A Traveler’s Top 10 Uses for Ziplock Bags

Along with hairbands and binder clips, Ziplock bags are my number one supply for Macgyver moments.

They weigh nothing and I’m never sorry I packed them. I carry both gallon and quart-sized ones on any trip, and I recently added little dime-bag sized ones for keeping my various SIM cards organized. Here are just a few of the things I do with my trusty Ziplocks:

1. Keeping passport, phone and money dry on a boat trip or in the pouring rain. I wouldn’t recommend snorkeling with this in your pocket, but some people do it.

2. Organizing all the little shit that I need to keep track of, like chargers and adapters and  and pens.

3. Carrying a bar of soap. It takes a while to go through one bar, but I really hate those ENORMOUS travel soap dishes; a sandwich bag works just as well.

4. Storing leftovers.  I have been in so many tupperware-less Air Bnbs! It’s also easy to take some bread and cheese from a free hotel breakfast, stick it in a ziplock, and call it lunch. (I once saw a woman at a fancy hotel buffet get TOTALLY BUSTED — not for making sandwiches, but because she tried to smuggle them out in a  cloth napkin.)

5. Getting toiletries through airport security. (Obvs.)

6. Transporting food. I recently had to move from one apartment to another with a bunch of groceries, including a half  empty bottle of olive oil. Thanks to the zippie, I arrived without all the other stuff coated in oil.

7.Transporting wet or dirty clothes. (gallon size only)

8. Carrying snacks. Buy some nuts or crackers, peel some carrots, or boil a few eggs. Throw it all in a zippie. Enjoy wherever, secure in the knowledge that you just saved a few bucks.

9. Improv rubber gloves when blood or other bodily fluids are involved.

10. Being a good citizen a la David Sedaris and picking up trash. Dump it out, wash and reuse the bag (gross? maybe.)