1. An ergonomic desk
So you’ve arrived at your hotel, and the room has comfortable bed, a wardrobe, a table that’s just the wrong height for you and let’s face it, you’d really prefer to sit on the end of the bed to write your blog post or send that email. Fear not, because inside the wardrobe is an adjustable desk. Some people call it an ironing board. Just adjust it to the height that works for you, and voila! no more hunched shoulders.
2. Pack a four-way power board
I have always carried a four-way power board. You have a laptop, a phone, a camera and perhaps a tablet or e-reader to keep charged. This might not be quite such an issue in your home country, but when overseas it means you only need to carry one country adapter and all your devices can be kept charged and ready.
3. The USB port you never knew you had
This tip comes from Joe Frost from Techly – just about every hotel I’ve stayed at recently has a flat screen TV – in almost all cases these have a USB port on the side – which is powered and will happily charge your USB devices – including your phone, thus freeing up one of your power sockets for something else.
4. Two ways to keep that crease
One I’ve known about for years is to hang your suit/shirt up in the shower area – not directly in the shower, but maybe on the back of the door – so when you have a shower your clothes are steamed and the creases will …er… decrease. Another way is to carefully lift up your mattress on the bed and lay your shirt out flat on the bed base. After a good night’s sleep your shirt is pressed and ready. It does require you to be very careful to lay it out flat – any creases left will be firmly in place!
5. The toothpaste trick
If you are flying somewhere just overnight – so you don’t have checked baggage – and don’t want to waste time in security digging out your tube of toothpaste, try this trick before you travel. Take your dry toothbrush and work in a bead of toothpaste into the bristles. Then use a toothbrush cap to keep it away from everything else and you have a pre-pasted toothbrush for that night.
6. Plastic sandwich bags for pastes
Pack any pastes or soap, talc or coffee in their container and in at least one or two sandwich bags – you will be glad to have a containment vessel in the event the lid comes off in transit.
7. elastic bands for cables and eyes
elastic bands can save the day in keeping your device leads tidy, and in the event of a lost screw in your glasses, just wrap a small rubber band around the frame and lens and it will keep it together until you can find an optician. The elastic band is so close to your eye that it will just be a slightly blurred line – but you will still be able to read the fine print. If you position it well, you have a natural blind spot in your eye which will mean the band is all but invisible. At least to you.
8. Take a filter bottle
It won’t kill bacteria – you need to boil water for that – but in many countries the water can be quite hard, or full of dissolved minerals. A filter bottle will render it sweet tasting – and even London water can make a decent coffee if it is filtered before it goes in the kettle! You’ll also save a heap of cash on bottled water. Don’t forget to change the filter once a month.
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This post was written as an entry for the Virgin Australia blogging competition 🙂