or drop off. Keep an eye out for flowers in which the petals and stamens have fallen away completely. Only the stigma, the structure in the center of the flower that collects pollen to send down to the ovary in the base of the flower to form seeds, may remain. If your lily flowers have already bloomed, you may also see only long green seed pods where the flowers once were. You can deadhead a single lily flower out of many on a stem or, once all blooms have faded, cut back the entire flowering portion of that stem. To remove a single flower, use clean, sharp scissors or pruners to cut the flower stem where it meets the main stem. Sanitize Your Tools If possible, sanitize your tools between cuts to avoid spreading disease. While it's possible to simply snap off the spent flowers with your hands rather than using snips, leaving ragged, uneven stem ends behind may help introduce disease to your lily plants. If all flowers on the stem have faded and begun going to seed, you can make your cut at the bottom of the flowering portion of the main stem—below the lowest flower stem but above any leaves. Once your lily flowers begin to fade, check them every few days to deadhead individual blooms as needed. You can also choose to wait until all flowers on a single stem are spent and remove the flowering portion of the spike all at once. Tip Deadheading, or cutting away faded or dead flowers, is an important garden task for many plants. Depending on the type of flower, deadheading can help plants preserve energy for next year or promote reblooming the same season. Either way, deadheading keeps your flower garden looking neat and tidy. What to Do With Deadheaded Blooms As long as they don't show signs of pests or disease, lilies can be added to your compost pile. They can also be thrown in the trash. If your lilies do become diseased or infested, it's best to tie them up in a plastic bag before tossing them to prevent any spread. You may also decide to skip deadheading altogether and leave the seed pods on the plant, though it may not grow as vigorously the next year. In fact, some types of lilies are known for their visually striking seed pods, which can add interest to the garden in the off-season if they're left on the plant. For example, blackberry lilies get their name from the distinctive shiny black seeds left behind after the flowers bloom.

Design Coaching: Peter And Chrissy’s Builder-Grade Kitchen Plan (I’ve Got Thoughts!)

Oh boy, this is fun. I love inserting myself into other people’s problems (usually when asked) so this whole “help someone else design their house” thing is already making my dopamine spike. After sifting through countless submissions (sooo many good ones–thank you to all who applied!), battling weeks of email hacking snafus, and balancing our super stacked schedule, we FINALLY found our match. You can read about this sweet couple here! To refresh your memory Chrissy and Peter, our first participants in the Renovation Coach series, have 3 kids under the age of 3, really good taste, and enough experience with remodeling to not hire a contractor. And yet, like all of us, doing it alone feels daunting and scary (because it simply is the nature of the beast). About The House The house was built in the 90s and has an addition and some awkward angles and finishes for sure. But the neighborhood is great and the lot is HUGE. They want to change a lot about the house – adding a primary bedroom, moving the powder bath, adding a mudroom, moving the washer/dryer upstairs, and redoing the kitchen (maybe more, but that’s what came out of the 2-hour initial session). For our purposes, we are talking kitchen, but it was so good to know what else they were thinking – how long will this string be?? For total visual context of the space before we get into the ins and out of this kitchen, here is a video of the space! (just wait for the ads to play:)) Back To The Kitchen (Pre-Move-In) Here’s how it looked when they first moved in. From the drop ceiling to the weirdly shaped island to the unfortunate, immovable structural elements, the kitchen was not their fantasy – both in function and style. Their biggest complaint has been the lack of storage but truly it all needs updating–countertops, cabinets, appliances, flooring, you name it. The flow is a bit weird overall and they’re open to reimagining the space entirely. Oh, and the cabinets are falling apart. “BUILDER-GRADE” (she shakes her fists at the sky). They’ve already made some killer changes, starting with the floor. They opted for this beautiful wide plank wood flooring, getting rid of the checkerboard, which only enhanced the datedness of the kitchen, but also opened up options. By changing the direction of the wood floors it also really helped to better connect the kitchen to the living areas. Here is what their kitchen looked like the day we stopped by to check it out. As you can see, they are mid-project and have been agonizing over the best solution for this space to keep moving forward. They’ve explored a number of layouts and have yet to land on the right one (her keynote collages look like mine – abundant and messy a la A Beautiful Mind. When we first got there she had a plan and two hours later we totally changed it (for the better, we think). Chrissy’s First Mockup (Pre-Meeting) Christy wanted to extend the size of the kitchen into the space next door (which seemed to be initially intended for a dining room). Desperate for storage and a nice big island for cooking and entertaining, they thought that this could be a good solution. I didn’t, TBH, especially because once you get into the space the biggest issue is two different ceiling levels. The dropped and vaulted ceiling is really the culprit here. Well, actually it’s just a regular 8ft ceiling in the kitchen zone that feels like a dropped ceiling because the rest of the space is vaulted. But this cross section is definitely structural, holding up part of their kids’ room upstairs, so they have to find a way to work with it. There were some other issues, as well that they wanted to address. Speaking of structural, both the wall attached to the stairs and this diagonal corner wall connecting to their current washer/dryer closet, have to stay. In this back area is the entrance from their garage, a tight walk-thru, with laundry on one side (that they want to be moved upstairs) and a teeny tiny powder bath on the other. Ideally, they’d love to find a way to add a mudroom in this area…but one project at a time. My perspective was that all these little moves would end up costing $250k at least and not all of them were worth it. Moving a powder bath 5 feet could cost $25k (could also be less, but you just don’t know) so I advised against it unless they were 100% sure this was their “forever home”. Stepping into the kitchen, this is your main view: a bank of tired cabinets, the sink, the dishwasher, and a view that overlooks the dogs’ potty zone. (Did I mention they have two cute pups?) The whole house actually gets really great light exposure from the many windows in the living room, and Chrissy hasn’t loved looking out into this area. They’ve discussed removing this window entirely (or maybe the one in the dining room) or just shifting it over to make room for their ideal cabinet layout. Regardless, they will put in new windows should they keep them here. Plumbing will likely stay on this back wall to keep costs and complications down. But they want to shift the sink over, swapping it for a bigger/better one, then flanking it with a panel-ready dishwasher and trash drawer. And of course, all of this means new cabinets, countertops, hardware, appliances, etc. Again, here is their last mood board (which is rapidly changing, per the usual design process). Chrissy has great taste and design eye – I loved her mockup. None of these elements are final except for the style/color of the cabinetry. The one thing they know for sure is that they love the AXSTAD blue kitchen cabinets from IKEA. The price is right and the look and color really speak to them. Us too. Initially, she wanted to extend the cabinetry all the way across, into the vaulted ceiling dining area, creating a bar zone and prep area with more storage. But she’s struggled with the right combination of cabinets that will align with that ceiling height jump in a visually pleasing way. Additionally, they are losing the corner cabinets, instead shifting the oven zone in line with the back wall to create more of a galley-style kitchen. In order to make this work and look right, they will need to address this weird wall situation and plan to bump it out to make it flush with the walkway opening. Doing this will also add about a foot of space to the powder bath on the other side (another project they have plans for, but again, one thing at a time!). Another part of Chrissy’s design (and we are definitely aligned here) is to keep the island. Well, this funky island will not be staying, but a new rectangular island will take its place. Again, one of their big issues is having enough storage, so prioritizing extra cabinetry here makes sense. They talked about keeping the stools where they are currently, but Gretchen had the idea to build in the overhang at the end of the island instead, near the garage entrance. Enough room for the kiddos to have a seat on a couple of stools while dad cooks, and plenty of room to stand and gather around the back of the island when entertaining–which they do a lot of–while maximizing storage along the backside. The cooktop would stay here (though at one point in our meeting, we discussed swapping it with the sink but that would likely be too much of a ha$$le). Behind the island is their “pantry”, in quotes because it’s more of a Harry Potter closet than a pantry, positioned in the void under the stairs. In all of Chrissy’s plans, integrating a new pantry cabinet was a staple of her design. If you scroll back up to her mockup, she originally envisioned it next to the paneled fridge, likely coming out past the 8ft ceiling divide. The problem then became making it look right with the vaulted ceiling. Would it come up past the 8ft and intersect with the vault? Or stay the same height? Does IKEA even make cabinets to fit a situation like this? And how would this all shake out measurement-wise? Well, Gretch suggested instead turning the original stair/pantry wall into a grand wall of floor-to-ceiling-pantry cabinets, closing off the existing door, and moving its access to the side hallway with some clever angled doors or drawers. Both Chrissy and Peter perked up at this. Of course, it will all have to make sense dimensionally and could be impacted based on the size of the new island. And it means more projects. But it could be a very cool statement moment and would give the chef something more interesting to stare at than the current situation. With more storage going in the island and the potential for a larger pantry area across it, the initial bar/cabinetry build-out into the living space now becomes less crucial. But the problem still remains. How do you integrate this living area with the kitchen so it feels cohesive and connected? Ending the cabinets in the same place as they are now might keep the kitchen feeling small. But extending it into a wet bar or just more counter space isn’t super functional if they also need this area to hold their dining table. Sure, it’d give them more storage but it’s unlikely they’d actually use it for prep space. Our Solution? So what if instead, it became a built-in dining banquette, flanked with cabinets and shelving? This might feel more visually intentional than closed-off cabinets and could address the ceiling shift in a way that makes sense–to us at least. Remember, Chrissy is not married to this window staying here, so a new window could shift around or it could leave altogether and make room for a matching bookcase to flank either side of the bench (with the window in the middle?). The bench (and the shelves) would provide even more storage, but could also turn this wall into a really beautiful, thoughtful focal point. So that’s where we left them, with plenty of new ideas and potential solutions swirling. The biggest question now is how does this all fit together?? Does that wall really have the right length for a double oven, sink, trash drawer and dishwasher, drawers, panel-ready fridge, open shelving bookcase (that starts at exactly the right spot with the weird ceiling shift), plus a built-in dining bench? How big should the island be? Can a grand pantry wall fit into the mix? Their Homework We were so excited about the layout change, but Chrissy really needed to figure out math-wise if they could fit their appliances AND the cabinets in the same kitchen footprint, utilizing the island for the cooktop and knowing that we’d have more storage in the new pantry and the floor-to-ceiling library cabinet focal moment in the dining room. We can’t really do much until we know that the layout will work within the footprint (we all feel hopeful). They have to do some homework to get all of those answers, so we’ll check back in with them soon. I also tasked them with taking an inventory of their kitchen things, what all they’ll need to store, and mapping it out based on the new proposed design — a practice we swear by! Maybe they’ll find they don’t have so much of a storage issue after all? As I was writing this I realized that this is a LOT to try to understand without you being in the space. If you’ve made it this far you are as invested as we are. With 3 kids under three years old, attempting a kitchen remodel is a doozy (thus me wanting to help). They think they can get it done in under 3 months and I’m loving their enthusiasm. They aren’t hiring a GC and instead are going to hire subcontractors and manage the project themselves, which honestly I think will make it go faster if they are on top of it and certainly could save them some money. They have already started getting bids and making relationships with subs and honestly, we all know that no one can get shit done faster than a mom, so maybe the 3 kids under 3 years will actually prove to be the motivation to drive fast. Regardless, we are along for this ride and hoping to not just be a backseat driver. Next up is seeing the update on the layout with our new plan and then we’ll go shopping for tile and stone (assuming that we are good to use the IKEA kitchen). Since this is the first time we are documenting someone else’s project (and not doing renderings, etc) let us know if you have suggestions on the rollout of this – it’s a lot of information to get so we’ll try to break it down so you can weigh in and also gleam any help for your own project. A huge thanks to Chrissy and Peter for being our guinea pigs:)

How to Travel With Only Carry-On Luggage

There are so many reasons not to check your luggage and go carry-on only. After all, the cost of a plane ticket rarely includes a checked bag these days. Packing lightly can also be easier for those traveling with kids or pets. Lastly, it eliminates the risk of the airline losing your luggage. But packing with carry-on luggage poses its own challenges. You need to limit what you pack yet make sure you have enough for your trip. It’s also crucial any cosmetics comply with TSA rules and regulations. Ready to get on board? Here’s how to travel with carry-on luggage only. Start With the Right Luggage An expandable rolling carry-on suitcase is ideal. Even if you aren’t an over-packer or you don’t really shop on vacation, it gives you options. BÉIS president Adeela Hussain Johnson suggests the BÉIS Carry-On Roller because not only is it expandable, but it also has a cushioned handle for comfort, a strap for attaching another bag, and 360-degree wheels. It even has a weight indicator, which is a major help if you decide to check it at the last minute. Have a Packing Strategy Be realistic about what you’ll actually wear on the trip. “Leave your entire closet at home—pack outfits by day and reuse a few bottoms, so you can stay light. You know you’re not changing three times in a day and you definitely don’t need that one outfit you haven’t worn in three years,” Johnson says. Get Organized With Packing Cubes Johnson tells me packing cubes in several different sizes are the most efficient way to pack. “Roll everything that can be rolled at the bottom of the largest packing cube and flat pack anything that is bulky on top of the rolled items. Zip up the packing cube and place it into the zip side of the roller.” She suggests putting shoes at the bottom of your luggage where it’s uneven. Then stash any additional footwear in shoe bags on the side of the large packing cube. Pack Cosmetics Wisely You don’t need to take your entire makeup collection with you. One day and one night look should suffice for most people. Then opt for multitasking beauty products. For example, choose a foundation or moisturizer that contains sunscreen. Bring a cleansing balm because it eliminates the need for additional eye makeup remover. Don’t Forget Your One Personal Item In addition to your carry-on bag, many airlines allow one personal item. Take advantage of this by using a large tote bag so you can bring as much as possible. Then put a bag with essentials inside that bag. Johnson likes the BÉIS On The Go Essentials Case because it's transparent, so you don’t have to uncomfortably rummage through your main bag when looking for earbuds in a tight space. Consider Shipping Your Luggage If you’re going away for a longer trip but want to bring a minimal amount of luggage, shipping your luggage in advance is always an option. Considering the cost of checked luggage these days, shipping isn’t exorbitantly more expensive.