The Travel Items That Earned Their Space
An honest review after Sweden & Scotland, twelve products tested internationally, plus the free packing system it's all built around.
I travel internationally every summer, and for the four years we lived in Charleston, I flew back and forth to Austin every four to six weeks. If there's one thing that much travel has taught me, it's this: I am not a minimalist packer, and I don't want to be. I like being comfortable when I travel, and for me, packing well was never about bringing less. It's about knowing, before I ever open my suitcase, that I already have exactly what I need, and so do my girls.
Packing can actually be fun. But between work and everything else, I don't usually have hours to spend on it the week of a trip. So most of that work happens well before we ever leave, frontloaded on purpose, so the days right before travel can be about wrapping up work and getting excited, not scrambling to pull a bag together.
I don't think that need is unique to me. Whether you're a working mom trying to get out the door, a stay-at-home mom packing for the whole family, someone flying in to see grandkids for a long weekend, or finally taking the trip you've been planning for years in retirement, everyone wants the same thing: less stress packing, less stress unpacking, and the confidence that you have what you need without having overpacked to get there. That confidence is really what I'm after. I don't want the night before a trip to be spent hunting for chargers, transferring toiletries between bathrooms and suitcases, or making one last run to the store. And once we've arrived, I don't want our first afternoon somewhere new to be about logistics at all. I want to pack my clothes, shoes and jewelry, zip the suitcase and start getting excited about where we're going.
I think I'm always in pursuit of a little more intentionality, especially with my time. Not efficiency for efficiency's sake. I don't want to save 30 minutes packing simply so I can find 30 more minutes of something else to accomplish. I want to use that time well.
Sometimes that does mean getting one more thing done. But sometimes it means a long breakfast at a lake house. Fika in the afternoon. Wandering into a shop because something in the window caught my eye. Sitting beside the water longer than we'd planned. After nearly ten years and almost 1,000 client homes at Graceful Spaces, I've learned the same thing about a suitcase that I've learned about a pantry: the goal was never the system. It was always what the system gives you back.
That's why I love a good system. The systems aren't the life. They're what make more room for it. And this summer gave us a particularly beautiful reminder of that.
Four Days That Felt Like Magic
We began our trip in Sweden with the Jodeit family, spending four days at Rebecka's family lake house. Rebecka was born in Sweden and lived there until she was five, so this wasn't simply another beautiful stop on an itinerary. We were getting to step into a part of her story. And it was pure magic.
Our mornings were slow, often spent lingering over breakfast. We had fika in the afternoon. We visited the town Rebecka knew as a little girl. We spent time with her family, laughing and talking while looking out over the lake. There wasn't a lot of rushing or a long list of things we needed to accomplish. Some trips become memorable because of everything you manage to fit into them. Those four days were memorable because we had room to simply be there. And for me, there was another layer to being there that is difficult to put into words.
Over the years, Rebecka's family has made me feel like one of their own. I have been loved by her parents and welcomed into a family whose care for us has extended far beyond this trip. They have walked alongside our family through some of our hardest seasons, including cancer. They have cheered for Graceful Spaces, supported Rebecka and me as we've built this company, and cared deeply about a friendship that began because two little girls happened to find each other. There is something especially beautiful about the love Rebecka's parents have created within their family. To be welcomed into it, and to have our family loved by them, is something for which I am deeply grateful.
Graceful Spaces has given Rebecka and me a business we could never have imagined when we started nearly ten years ago, but it has also given me relationships that are far more valuable than anything we could measure on a P&L. Our girls are still best friends. Our families now live about a mile apart. We've built a company together, raised children alongside one another, celebrated wonderful seasons and walked through hard ones. And then, somehow, there we were: sitting together at her family's lake house in Sweden, laughing with the people who have loved us through so much and looking out over the water.
That felt like a gift.
And Then I Fell in Love With Stockholm
From the lake, we spent five days in Stockholm, and I fell completely in love. It reminded me a little of Paris, not because the cities are the same, but because of that wonderful combination of beautiful buildings, incredible food, history, hospitality, culture and style.
And the shopping. I loved the shopping.
We walked. We ate incredibly well. We shopped. We took a boat out on the water one day. We explored the city, but we also didn't feel the need to fill every minute. Some of my favorite moments were simply finding somewhere lovely, sitting outside for fika and watching the city happen around us. I loved those slower days. There was time to walk instead of rush. Time to stop because somewhere looked inviting. Time to enjoy where we were instead of constantly thinking about where we were going next. And perhaps that's why I've become so interested in making the logistics around travel easier.
I don't want to spend a beautiful afternoon in Stockholm managing the contents of a suitcase.
I want the systems to handle as much of the doing as possible so I can get on with the living.
From Sweden, the Lee family continued on to Scotland. By the time we'd gone from a lake house to a city hotel to another country entirely, different outlets, different weather, a completely different pace each time, we'd tested every system and product in this post. That's how we like to travel: a little comfort, a little adventure, mixed together.
Here is what actually earned the space.
Before the Products, the System I Swear By
My biggest travel system isn't something you can buy. I keep much of my suitcase already packed.
My goal before most trips is to pack my clothes, shoes, and jewelry. That's about it. I keep a separate makeup case stocked with my everyday makeup. My hanging toiletry kit stays stocked. I have travel hairbrushes, a hair dryer, charging cords, a travel Bible, slipper socks, a sleep mask, and some of the little nighttime things that make sleeping somewhere else feel more familiar. When we get home, I replenish whatever needs replenishing and put everything back. For a short weekend trip, I can sometimes be packed in less than 30 minutes. But the 30 minutes isn't really the win.
The win is that leaving feels lighter. I'm not making a last-minute run to the store. I'm not crawling under a bed looking for a packing cube. I'm not unplugging charging cords from around the house or wondering whether my moisturizer ever made it into my toiletry bag. The repeated decisions have already been made.
The Travel Zone: where all of it lives
I keep a designated travel zone in our home, something I had in our Charleston house as well and rebuilt the moment we moved in here. It's a single shelf and a stack of labeled bins, and it holds:
Extra toiletry bags and travel-size containers, already filled and ready to grab
Packing cubes, sorted by size
The universal adapter and any loose cords or chargers we only use away from home
Backup versions of things we regularly run out of — travel toothpaste, contact solution, sunscreen
A rotating stack of the comfort items below (sleep mask, slippers, sleep spray)
Everyone in our family knows where to go. We can grab what we need in minutes. And we're not buying the same travel toothpaste three times a year because no one knew where the last tube went. This is a small home system, but it's given me back an enormous amount of time and mental energy over the years, and it's exactly the kind of system we build into client homes every day.
If you don't have a dedicated spot like this yet, it's one of the highest-return zones you can create, and one of the easier ones to start small.
A dedicated Travel Zone means you never start from zero.
Steal my pre-packed suitcase checklist
If you want to build your own version of this system, here's what I keep permanently packed and ready to go, restocked the moment we're home:
Toiletries & getting ready
Hanging toiletry kit, fully stocked
Makeup case with everyday makeup
Travel hairbrush and travel hair dryer
Contact solution / extra contacts, if needed
Sleep & comfort
Sleep mask
Sleep spray
Slipper socks
Travel Bible
Health & backup
Travel pill organizer (pain reliever, allergy medicine, motion sickness)
Stain treatment and a few laundry sheets
Tech & logistics
Charging cords (a spare set that never leaves the bag)
Universal adapter
An AirTag in every checked bag
The only thing left to pack
Clothes, shoes, jewelry
Save this list, or better yet, build the zone once and you'll never need it again, everything above just lives there, ready.
The Travel Items That Have Earned Their Space
Away luggage
We've traveled with Away luggage for years, and we're still fans. I am also not particularly gentle with it. I like to fill a suitcase. Really fill it. So durability matters to me.
But what has made us especially loyal to Away is the experience we've had when something hasn't gone perfectly. We've had multiple instances over the years when a bag needed a repair or replacement, and their customer service has taken care of us. A product that works is wonderful. A company that stands behind what it sells earns my loyalty.
A luggage scale
Please see my aforementioned commitment to filling the suitcase.
A little luggage scale weighs almost nothing and prevents the airport-floor ritual of opening your bag at check-in and transferring shoes into somebody else's suitcase while an entire line watches. I would much rather know before we leave the hotel.
Tiny item. Significant inconvenience avoided.
My hanging toiletry kit
Graeme and Rebecka both travel with toiletry pouches. I prefer a hanging kit. When I'm sharing a bathroom with either of them, I appreciate that difference even more. Instead of everyone's things spreading across the counter, mine can hang from a hook or towel bar while everything stays visible and accessible. It's essentially a travel version of something we do constantly at Graceful Spaces: when surface space is limited, think about how the entire space can work for you. Less clutter. Less moving things around. Easier mornings.
The tiny pill case that inevitably saves the day
This little travel pill organizer lives in my carry-on with basics like Dramamine, Tylenol, and Benadryl. There seems to be some point on nearly every trip when something inside it becomes the MVP of the day. A headache doesn't need to derail an afternoon. Motion sickness doesn't require finding a pharmacy. It's tiny enough to keep with me rather than burying it inside checked luggage, and because it stays packed, I don't have to remember it every time. Permanent spot.
My almost-ten-year-old Mark & Graham jewelry case
My Mark & Graham petite travel jewelry case may have one of the longest track records of anything on this list. I've had it for almost a decade. It has traveled trip after trip and still shows almost no wear. Those are my favorite kinds of purchases, the things you eventually stop shopping for because what you already own continues to do its job beautifully.
Why I Do Laundry When I Travel
For longer trips, I usually plan to wash a few things along the way. Not because I particularly enjoy doing laundry on vacation, and definitely not because I'm trying to win an award for packing the smallest suitcase. It's actually about freedom. I know what I love wearing. If I feel great in something, I would much rather wear it again than pack another outfit simply because I might need it. And we travel with kids. Someone is eventually going to spill ice cream on something.
Being able to wash what we need means a favorite sweater isn't out of commission for the rest of the trip because something landed on it at lunch. I bring travel-sized Branch Basics for treating stains and laundry detergent sheets because they're light, flat and easy to keep stocked with my travel supplies. Then, if we need to wash something, we can.
I also don't want laundry determining our itinerary. I don't want to spend part of a beautiful afternoon hunting down somewhere to wash clothes, and I've paid the hotel bill for sending out a surprisingly small load of laundry. Sometimes it's worth every penny. Sometimes I'd rather wash the handful of things myself and spend the money, and the time, somewhere much more fun.
This particular trip pushed that system further than usual. We were staying with sixteen people at a lake house in Sweden that didn't have a full washer and dryer, and anyone who has traveled with a big group for several days knows exactly what that does to towels, swimsuits and kids' clothes by day three.
I'll say this honestly: most of my clients would never consider packing their own washer and dryer, and under normal circumstances, neither would I. That's not typically how I'd recommend traveling. But some of the best trips are the ones where you go a little off the beaten path, and those are often exactly the places where it's hardest to access the small luxuries you'd take for granted somewhere more polished. A lake house full of family in the Swedish countryside is a perfect example, incredible, memorable, and not exactly equipped like a five-star hotel.
Which is how, before this particular trip, I found myself thinking: Surely I can improve this system.
This is where things went slightly off the rails.
Yes, I Took a Washing Machine to Europe
I bought a tiny portable washing machine. And a portable dryer.
I realize this is perhaps where my commitment to being prepared crossed over into experimentation. The washing machine technically worked. For small things like underwear, I liked being able to let them wash a little longer without standing over a sink. But after traveling with it, I had to admit that I had used valuable suitcase space to solve a problem that wasn't really a problem.
The sink works. The bathtub works. I didn't need another thing to set up, use, dry and repack. And I actually love that lesson, because I'm surrounded by products in my work. There is always another organizer, gadget or clever solution promising to make life easier.
Sometimes the simplest system is already enough. The washing machine will stay home next time.
The dryer, however...
The dryer surprised me. Over the years, I have washed plenty of things while traveling and then hung them over balconies, shower doors and the backs of chairs. Usually this works perfectly well, until it doesn't. We've had travel days when something I washed the night before still wasn't dry and suddenly I was deciding whether to put a damp shirt into a suitcase. The portable dryer gave me predictability.
I could wash something I loved, dry it relatively quickly and put it back into rotation without turning the hotel room into a drying rack or thinking about whether it would be ready before we changed locations. So the official verdict from my completely unnecessary portable laundry experiment: Washer: leave it home. Dryer: coming with me again.
I don't want more things to manage. I want a few well-chosen things that give me more freedom. Freedom to wear what I love. Freedom to stay somewhere without laundry facilities. Freedom to deal with the inevitable ice-cream spill and move on with the day. Most importantly, freedom to get back to the trip.
The Little Things That Make Somewhere Else Feel More Like Home
There are a few comfort items I keep permanently with my travel supplies. My UGG slipper socks come with me because I love being able to take off my shoes without walking barefoot around a hotel room, and they're much easier to pack than actual slippers. I keep a Blissy silk sleep mask with my travel things, along with sleep spray and my OSEA Vagus Nerve Travel Set. I even keep a separate NuFACE for travel.
Is a second NuFACE a travel necessity? Absolutely not.
But if something is part of my routine every day, I know I'll want it when I'm away, and having a second one makes sense for our budget and space, I would rather have it waiting for me. I'm not standing in my bathroom before every trip trying to remember fifteen things I need to unplug, gather and move into a suitcase. They are already there.
If it's part of your daily routine, it deserves a permanent spot in your travel bag — not a spot on your pre-trip to-do list.
One adapter, multiple countries
Sweden and Scotland made this one especially useful. I prefer a universal international adapter rather than collecting separate plugs for individual destinations. Moving between Sweden and the UK meant different outlets, but I didn't have to think much about it. One little tool solved multiple problems. That's exactly what I want from something taking up suitcase space.
AirTags in every bag
Every checked suitcase gets an Apple AirTag. Of course I like having them in case luggage is actually misplaced, but I use them when everything is going right, too. When we land, I can see whether our luggage has arrived with us instead of simply standing at baggage claim wondering. I like knowing where our bags are during connections and complicated travel days. It doesn't make the luggage arrive any faster. It just removes one more question. And I've become increasingly protective of how many unnecessary questions and decisions get my attention.
Not Everything Needs a Solution
I clearly enjoy testing things—again: portable washing machine.
But after enough travel and enough years organizing homes professionally, I've become much more interested in what earns its space than what I could add. The things I keep generally do one of three things: eliminate a repeated decision, prevent a predictable problem, or make a small part of life noticeably easier. And sometimes the best solution isn't another product at all. That's important to us at Graceful Spaces, especially because we recommend products for a living.
Organization isn't about buying more containers. Easier travel isn't about owning every gadget. And intentional living isn't about optimizing every second of the day. It's about being thoughtful about what deserves your space, attention, and time.
Time is one of the few things we can't organize our way into having more of. We can only become more intentional about how we spend the time we've been given.
We've gathered our favorite travel pieces along with the products we genuinely use and recommend throughout the home in the Graceful Spaces Shop.
More Room for Enjoying Life
Looking back at our pictures from Sweden, I don't remember what day I did laundry. I remember long breakfasts at the lake. I remember fika. I remember laughing with Rebecka's family while looking out over the water. I remember the love her parents have poured into their family and how generously they have extended that love to ours. I remember watching Rebecka return to a place that was part of her childhood and thinking about our daughters and the rather incredible chain of events their friendship set into motion for all of us. I remember sitting outside in Stockholm with nowhere we urgently needed to be. The buildings. The food. The water. The shopping. The boat. I remember the feeling that there was time to enjoy all of it. And that's ultimately what I want from the systems in my suitcase, and really, from the systems throughout my home. I don't want to become extraordinarily good at managing things.
I want my things to require less managing so I can be extraordinarily present for my life.
That's what we hope to create for our Graceful Spaces clients, too. A travel zone might mean opening a cabinet the night before a trip and finding exactly what you need. A thoughtfully organized kitchen can mean dinner doesn't require searching through cabinets. An entertaining zone can make inviting people into your home feel easier. A primary closet can support getting dressed rather than complicating it. Those individual moments may seem small. Together, they create the experience of living in a home that supports you.
The zone isn't the point. The life it gives you back is.
If a Travel Zone like the one above is missing from your home, that's exactly the kind of system we build for clients every day, tailored to how your family actually packs, not a generic checklist. At Graceful Spaces, we create thoughtful organizing systems around the way our clients actually live, removing friction from the routines that repeat so there is more room for the people, places and moments they want to enjoy.
Because whether I'm at home or halfway around the world, that's what I'm always pursuing: a little more intentionality, a little less unnecessary friction, and more room to enjoy the life happening right in front of me.
The Things We Use Every Day
And if you’d like to follow along with what Rebecka and I genuinely love, we’ve created shop pages that bring all of our favorites into one place. A simple way to explore what we consistently reach for in our own homes, whether you’re looking for inspiration or ready to try something new.
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