How to get ready

I can safely say that I have mastered the art of getting ready in less time than seemingly possible. It happens at least once a week. I go to bed late, I get up late. I haven't showered. I have "nothing to wear." Surely it's going to be an awful day... Or not.
The girl's guide to getting ready in 15 minutes:

1. If you know it's going to be an early morning, try showering the night before. It'll save you 15-20 minutes of the actually time it takes to shower, plus the 5-10 minutes of drying and combing out your hair and styling it.
If you wake up late and didn't make it into the shower the night before, don't panic. All you need is some dry shampoo and a hair tie. Use the shampoo to quickly dry up any access oil from your hair, make it smell and feel fresh and clean, and throw it up in a pony, bun, or braid. Problem solved.
2. Check the weekly forecast and pick out your outfit the night before. This is a must. You can even pick out outfits for the entire week. I can't count the amount of times I spend in the morning pondering over what I should wear, only to get frustrated and cause myself to be late. Lay out everything you need including shoes, socks, underwear, etc. so you wont have to scramble around in the dark of the early morning when you're half asleep.
Also, separate your accessories. The last thing you need is to go to grab your favorite necklace, only to find it tangled into 3 others. A simple nail on the wall trick can solve this.
3. Establish an easy morning makeup routine that only takes 5 minutes. Skip the foundation and just use concealer under your eyes and on any blemishes. Curl your eyelashes without applying mascara to give your eyes a quick boost and give your eyebrows a quick touch-up with a brush instead of using a pencil to fill them in.
4. Grab breakfast on the go. Snag a banana or an apple from the kitchen and eat it on the way to school or work instead of sitting down to eat. Even better, pack some snacks in baggies the night before and throw them in your bag to eat throughout the day.

Spring break - How to pack tight

When packing for a trip there are many things to consider. 

My mantra is to always pack less clothing than you think you need. One reason for this is that whenever I go on vacation, I always end up coming home with more clothing than I left with. Shopping is always a large priority when I go on trips and I like to think of the clothes I buy as souvenirs.. that I can wear! For this reason I always count the number of days I will be gone, subtract 2, then pack that many outfits. This rule of thumb won't work for everything. But if you are going somewhere warm, chances are you will be on the beach more than you will out and about, so take that into consideration because youy might want to throw in an extra bathing siut instead of a nice blouse. 

I also like to bring staples that can be worn with more than one thing, things that don't wrinkle, and things that can be easily hand washed if necessary. And as much as I love white, I've learned the hard way that it's worth the sacrifice to pack something else instead of my favorite white T-shirt. 

If you do need to pack something that wrinkles, an easy solution is to buy a small bottle of wrinkle releaser. They sell it for less than $3 at Target and it will save you 20 minutes of ironing and make your clothes smell like they're fresh out of the wash.

 Another way to prevent clothes from wrinkling is to roll them along with another item of clothing, instead of folding them and stacking. Take two shirts and roll them together to save space and time. I did this when packing for my Florida vacation and it made fitting everything in the suitcase much easier.

If you have to pack something fragile that you don't need access to, don't throw it lose into your carry on purse. Your carry on should only have things you need during the flight. If you are taking your suitcase onto the plane with you, wrap the item inside some clothes and pack it snuggly into the middle of your suitcase with lots of other clothing surrounding it to make sure  it won't bounce around- in this case sometimes packing more can be a lot of help. 

For more packing tips, check out this article I found on the internet.

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