How to Stop Worrying About Liquids on Airplanes

Don’t Worry About Taking a Carry-On the Next Time You Fly

One of the biggest hassles of flying these days isn’t the small seats, the overly restrictive baggage size requirements, or the skyrocketing prices. It’s actually the ridiculously small liquid allowance they permit you to carry along with you in your carry-on or personal item bag. Heaven forbid you bring a bottle of water from home. They’ll admonish you for such silly behavior and have you toss that water at the security check.

As it stands right now, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) won’t let you take any bottle that’s over 3.4 ounces onto the plane, and all the liquids you take need to fit inside a single quart-sized bag. Even though this rule is applied strictly in some areas and not at all in others, it’s pretty important to just make sure you don’t have any liquids of significant size in your carry-on. These days, they’re just a hassle.

However, that doesn’t mean you need to struggle with meeting these size requirements. In fact, it’s easier than ever to completely avoid having any liquids at all with you when you go through security or have just one really small item with you. Not only are there some solid versions of the common liquids you use, but occasionally, it’s actually easier to just check your bag instead of putting up with all the liquid nonsense with a carry-on.

Overall, it’s totally up to you as far as how much of a hassle you’re willing to put up with when it comes to your liquid allowance on your flight. Will you jump through hoops to get the exact size liquid bottles, or will you go and choose some alternatives so you don’t even need to think about it? Let’s talk about making your next flight easier and a few methods that might appeal to you.

(note: some of the links here are to websites with which I am an affiliate, and your purchases help fund my website!)

Almost Everything You Use Is Available in Solid Form

The easiest way to avoid having to measure all your liquids is to simply opt for solid forms of all your items. Soap has long been available in bar form, but it’s become really popular to find solid shampoo and conditioner bars these days, too. They were once a niche item from natural manufacturers, but now they’re pretty ubiquitous just about anywhere that has a wide selection of shampoo and conditioner options.

You can even smell good when you travel with solid cologne these days, which probably predates bottled cologne anyway. If you absolutely can’t stand the thought of leaving your hotel room smelling anything less than super fresh, there are solid deodorants, colognes, and all sorts of things to help you smell nice. You shouldn’t take pressurized bottles onto the plane anyway, so getting a solid deodorant stick is just a better idea.

A few benefits of using those solid shampoo and conditioner bars is that you’ll never have to worry about them getting crushed or jostled in your bags during transit and leaking all over your stuff. Even if you pack them inside a plastic bag, there’s always the risk of leakage, especially with all the pressurization and depressurization that occurs during flight travel.

The great thing, too, about these solid options is that they last quite a long time, so they’re not like the little travel-size bottles that cost a fortune and then only last for half your trip anyway (especially if you have long hair or you take frequent showers). You can use your solid shampoo and conditioner bars, as well as your soap bars, for several trips and just keep them stored in a bathroom drawer when you’re not using them.

Just Buy Something Liquid in Your Destination Country

Another option, should you feet averse to using solid shampoo and conditioner, is simply buying your items at your destination country, as well as filling up your water bottles after you pass through security. It’s great to have a big bottle of water with you when you get on a plane because the experience can feel dehydrating, but it isn’t the most affordable thing to buy a big bottle of water in the airport after you’ve gone through security.

Instead, get one of those reusable, collapsible water bottles (I have two I regularly use on trips), and you can fill it up at a water fountain in the airport before you depart. Many airports have bottle stations where you can get water, and others just have good old-fashioned water fountains. If you’re in a pinch and can’t find a fountain, you can sometimes score a free glass of ice water from a coffee shop (Starbucks is a good option for this).

As far as your other needs go, you can leave it up to chance as far as having soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion available to you at your destination. If you’re staying mostly in hotels, you’ll probably have access to these things anyway since the vast majority of hotels, even if they’re low budget, provide basic toiletries to their guests.

If you know that every place you stay won’t be providing you with toiletries, just take the bottles with you when you leave and then dispose of them before you return home. You’ll always have a few bottles floating around your luggage while you travel around the country. And if you find yourself completely without those basic toiletries, don’t worry, soap is universal; they sell it in every nation on the planet, and you can always pick a bottle up at a store.

Check Your Bags If It’s That Big a Deal

A final option that’s available to you is to just check your bag. Now, you might assume that doing so would automatically be the most expensive option, but it might not be, depending on how long you’re traveling and the type of products you use. If you’re keen on using luxury-grade hair products and you have prescription face cream, handmade lotion, and all sorts of other nice self-care goodies, just check your baggage; it’s worth it to retain your access to your health and beauty regimen during travel.

You can also check to see if your flight comes with baggage included. It’s kind of rare for baggage to be included on bargain-basement economy flights, especially if you’re flying domestically, but you’d be surprised how many regular economy flights come with a luggage allowance for the basic fare. You can also see how much it costs to check your bag as an extra fee on top of your flight.

When I recently flew to Mexico, I decided to check my bag on the way back because I bought some lotion down there and didn’t want to leave it behind. It was something I was able to get cheaper in Mexico than I would have been able to order in the States off Amazon or from the store, so I bought a big bottle. I was traveling in a group, and to make the best use of the checked bag, we just all put our lotions and shampoos and all the liquids we had into my bag.

The nice thing is that it was only $20 USD to check my bag at the airport. Sure, sometimes it costs double or triple that, but since my bag was the only one getting checked and the price was really not that much, we just loaded it up with all our shampoo and soaps and all the souvenirs we got and paid to have the bag checked. It really wasn’t that much of a hassle to pay the $20 to check the bag, and we didn’t have to leave those lotions behind.

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