Weird items you’ve packed

[tcufrog]

What weird stuff have you taken on a trip? I recently packed a baby bottle warmer even though my kids are 10 and 14. I used it to warm up my prescription sinus rinse bottles.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Little cut up sponges soaked in dishwashing liquid and then dried. We re-hydrate them and then use them to wash out our cups. Very useful, but a Ziploc bag full of them does look weird in the suitcase.

 

[usnuzuloose]

A 3ft chicken.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We've rented two vacation homes that didn't have a coffeemaker. It was tragic. Now I make sure to ask the owner in advance. Last year, we rented from a management company that wasn't terribly responsive and I still didn't know if they had one or what type. I packed my own Keurig just in case (we drove so we had space). This year, we're going to our family vacation home that has been occupied by tenants for the past year and a half. We have no idea what condition the place is in (they basically took advantage after Covid hit and have been generally flakey, but that's another story). I left a Keurig there several years ago. I had been doing the maintenance procedures on it (descaling, needle cleaning), when I was there, but I doubt the tenants did any of that. It could be toast now. I will be brining my own Keurig so that my sister and I don't have another coffee disaster!

 

[fla4fun]

One of those immersion heaters to make hot water. I drink tea, and if I make hot water in a coffee maker, it tastes like coffee. It stays in my suitcase so if I end up in a hotel room without a microwave, I can still make tea.

 

[usnuzuloose]

A 3ft chicken.

It was fun on a cruise, the photographers had a blast with it.

 

[Karin1984]

A package of 10 pink candles when I was about 10 years old. My mother thought I was crazy, but by that age we were allowed to pack our own mini-suitcase with things we wanted to bring. And exactly in that vacation we experienced a black out that lasted over 12 hours. Everyone else was in the dark, but we had some light. Ever since I have the reputation to be at least a little clairvoyant. ;-)

 

[Wendy1985]

Next trip will be uti strips I had one uti to many without symptoms so testing myself weekly

 

[MICKIMINI]

Orange twinkly light string for our Halloween stay!

 

[Grand Koalafornian]

What weird stuff have you taken on a trip? I recently packed a baby bottle warmer even though my kids are 10 and 14. I used it to warm up my prescription sinus rinse bottles.

Oh I never thought of that! I sometimes use OTC sinus rinse and my bathroom sink only has cold water and I just use them cold. I have a few friends with toddlers, I can see if any of them will be getting rid of one of those, soon.

One of those immersion heaters to make hot water.

I love my immersion heater when I travel! I can make tea, hot chocolate, or soup without a microwave and without coffee aftertaste.

To answer the question: I once brought like 300 glow bracelets to WDW to hand out to kids (as an adult with no kids of my own). I always asked their parents before handing them out bc I did't want to train kids to take things from strangers without their parents around. I also always take a small flashlight when traveling, just in case.

 

[tcufrog]

It was fun on a cruise, the photographers had a blast with it.

Photos or it didn't happen.

Oh I never thought of that! I sometimes use OTC sinus rinse and my bathroom sink only has cold water and I just use them cold. I have a few friends with toddlers, I can see if any of them will be getting rid of one of those, soon.

My ENT prescribed a 3 medicine sinus rinse that has to be prepared by a compound pharmacy. I have a zombie sinus infection living deep in my sinuses and he's hoping that this will kill it once and for all before it reanimates again. It's unpleasant with warm water and burns when I use cold water.

 

[gopher101]

My zip up 3 inch binder. I use it to store my gift cards for/on vacation. Always on my shoulder with my purse in hand. People give me looks when I take it out and open it, but I don't care. I got my gift cards (from beer money sites) to get a great vacation.

 

[angelbaby129]

My zip up 3 inch binder. I use it to store my gift cards for/on vacation. Always on my shoulder with my purse in hand. People give me looks when I take it out and open it, but I don't care. I got my gift cards (from beer money sites) to get a great vacation.

A binder for gift cards is a great idea! Do you mind sharing which sites you're using? I used to be extremely into swagbucks, but quit after my last big vacation. I'm trying to get back into it to pay for my next one and I'm having a hard time.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Maybe not weird to peeps here on the Board but when we went to WDW/USO in 2017 I had a 3-ring binder with print outs of our plans and then pages of what rides we wanted to ride (in order of highly wanted to if time allowed) and places to eat that we didn't mind eating at (that included the few ADRs we had made). When we got back home I kept all of that (for future trips) and also added in the receipts from the trip. Everything was put in page protectors. There really wasn't many people on the plane (we went when Irma was there) but I'm sure it might have looked a bit odd to some passengers me pulling out this big binder going through the pages if they saw the level of detail and what it was about lol.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My zip up 3 inch binder. I use it to store my gift cards for/on vacation. Always on my shoulder with my purse in hand. People give me looks when I take it out and open it, but I don't care. I got my gift cards (from beer money sites) to get a great vacation.

All of my gift cards (which are day to day ones too) are in a zip up coin type thing. I've been using that thing for probably 15+ years at this point. Now I wonder if people look at me weird when I pull it out and thumb through all the gift cards in there lol

 

[Tiggerish]

I travel to Disney with a large assortment of odds and ends not just clothes.

I recently went on week long trip with my older sister, her daughter and two kids, her daughter-in-law and two kids and my niece. That is is nine people and three rooms. Most of them had never been to WDW or traveled with me before.

The first night, I hear the "bathroom is too dark at night" - out comes a spare nightlight. Then "the curtains let in a streak of light so fussy kid can't sleep" - out comes a clothespin. From then on it was a Tide stain pen, Tide laundry soap pods with dryer sheets, paper that has dish soap already in it for cleaning mugs, an assortment of zip lock storage bags, a corkscrew, duck tape, a tiny screwdriver to fix an eye glasses arm and a folding travel scissor to clip a tee shirt tag that was making a kid miserable. The M&M container with quarters and pennies was also a big hit.

It was remarked that Mary Poppins's bag had nothing on Aunties' bag.

 

[monsterkitty]

I've taken my wetsuit, bike helmet, and pedals in my carry on a few times. The helmet gets chuckles from the flight crew.

 

[JoeA]

A 10+ pound vitamix in the suitcase. Best frozen marg's EVER!

 

[loves to dive]

Toilet paper. I can't stand that thin stuff they insist on using in hotels.

 

[gopher101]

A binder for gift cards is a great idea! Do you mind sharing which sites you're using? I used to be extremely into swagbucks, but quit after my last big vacation. I'm trying to get back into it to pay for my next one and I'm having a hard time.

Swagbucks, and Mypoints (use on different browsers) are my main sites. I use Inboxdollars for the Paid emails and search daily. I use Bing everyday and max it out. For shopping I use Ibotta ,Krogercashback,checkout51, coupons.com, fetch, shopkick, Kellogsfamily rewards, PG good everyday, and tada(part of swagbucks). For receipts I use receipt Pal, receipt Hog, and coinout.

I hardly ever buy anything to fit into the apps unless I know I will use it (atkins shakes, chesse, TP, etc).Otherwise I just plug it in after I get home and look. I scan products at store when I shop (Shopkick/Tada). I try not to spend money on SB or MP but if I do I use capital in my paypal from shopping sites. I only use it on big MM deals. Vuse, sunbasket, Some Games.

Cash out for discounted visa GC, paypal, and Amazon. Amazon will let you buy third party GC with their GC.

On the binder itself. Get sleeve proctors, a set of index pages, and business card holders. Get a sheet of paper and put you goals for the GC's on them. Place in sleeve and put at beginning. Remember put a vacation goal and year on page. Set up index pages with categories: (examples) Gas/travel, hotel, breakfast, lunch, dinner, other food, shopping, entertainment, clothing, other). Take a sleeve and place a sheet of paper with one gift card plus goal, when you get GC place amount on this sheet, place in category. Place e GC in sleeve behind goal paper, place plastic with amount written on back in a card holder sleeve in back of category.

This seems like , but it does help you stay organized, on track, and excited to meet you goal posts. It also makes it much easier when you go and can just flip to correct category.

Good Luck.