Whenever we have to travel it is always a bit of a hassle thinking about firstly what to pack and secondly how to pack it so here are a few ideas which could help you.

Firstly make a list with four headings which would be clothes and accessories, toiletries, medicines and finally documents.

For the heading of clothes think about for starters taking outfits that all mix and match or even better all the same colour. For example a navy skirt, navy jacket, navy trousers and several shirts and jumpers of different colours that will go with navy such as white, pink, cream, emerald green, lemon etc and the matching accessories. Also include here your underwear and your pyjamas or night dresses.

Your toiletries should include all the things that you use in your bathroom both in the morning and in the evening such as your toothbrush, toothpaste, brush, comb, face creams etc etc.

Then include all the medicines that you could possibly need in the event of catching a cold, getting a runny tummy due to change of food, a muscle pain due to carrying a heavy suitcase and a headache from the arduous task of travelling! It is better to take these medicines with you rather than having to buy them at your destination because more often than not it is hard to buy medicines in other countries because the names of the medicines that you know have different names in other countries and if you don't speak the language you are going to have a hard time explaining to the chemist what it is exactly that you are looking for.

And lastly so that you don't forget any of the vital documents that you need to take with you, put them all down under the heading of documents. These will include things like your passport, travel tickets, credit cards, medical insurance documents, driving licence, telephone numbers of your booked hotel, telephone numbers of car hire and all the telephone numbers which you might need in the case of an emergency all written down on a piece of paper.

Once you have your list and you are happy that you haven't left anything out you are now ready to pack it all into a suitcase. Choose a suitcase that is not too heavy to start with but rather lightweight and robust.

Place things like your shoes (wrapped in plastic bags so that the soles don't dirty any of your clothes), handbags and belts at the bottom. The next layer to be included is the layer of your toiletries which will be quite easy to place the odd bottle of face cleanser, deodorant or body lotion in between all the gaps that the shoes and handbags have left. Try to fill in all the gaps with toiletries and your underwear as well so as to leave quite a flat surface ready for you to now place your jackets, then skirts and/or trousers, then jumpers and finally shirts or blouses and night gowns or pyjamas. Always remembering to fold them neatly

The idea of all this is so that when you get to your destination your clothes arrive with as little creases as possible and if you can place sheets of grease proof paper in between each layer of clothes so much the better as this will help to avoid creases. When you get to the end of your trip you can always hang any clothes that have ended up by creasing, despite your care, over a steaming bath as the steam will help to eliminate the creases.

For travelling it is always best to take one of your largest handbags with you as you will be needing to carry in it more things than you usually do such as all the travel documents.

If you are thinking of carrying your case with you on the aircraft instead of sending it to the baggage hold you will have to change the sequence of your packing slightly because the new rules enforced due to recent terrorist attacks have meant that all your toiletries have to be placed into a see through plastic bag zipper bag so that the security people can see all the contents. No toiletry bottle can be more than 100 ml and that includes colognes, shampoos and also medicines. So because of this it is a good idea to buy quite a few plastic travelling bottles into which you can decant your moisturizers, colognes etc. These bottles meet the airline regulations and you can place some stickers onto them to remind you that the blue bottle containns eye make-up remover and that the pink bottle contains face moisturiser etc.

To finish it all off, if you are sending your case to the baggage hold, you would be wise to buy yourself a 'Travel Sentry' lock for your case as these are locks that no one else but the security guards (who have a master key) can open should they feel it necessary to do so and so your case will be quite protected and safe.

And after having said all this the next thing to say is just to enjoy your holiday.

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