Do you pack your 3-1-1 toiletry kit with small bottles of shampoo and conditioner, only to find that you can only realistically use half the bottles, because the last half decides to cling to the bottom of the bottle? This happens pretty often, especially with really thick gels or hair conditioner.

Here’s a handy tip: as you use the product from the bottles, add a bit of water in them while you’re still in the shower so you wind up with about half the bottle filled with this water mix.. You don’t need to fill the bottles to the brim; just enough to shake the bottles and get the water to loosen things up. By the time you’re ready for the next day’s shower, the gel, shampoo, or conditioner will have loosened up.

After a few uses from a full bottle, start doing this. Just make sure to shake things up right away.  Eventually, you’ll end up with about  half a bottle of very diluted product, at which point you can just use the entire contents for a single shower. What you’ll have left will be an empty bottle that’s almost already clean on the inside. Either toss it away, or refill it with more product. This way, you’ll never run into a stubborn dollop stuck on the bottom, and you can get the most mileage out of your travel-sized bottle.

Happy travels!