Product review – Travelon travel toiletry sheets

In today’s product review, I’m going to review the Travelon travel toiletry sheets.

The product consists of an assortment of dry travel toiletries in small plastic containers. Each container holds 50 sheets. Travelon has 6 different sheets; Hand soap, laundry soap, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream and body wash.

Since the sheets are dry, you can carry them on board without worrying about the TSA. To activate a sheet, you simply wet it, and rub a little.

I put the sheets through the only test possible; by actually using them.

Hand soap – the container recommends using 1-2 sheets, but I found that one sheet is more than enough for a decent lather. The sheet dissolves in a matter of seconds and has a pleasant, but fairly neutral smell. It certainly doesn’t smell as bad as the cheap generic soap in most public bathrooms. After a good scrubbing, my hands did feel noticeably softer than before washing.

Laundry Soap – the only way to test this, is on something stained. Thankfully with a young child in the house it isn’t too hard to find something filthy. The package recommends 1-4 sheets depending on the number of items.

In a sink filled with water I added 2 sheets and after about a minute of rubbing, the shirt appeared clean. It’s hard to tell whether the water did most of the cleaning, or the sheets. There is very little foaming from the sheets, but once I had let the shirt air dry, it did smell like it had been freshly laundered. The laundry soap sheets are fairly sticky, so you need to be careful to only remove the number of sheets you need, it’s pretty easy to grab 6 or 7 by mistake. The sticky sheets also took much longer to dissolve, with little pieces of green gel sticking to the sink, so you really do need to rub the sheet quite a bit to dissolve it.

Shampoo/conditioner – In the name of science, I even tried these sheets. The package recommends 1-6 sheets of shampoo and 1-4 sheets of conditioner. If you have a head full of hair, you’ll be leaning towards the maximum number. The sheets didn’t foam up as much as regular shampoo, but it did leave my hair feeling cleaner. Like with the laundry soap, you need to rub hard to dissolve the sheet, and I highly recommend keeping the soap out of your hair till it has all dissolved.

Shaving cream – The package recommends 1-4 sheets, but I found that 3 is about the bare minimum for a decent shave. It lathers up lightly and smells like most generic shaving cream products.

Body wash – The package recommends 1-8 sheets which clearly depends on how dirty you are. Of all the sheets I tested, I’d say that this one smells the nicest, but it’s also the stickiest. Once the sheet gets wet you really need to rub hard to dissolve it completely or you’ll be covered in green gunk.

Each Travel toiletry sheet package contains 50 sheets and costs $5.95 (MSRP). The packages weigh .6 ounces, for a total of just 3.2 ounces for all 6. Being able to carry 6 different toiletry products at just 3.2 ounces is fantastic for light travelers. The sheets are certainly not a product I’d use to replace “real” toiletries, but they are perfectly usable for those occasions where you don’t have access to anything else, or just need a quick cleaning or a shave on the plane.

Because the sheets are sensitive to water, I’d highly recommend carrying them in a sealed bag or other watertight container, once they get wet, you have to use them right away and I doubt water directly in the package would do them much good.

You can purchase the Travelon travel toiletry sheets from most major online travel product stores, including Magelllans (sold per 2 for $9.85), and Irv’s luggage (sold for $4.95)

In conclusion, I’m pretty impressed with most of the sheets. They clearly get “the job” done without adding too much weight to your luggage. At $5.95 each, they are not too expensive, especially considering you get up to 50 uses out of each package. I highly recommend them for anyone who has ever arrived at their destination feeling in desperate need of a shave or quick wash. A bottle of water and a couple of sheets are all you need to feel fresh again.

Ten tips for smarter packing

If you haven’t checked out the search engine Mahalo, you might be pleasantly surprised. Mahalo’s goal is to hand-write and maintain the top 50,000 search terms. The effort they’re putting into these articles is refreshing. They’ve even tackled a subject near and dear to Gadling; ten packing tips for your next trip.

I was glad to see that I’ve incorporated at least eight out of ten of the tips when flying. For now, I might pass on donating my clothes at my destination, and I would add a couple of others, like making a checklist–which admittedly I still haven’t done even after forgetting to bring pants on my last London trip. To avoid the real horror of forgetting a power adapter for my laptop, I’ve bought an extra to leave in the suitcase permanently, along with my second set of toiletries which are a must.

How about you? Let us know of any tips that you’ve discovered to make packing less of a pain or if you’ve found a better way to travel light.

How To Travel Light

Wish you could pack more efficiently? Tired of carrying cumbersome bags on all your trips? Next time you’re trying to travel light, just remember the letters T-R-A-V-E-L, and you’ll not only remember what to bring, you’ll remember how you brought it.

The mnemonic stands for Toiletries, Reading Materials, “Aid” Pack, Vital Documents, Electronics and Laundry., and has been created by Travelite FAQ to keep you organized on the road.

“The secret is to compartmentalize all of your goodies by category, putting things into sacks, bags, envelopes and packs. This will allow you to easily get to the item you are looking for. When you open up your pack the most that will happen is that some smaller sacks will tumble out, ready for you to grasp. Use the following mnemonic to help you remember how.”

Most of us who travel frequently have developed one system or another, but having a thought-out, fine-tuned method of organizing my stuff that’s the same every on every trip will be a great time-saver and stress-reducer.

What tips and tricks do you have for hassle-free packing?

[via Lifehacker]