What you must never forget on vacation

You know how it is: days in advance you make a ‘shopping list’ for your vacation suitcase. Which outfits will you take and which shoes can you combine with them, how many bikinis is the max before your husband thinks you're crazy and then there's that toiletry bag that really must stay under five kilos this time. Then you think you're perfectly packed and ready to go, but once you arrive at your destination, you realize you've forgotten a lot. To avoid having to make a trip to the village on the first day, here’s my list of items that are crucial on holiday, but that I almost 100% of the time forget. Actually, this list is mainly of vital importance for yours truly…

• Nail polish remover: before I go on vacation, I always visit the beauty salon for a nice mani/pedi. Nothing makes me happier than arriving at my vacation destination with freshly painted nails. But nothing makes me unhappier than half-chipped nail polish halfway through the holiday. It’s inevitable that this happens with all those beach and swimming sessions, but after all these years, I still forget to pack a bottle of remover. So if you're just as much of a neurotic about painted nails as I am: put that bottle of remover on your list now.
• Cotton pads: another thing I always forget to take with me. All that makeup is great (which I usually lug around with the short name because I never feel like putting anything on while on vacation), but I could have saved space for good cleaning supplies. And those cotton pads come in handy when you need to scrub off that half-chipped nail polish immediately, so that’s two in one.
• Sunscreen and aftersun: in principle, these are of course at the top of your list, but somehow I never take enough with me. And so I find myself in some local pharmacy where they only sell ridiculously expensive brands and I end up buying a bottle of factor 50 and a special aftersun with tanning technology for a fortune, (which then ends up with the other half-empty bottles in my bathroom cabinet and never gets taken to the next destination…). So make sure to take those half-empty bottles to finish them off.
• Games: if you're going on vacation for the first time with your brand new lover, you want to avoid that awkward silence at all costs. A lovely game at sunset always goes down well and you can immediately check if he can handle losing. Jon and I always play a game of Yahtzee on vacation, and whoever has lost the most games is labeled the ‘loser of the vacation’. By now, there are about twenty-five dice scattered throughout the house and five score pads, because we always forget to take those with us. Tip: make a bag or drawer free where you keep all the vacation items that you normally always forget.