Donate Your Travel-Size Toiletries

Last night, I cleaned out my somewhat embarrassing collection of travel-size toiletries. My office is having a donation drive for a local shelter. Though my cupboards are bare (I don't eat much canned food), I knew I could help out with a few toiletries.

Turns out that I had more than a few unused bars of soap and unopened containers of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and lotion that I'd accumulated from hotel stays and press events over the past year. And then there were the tubes of travel-size toothpaste that came with my frequent Drugstore.com orders, and the travel-size contact lens solution sample from my eye doctor.

Thanks to Starwood, Wyndham, Hyatt, Hilton, Sedona's Enchantment Resort, New York City's Trump SoHo, and other hotels for providing me with these goodies. I fully intended to use everything, but there are only so many bars and bottles that I can get through. And these were just the toiletries that I found in the linen closet. I have to admit that I uncovered more when I opened the cabinet beneath the bathroom sink.

Many hotel chains already donate travel-size toiletries to charities or local shelters. Clean the World (www.cleantheworld.org) also accepts donations of soap.

Weeding through everything was a nice way to remember all the places that I've been lucky enough to visit. And it was totally worth lugging the heavy bag of toiletries to work this morning on the subway.

Photo by: Amy Chen

New beauty site sells TSA-friendly products

Finding travel-size toiletries is now a cinch, thanks to a new beauty site called 3floz.com.

It's like a Sephora but only carries products that fit TSA requirements of 3 oz. or less.

The available products are on the higher end though: for example, The Art of Shaving sells a 1.7-oz. canister of shaving cream for $15, and Malin+Goetz makes a starter kit with 1 oz. bottles of facial cleanser, face moisturizer, body cleanser, body moisturizer, shampoo, and conditioner ($30).

If you search under "sunscreen," only two choices show up so far: the Sunshield Travel Kit ($25) or the Sun Kit ($35). For travel-size suncreen, I usually end up squeezing the amount I need (and the brand I like) into these great GoToob reusable containers.

There are some bargains on 3floz.com: For $7, you can buy a Yes to Carrots set with shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel. If you live in New York City, you can add $9 for courier delivery. Otherwise shipping costs at least $10 for UPS Ground. By the way, many Walgreens and Duane Reade locations carry Yes to Carrots products, so I'd recommend just going to your local pharmacy if you can't justify paying more for shipping than the actual product.

Still, 3floz.com is a fun site with a novel concept if you're short on time and can afford tiny luxuries.

Tip: TravelandLeisure.com's blog Carry On has a promo code "tl10" for 10 percent off all 3floz.com products through Feb. 7.

Photo: 3floz.com