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2 Days ago, I admitted my long kept secret! We’re going to Europe… today! Although frequent American travellers, neither my husband or I have been over the big pond :p.

Not ones to plan many trips in advance, we’re more the “hope on a plane a week or two after buying the tickets, throw some random shit in a bag and hope we’ve got what we need” type people. Let me clarify, it also goes the same if we’re traveling with our kids. What can I say? We’re not very good at planning and this normally results in me packing way more than I need of stuff I’ll never use and forgetting the essentials.

Not this time! This time, I Marie Kondo’d the crap out of my purse, our carry ons and our backpacks. YES! Backpacks. I said it… we’re going to attempt to take 2 backpacks and one roll along. This may sound like overkill to some, but there are three of us, gone for three weeks and I rarely do laundry on a good day-let alone vacay!

I have to admit, actually packing what you need takes time but feels good! I’m sitting here, the night before (glass of wine in hand) feeling like a real and true adult. Yes ladies and gents, it’s only taken 31 years.

Coming from someone who travels a lot, most of the time by plane, I think you’ll be surprised at some of the items I never brought along and some of my “never-leave-without” pieces too.

New to me, packing tips-

-Travel size everything. Can you believe it? I’ve never packed travel size. I went so overboard on this, I bought fillable bottles and put my tax-filing labeler to use!

-Compartment bags for my checked bag and carry on! I normally throw everything in and hope to hell I find it when I need it. These little bag (most of which I bought from Winners) are color coded and going to be lifesavers!

-Hand sanitizers. Serious! But I’m not a germ-o-phobe, so I’ve never been one to carry it! Something about these really long flights and frequenting multiple airports has me heed-jeebi‘d. (I brought my new fave Thieves hand sani from Young Living.)

-Snacks. I always end up hungry and buying off the plane. But, who wants to wait till there offered? Now I can snack when I want!

-Medicine (adult & kids). I cross my fingers I don’t need it, but we’ve been the family frantically asking every other passenger if they have children’s medicine. Believe me, the last thing I want is to be in another country where they speak another language… asking for Tylenol. (Dejavu- It happened to us in Mexico a couple years ago.)

-Sleep mask/ear plugs/multiple blankets – (oh, and did I mention Gravel?) I can’t sleep on planes. It’s like there is something in my body that says I absolutely (no matter what I do) cannot sleep. I plan to change that, naturally or not :p

-My Young Living travel pack. Gifted to me, was an adorable travel pouch for my oils and you know those babies won’t be far!

Okay, so that long list is new to me! But what are my must have, always have?

-Noise cancelling headphones. I have Beats by Dre and love them! They’re rose gold (somewhat stylish) and lightweight. I charge them before we leave on a trip and they’ve always lasted until we’re home.

-Cell chargers. It never fails – my phone WILL die. It’s the nature of my life…and my job.

-ENDY travel pillow. I use the leftover insides to my ENDY pillow, in the smaller satchel they give you to sleep on planes!

-Mints. Nothing like gross breath.

-Pen. You know you’re going to have a declaration card!

If you’ve made it this far! THANK YOU! I love you for following along. If you follow me for life, fashion, family or any other reason… I know these next three weeks will be blog post free but insta feed (and story) heavy! Stay tuned…