We’ve got rules now, people! No longer can I pack up half of my bathroom – the soap, shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, moisturizer and makeup – and pack it all into my carry on luggage to head off on vacation. Everything has to be small – under three ounces – and it all has to fit in ONE zip top baggie.
If you’ve ever traveled – even just going away for a weekend once a year – you know that the smaller sizes of toiletries don’t last very long. So if you have a traveler on your holiday gift list, this is the perfect gift for them!
You may collect the soaps and lotions that they give you for free at your hotel when you travel. We did for a long time to send to my brother-in-law when he was in Iraq. At one point, I ended up with some spares that weren’t really enough to send. Wondering what I could do with the few extras I had, I decided to make a small gift for some friends I knew that would be headed to Disney World! It was an almost entirely free gift, except for the Dollar Store makeup pouch I used as my “basket”, but you can recreate it very inexpensively even if you don’t have access to hotel freebies.
Head to your drug store, Target, or WalMart, and you are likely to find a small section where they sell small size toiletry items. You’ll find toothpaste, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, shaving cream – pretty much anything you would need to take with you on vacation. Many of these items are under $1.00 in price. Theme your colors or your packaging to your traveler’s destination. If you know they are going to Disney World, for example, pick up a red or black makeup pouch or a black Chinese take away container with some red tissue paper. Is a tropical destination in the offing? How about snagging some Garnier Fructis products, which are in lime green bottles, and nesting them in a small plastic basket in bright orange.
You can easily assemble a gift that is under $10 – even cheaper if you use your hotel freebies! It’s useful, looks beautiful, and you can easily adapt it to an adult, a teenager, a child, or even a baby!
