Mine is a small bottle of liquid bandage. It stays in my toiletries, can go through that, and is superior to most bandages!
I bring my headlamp with me almost everywhere. It’s crazy how often you need a flashlight at the most random times, and the best flashlight is one you don’t need to hold.
Binder clips to bind the curtains together. Sometimes hotels have hangers with pants clips on them, for everywhere else? Binder clips.
Probably not the most unusual, except for how I never see any other adults with theirs if they have one probably because of how embarrassed they might be, but definitely my favorite stuffed animal. Gotta have some sort of comfort object. Especially in a hotel, if there are no bed bugs.
Vaseline. Is that non-standard? It doubles as lip balm and for those really dry patches of skin that come around (currently in Japan and it’s been dry af). Or even for small cuts, or used as hand cream.
Also can be used as a fire starter (for camping, just to clarify!).
My grandparents ruined Vaseline for me. I will gladly carry multiple things to never use that stuff again.
Oh boy. Please explain. 😬
Chapstick, hand lotion, balms anything but Vaseline.
Why did your grandparents ruin Vaseline for you? Sorry, I wasn’t clear. Just wondering what kind of detriments I could be doing to myself by using Vaseline.
They put it on me. That was all it took i guess. Maybe it was just that i don’t like the stuff. It was like a jar of snot that smelled. Still gives me the ick. I’m 41.
I hear ya. I’m not a fan of the smell either, but for what I use it for, it works wonders. I also use Lucas Paw Paw when I can. It smells way nicer.
Tea. A lot of hotels have tea and coffee making facilities, but a horrible selection of teas.
What out companies founder took along in his hotel bag had been interesting, too. He always had a 100W light bulb (back when they were common), as hotels used crappy, low wattage bulbs in the room. He just switched them for his own 100W bulb so he could actually see something. He switched it back when he left. The other important thing was a set of plumbing tools, so he could remove the pressure reduction from the showers.
I think this one wins the thread. Plumber tools are quite non-standard
Ziploc bags, they weigh nothing, but grest way to separate snacks and other stuff. I use them to store used underwear and socks if I’m on a short trip.
Travel router. I can plug it in to a router (if available) and instantly have a network all my devices connect to automatically that can either connect to a commercial VPN or my home VPN. Works to rebroadcast a WiFi network as well. If you have to pay for WiFi, you can pay for one device and clone the MAC onto the router and rebroadcast a signal all your devices can use. Works on planes, hotels, you name it. I have a gl.inet but there are a few.
My proudest script kiddy achievement was at hotel that had paid WiFi and a free tier. I clicked the free tier but it wasn’t very good and there was no way to upgrade to paid, even after changing MAC and deleting cookies etc. I found a piece of gym equipment that used internet in the hotel gym, cloned its MAC address onto the device, unplugged the gym equipment and boom I had full speed internet as it was on the network’s whitelist with no throttle.
Amongst other things, I always carry some zip ties. They weigh nothing, yet come in handy in so many ways.
Ah yes, zip ties. I also carry them every day. Along with plastic sheeting, a machete, a shovel, and a bottle of moonshine.
