Tips for organized travel: plastic bags

What's better than a suitcase on wheels? A dozen resealable bags!Bags — trash bags, plastic shopping bags, sandwich bags — are extremely versatile and useful — and chances are, you've got more than you know what to do with. Going on a trip? Stash them in your luggage.

Various sizes of self-sealing plastic bags provide an easy way to stay organized when you're on the move — small sandwich bags for receipts and large freezer bags for pamphlets, brochures, maps and other memorabilia. The more bags you bring, the more organized you'll be. For instance, you might want to use separate bags for each place visited, for each type of receipt (restaurants, hotels, shops), or for each day of your trip.

You can fill up trash bags with dirty laundry when you travel. Heavy-duty bags are especially handy because you can just toss them over your shoulder and head out to a laundromat. On a picnic or car trip, the trash bag will come in handy for — you guessed it — trash. And if you don't fancy yourself a fashionista, you can even cut a couple of slits for your arms and one for your head and don a trash bag as an improvised raincoat. Note: If you forget to pack trash bags, the plastic laundry bags you'll find in many hotels will serve the same purposes (except for the raincoat).

Foreign currency can flummox even the worldliest traveller, considering how long it takes to start feeling comfortable with unfamiliar coins and bills. For easier sorting, stash bills and coins of various denominations in self-sealing plastic bags — a different bag for each denomination. When it comes time to pay for something, you won't have to sort through a pile of confusing currency.

Environmentalists will love this great way to re-use plastic bags — and keeping organized is the icing on the cake!