What Do You Do With Your Dirty Laundry While Traveling?

Tom Bihn Travel Laundry Stuff Sack

Keeping dirty laundry separate and safely away from your clean clothes can be tricky when they are both housed in a small suitcase (especially if you are focused on maintaining nimbleness traveling by doing carry-on luggage only).  I have found the perfect solution in the Tom Bihn Travel Laundry Stuff Sack (link here).  Here's how it works:  there is a floating divider that keeps the clean from the dirty but as you shift from clean to dirty, the volume of the sack does not change, only the ratio of the clean clothes to dirty clothes shifts.  I have had mine for about 6 months and absolutely love it.  Great design, very durable and i love how the two sides have different color cords so you pick the correct side during use.  I highly recommend picking one up.  

Clear Is Worth It For Me

If you are a frequent traveler, you have probably noticed that TSA Precheck line is not as fast as it used to be. Now, every Tom, Dick and Harry is using Precheck which is clogging the lines with more people (and with people that don't travel frequently so they slow the lines down). 

So I started using a new strategy:  Clear.  With my Tripit Pro annual subscription (for $49), I had a 4 month free trial to use Clear.  Rack rate is $179 but Delta Sky Miles has a deal with them.  Depending on your status, you can get it for significantly less than full cost. 

Sign up was easy.  Fill out a few questions online and then the next time I was at the airport, I arrived a few minutes earlier so I could finish the sign up process.  After getting some biometrics (a retina scan and fingerprints), I was moved to the front of the Precheck line. 

This morning (Saturday) in Detroit (DTW), I was shocked at not only how long the regular TSA line was but was frustrated that the Precheck line was long and slow.  I spotted my new friends at Clear and 45 seconds later, I was at the front of the Precheck line.  Loved that!

While Clear is not inexpensive, I can say if you travel enough, it will be worth it from the time you can save since it works to get you to the front of the Precheck line.