If you’re headed out on a business trip or planning a family vacation, the chances are you’ve already given some thought to the hassle and frustration of airport security. Dealing with the long lines and costly delays can be an aggravating experience for the best of us – especially when you’re handling a pair of fussy children, or trying to get on the plane after a list minute scramble.
If you want to get through security faster, then the best thing that you can do is take some tips from the security experts themselves – the TSA. For example, using a TSA-approved padlock on your luggage is a quick and easy way to ensure that agents can check through your belongings fast, without causing any damage to your security. Following, we’ll cover four of the best packing tips approved by TSA-agents to help ensure you speed through the X-ray line.
1. Wrap Cords Properly
First of all, if you want to get through security faster, you can’t simply dump all of your items into your suitcase in one go and hope for the best. A tangle of charger codes can look like something that may be potentially harmful when viewed from a certain angle, which means that you end up spending more time at baggage-check. Try wrapping your cords around their devices or pack all of your chargers together in a large zip-lock bag. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of twist-ties, rubber bands, and other cord management solutions to keep those wires tangle-free too.
2. Keep the Right Items in Your Carry On
The next step to get through security faster is to make sure you don’t store laptops and other large electronics in your suitcase when you’re headed into an airport. These are the devices that will have to come out of your bag at screening checkpoints so that TSA agents can check them for potential threats. Stored in your luggage, you’ll have to rely on being okay with a TSA agent actually digging them out of your suitcase and checking them, which can lead to a great deal of mess and hassle.
3. Know What You Don’t have to Show
TSA agents won’t necessarily have to check every piece of equipment you’re carrying with you on your journey. Your small iPads and tiny 11-inch MacBook air can stay in your carry on, but all other laptops will need to come out for a quick check.
4. Pack in Layers
Finally – as most of this list will demonstrate – the best thing you can do to get through security faster is ensure that you prepare well with your packing techniques. Packing in layers, with clothes, then electronics, then clothes again should help to clear out some of the mess that TSA agents have to decipher as they scan your luggage. Your aim should be to make it as easy as possible for agents to recognize what you’re carrying, so that you don’t have to open up the case. This strategy is also useful if you don’t want to deal with the outcome of cramming everything into your bag at once when you unpack at your destination.
