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The Best Stretches You Can Do Right Now to Relieve Stress and Anxiety

We all know that exercise is good for our body, but it’s also good for our mind. In fact, our mental health is intrinsically linked to our physical health. So set yourself up a soothing environment, then slide into some easy yet powerful stretches that will stimulate happy hormones and lead to a calmer mindset.

Here are six steps to easy stretches you can do right now to relieve stress and anxiety.

Set up Your Healing Space

Before you jump into stretching, take a few minutes to set up your space. Research shows that certain environments can have a calming effect on our minds. Being out in nature is a sure bet, with fresh clean air and natural light. But you can also set up a beautiful indoor space and tap into the air purifying effects of salt lamps , aromatherapy diffusers, and scented candles.

Release Endorphins with Sun Salutations

Don’t worry about not having enough time or energy for a full yoga workout. You can still get all the mind-clarifying benefits through a few Sun Salutations. Formally known as Surya Namaskar, this simple sequence is designed to build heat in the body and synchronize our breath with our movements.

A sun salutation is like a mini yoga workout in itself. It incorporates all major muscle groups and is just the right intensity to get your heart pumping and endorphins flowing. Endorphins interact with the receptors in your brain to reduce your perception of pain. Famous for creating the “runner’s high”, endorphins also trigger positive feelings that will energize your body and mood.

Release Stored Tension with Hip Poses Like Pigeon and Saddle

The key to releasing tension is to stretch parts of your body that hold deep tension, namely your hips, lower back, shoulders, and neck.

Pigeon and Saddle poses are a yoga stretches that get deep into your glutes and hip flexors. Hold the poses for 5 to 10 minutes each and they will create therapeutic effects similar to a deep tissue massage.

In our sedentary lifestyles, sitting muscles like glutes and hip flexors are especially prone to holding stored tension. Targeting these muscle groups will increase blood flow, helping to stimulate receptors in the nervous system, which decreases production of stress hormones.

Invert Yourself with Supported Shoulder Stand and Plow Pose

Sometimes you just need a different perspective on life, and there’s no better way to get it than flipping things upside down! Inverting our bodies has been shown to improve focus, balance, and brain function. It allows oxygen-rich blood to flow to your brain and helps reverse the effects of gravity.

Supported Shoulder Stand and its variation, Plow pose, are beginner inversions that don’t have the intimidating risk factors of headstands and handstands. They are fantastic full-spine stretches that will leave you feeling refreshed and ready for action.

Be Still with Child’s Pose and Corpse Pose

No stretching routine is complete without a few final minutes to come back to centre. Yoga poses are inherently reflective, but Child’s pose and Corpse pose are the culmination of that, allowing your body to return to its normal pulse, quiet the mind, and experience a restful moment of savasana. Tune into your breath and let it flow easily. Bring your mind back to your healing space, and accept whatever thoughts that come, letting them pass away.

Allowing ourselves time for stillness, presence, and meditation, gives a chance for deep feelings to surface. Strengthened by our stretches, we can witness our thoughts and let them pass without attachment. In this way, our stretching routines can help us become more resilient in daily life, restoring vitality to our bodies and minds.

Take a Bath with Epsom Salts

Maximize the effects of your stretching by drawing out the toxins released with an epsom salt bath. Epsom salts are high in magnesium and sulfates, promote better sleep, and will further alleviate any muscle soreness from released tension. Besides, you can revel in the relaxation you created for yourself and celebrate your new healing routine.

For more tips on relieving stress and anxiety, check out our Health Topics library.

22 Thoughtful Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day in 2019

Mother’s Day presents are so easy when you’re a kid. Paint her a picture, treat her to breakfast in bed, and her day is made just knowing that you thought of her.

As we grow up it can get a little more difficult. What’s a good enough gift for the woman who made you the person you are today? Honestly, though, the same principle applies: show her that you thought about her, that you love her, and that’s all that matters.

Whether you’re celebrating your mom, or another important mother figure in your life, these thoughtful gifts will show how much you care.

Take Care of Her

Show your mom how much you love her with gifts that help keep her healthy and well!

A Fitbit or Apple Watch is a fun way to keep her active, monitor her heart rate, and help her get a good night’s sleep. The Apple Watch even has an emergency SOS feature that can initiate a call for help when it notices a dangerous irregular heart rhythm.

For a mom who likes to exercise, the iHome Bluetooth Water Bottle is another great gift, with a built-in Bluetooth speaker to make exercising and staying hydrated more enjoyable.

Oral health is an incredibly important part of overall health. A rechargeable toothbrush is more effective than a regular toothbrush, removing up to seven times more plaque and ensuring that users brush the full recommended two minutes per session. Plus, brushes like the Philips Sonicare Health White Electric Toothbrush have “White” modes specifically focused on removing stains from the visible front teeth, making her smile even more perfect for those pictures you’ll be taking.

Know an expecting mother? Make her life easier with a breast pump. It can help her continue to feed her child breastmilk when she’s away or goes back to work, help other family members like dad to feed and bond with the baby, and can help her maintain her milk supply. There are even smart breast pumps with connected apps to track pumping and feeding!

Pamper Her

Give her the gift of relaxation with an aromatherapy diffuser and TheraPearl eye mask. She can work out the kinks with a Homedics Percussion Massager and Foot Spa with soothing heat and gentle vibrations. Then she can light a stress relief candle with eucalyptus and spearmint scents, or turn on a Himalayan salt lamp to improve the energy in the room. She’s done so much for you over the years, now it’s time to pamper her.

Entertain Her

You can’t go wrong with tech toys these days. Show your mom you still think she’s hip and modern with the latest in technology, like an iPad Mini or a Kobo Reader.

Noise cancelling headphones make travelling a dream while cute phone cases keep her stylish.

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

If you can’t think of what to say to your mother to thank her for all she’s done for you, say it with pictures. Photos of your family will do so much to remind her what an important figure she is within the family.

With the London Drugs Photolab, it’s easy to make a customized card, photo book, poster, and more, each available in a range of Mother’s Day themes. Pair it with a Polaroid Original Camera so she can keep creating those memories in the years to come.

Your mom deserves the best. Show her your love this year with a thoughtful gift from London Drugs.

Best Locations Across Canada for Mother’s Day Photos

Planning a mini photo session for Mother’s Day? From picturesque beach-side spots to locations full of colourful spring blooms, here’s our list of the best places across Canada to snap those adorable moments between mother and child for Mother’s Day! Our #LDExperts are also sharing a few tips to keep in mind while shooting, check it out in our Mother’s Day photography tips blog.

Experimental Farm, Ottawa

Photo by @rachaeljamesphoto

Located just a few kilometres from downtown Ottawa, the Central Experimental Farm has enchanted visitors for more than a century. From the Ornamental Gardens to the Tropical Greenhouse, this place offers a multitude of options for some great photos of mom and the family.

Pacific Spirit Park, Vancouver

Photo by @evagracephoto

Located on the west side of the city of Vancouver, the Pacific Spirit Regional Park offers more than 750 hectares of forest. With its convenient location, its perfect for a day out in the wild, especially if you’re photographing moms with kids that love to explore.

Robert’s Creek, Sunshine Coast

Photo by @folkfotos

Looking for a spot that offers a perfect blend of beaches & forest? Roberts Creek is just the place! The B&K trail offers a beautiful landscape for some fun candid shots. When the tide is low there is a nice sandy area for kids to play and go for a swim as well.

Sunflower Gardens, Sturgeon County

Photo by @blurrruby

Located north of Edmonton, Sunflower Gardens is ideal for a photoshoot among the sunflowers, raspberries, strawberries or saskatoon berries – depending on which time of year you go. If you plan to use this location though, you’ll likely need to shoot in late spring or summer and save those photos to share with mom next Mother’s Day. But it will be worth the wait once she sees those sweet photos in print!

Wildwood Conservation Area, Stratford

Photo by @nataalc

Best described as a 3,500-acre outdoor playground, Wildwood Conservation Area is located just minutes west of Stratford. With a lake, 20 kilometers of hiking trails and a large day use area, you definitely won’t run short of fun and creative spots to capture the perfect Mother’s Day shot!

Echo Valley Provincial Park, Saskatchewan

Photo by @kelseydawn.photo

Situated in the legendary Qu’Appelle Valley between Echo and Pasqua Lakes, Echo Valley Provincial Park offers a wide variety of scenic surroundings. With two beaches, access to two lakes, lush lawns and a playground, there are tons of options for a picturesque photoshoot with mom.

Blind Bay, Shuswap

Photo by @christine.nicole.photographybc

Blind Bay’s beaches are two of the most popular beaches on Shuswap Lake near Kamloops and are perfect for a Mother’s Day mini session. For the more adventurous mom, Scotch Creek in Shuswap also offers the Shuswap Trout Scout which the kids will absolutely love!

Sullivan Heights, Surrey

Photo by @modabellaphotography

Looking for a spot that offer those dreamy spring blooms for your Mother’s Day photoshoot? Sullivan Heights in Surrey has loads of great options! With many small parks that bloom with cherry blossoms, it offers the perfect mix of beauty and convenience.

Once you’re done capturing and editing your shots, check out our Photolab’s wide variety of printing options, from prints and enlargements to canvas gallery wraps and even cute customizable novelties like keychains, ornaments, crystals and puzzles. For easy access download our London Drugs Photolab App which is available for iOS and Android, or you can simply order online. If you’re looking for help with what prints would work best for your photographs, just visit your nearest London Drugs store and speak to one of our LDExperts in the Photolab!

You could also participate in our #PicturePerfectMom contest for a chance to be the lucky winner of a 16×20 canvas gallery wrap with frame! Wouldn’t it make a great gift for mom this Mother’s Day?

How to Get Your Kids Playing Outside

Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash

Thirty years ago, a common refrain from parents to kids was “Go play outside.” These days, many kids would respond with “Well, what are we supposed to do out there?” According to new studies, children are “taller, heavier, fatter and weaker” than their parents were at the same age, mostly due to declining rates of physical literacy. Only one third of Canadian kids are meeting the physical activity recommendation of 60 minutes per day. We can blame this decline on the prevalence of screens and more sedentary activities, but those are just a symptom of a bigger problem — kids aren’t playing outside like they used to.

Less time outdoors isn’t just linked to decreased fitness levels in children, it also causes a decreased appreciation of the environment, vitamin D deficiency, diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of emotional illnesses like anxiety and depression.

Being outside has so many health benefits for children — both physical and mental. Movement through unstructured play, especially outside, has been shown to improve creativity, academic success, and mental stability, among other things.

With all of the distractions indoors, it can be challenging to get kids to “go play outside,” but these tips can help your kids turn off the screens and get off the couch.

Set Strict Limits on Screen Time

This tip is first and foremost. Everyone knows that too much screen time is bad for your health, especially for kids. Health professionals recommend children aged 2 to 5 be limited to one hour of screen time a day, with consistent limits for older children on the amount of time and place they get to have screen time. Parents can help by setting timers for recreational screen time, keeping all screens out of kids’ rooms (living/dining room only), and limiting it to certain times of the day (i.e. video games after dinner for two hours, and only if homework is done). Screen time limits will open up time in their lives to find other, healthier things to do for fun.

Spend More Time Outdoors Yourself

This one is easy. Kids learn by example, especially when they’re little, so if they see you enjoying a walk, a bike ride, a hike, or a run, they’ll grow up knowing that these things are normal and fun. Studies have shown that 60 minutes of a parent’s physical activity adds 15 minutes to a child’s average daily physical activity.

Make Family Time Nature Time

We know you plan family time every week, so instead of movies on the couch every Sunday, why not pack up the car and head to the park, beach, forest, or ski hill as a family once in a while? Make a family challenge to explore new areas of your town together at least once a month: visit as many different parks or playgrounds and find your favourites.

Plan Outdoorsy Vacations

Hotels or theme parks are fun, but your family vacation is the perfect opportunity to unplug and connect with nature. Seek out destinations that cater to camping, RVing, surfing, hiking, biking, or even the beach and see how much it replenishes everyone. Even if you are stuck in a hotel, every city in the world has playgrounds — why not find the best one close to where you’re staying? Thank goodness for Google Maps!

Extend Play Date Times

Modern kids are used to being entertained and scheduled every minute of their lives (which has been shown to be detrimental to their mental development), so a two-hour playdate may not give them enough time to know what to do outdoors. Clear your schedule and head to the beach or forest until dinner time. If given enough freedom, that boring, old stick will eventually become a tool or a game, and they’ll come up with more complex levels of free play on their own.

Incorporate Natural Materials and Loose Parts into Play

Swing sets and playgrounds are fun for a while, but they’re very specific and limited. Equip your play space with stumps, small logs, a fun sprinkler, sticks, plants, gravel, dirt, and sand for imaginative building and exploration. Loose items like balls, hoops, ropes, sidewalk chalk, kitchen wear, wood pieces, pots, shovels, and trays are ripe for creative play. Long sticks and old bedsheets are perfect for building forts. A water source and buckets will provide hours of messy fun. If you’re nervous about any of it, put them on a time limit, or better yet, get out there with them.

Encourage Them to Get Dirty

Yes, you spend a lot on their clothes, but kids are meant to be outside, exploring everything nature has to offer. Just remember that their health is more important than the laundry. If it is an issue, keep inexpensive or hand-me-down clothes and shoes on hand especially for outdoor adventures.

Photo by Anna Samoylova on Unsplash

Bring in a Blast from the Past

What was your favourite thing to do outside as a kid? We’re pretty sure it’s still fun, even though your kids might groan at first. Teach your kids how to build a fort, play catch, toss a frisbee, build a forest fairy village, play tug of war, catch bugs in a jar, or play kick the can. You’ll be surprised how much they love it, especially if you’re doing it with them.

Get a Dog

If you’ve always wanted to get a best friend for the kids, now is the time. Not only will it teach them about daily responsibilities, it will get them outside daily for walks and epic games of fetch. If you don’t have the space for a dog, rabbits and guinea pigs can play outside in an enclosed area.

Register Your Kids for Outdoor Sports and Summer Camp

If they’re into it, leave the volleyball, basketball, and hockey behind and lean more toward sports like soccer, baseball, or field hockey – they’ll be outside getting fit and making friends at least once a week. As soon as they’re ready, register them for summer camp. The benefits of camp are huge, from life lessons beyond the classroom to appreciating nature, making friends for life, and building resilience and leadership skills.

Gear Up

Birthdays and Christmas roll around every year, so why not make them an excuse to get some new outdoor gear? A bike, baseball glove, gardening tools, in-line or roller skates, a soccer ball, a kite, or a badminton set for the back yard would light up any kid’s eyes. And dad would love a new camp chair!

Game-ify Nature

Outdoor activities aren’t limited to gentle nature walks. If your family loves games and competition, you have lots of options. Geocaching could be your new favourite hobby. PokemonGo is still hugely popular and will get you and the kids outside. Organize a scavenger hunt, beat your best time around the block on a bike, get a deck of nature cards, or challenge the whole family to get in the most steps in a week on your fitness trackers.

Do Indoor Things Outside

If you have the space, make an inviting outdoor area in the backyard where the kids can do their homework, eat meals, or just hang out as a family during the warmer months. If you live in an apartment, pack up the kids’ textbooks (and a book for yourself) and find the nearest picnic table, or play a game of Go Fish on a park bench.

Photo by MI PHAM on Unsplash

We hope these easy tips inspire you and your family to go from indoorsy to outdoorsy types. If you need more inspiration, check out everything London Drugs has to offer for outdoor living, from camping to gardening to just relaxing.

How to Cultivate a Gorgeously Green Garden

Eco-friendly gardening amplifies what nature has already perfected. Working with the flow of the seasons, let your imagination run wild, and cultivating a green garden will be a satisfying, thrilling, and therapeutic experience. With a bit of planning, persistence, and intuition, your earth-friendly garden can become your outdoor sanctuary for years to come.

Here are some tips to cultivate a gorgeous green garden in your very own backyard.

Plan Your Garden

When the weather warms up, it’s tempting to get outside and start throwing seeds in the ground right away, but take a bit of time to plan your eco-friendly garden. It can go a long way toward boosting your long-term success.

Sketch out a quick map of your space and think about where you might place beds, raised boxes, containers, trellises, and pathways. You will (hopefully) be spending a lot of time in your garden, working the land and enjoying the space, so it’s worth putting in some forethought.

Consider the sun’s path throughout the day. This will help you get to know which areas have the most light/heat and which will be better suited to shade-grown plants like spinach and greens.

It’s also a great time to do an inventory of gardening tools, gloves, seeds, and soil. Set up a dry storage space that will be easily accessible to your garden.

Finally, it can be helpful to start a garden journal to keep track of your layout, planting plans, and harvest notes so you can adjust and improve things year over year.

Design Your Garden

Once you have a rough plan in place, it’s time to get out there and start digging!

You can reuse materials around the house to start creating structures in your garden. Bricks, stones, tiles, or logs, make great outlines for ground-level beds. You can mix and match with new structures as well. Concrete planters could be supplemented with old barrels, wooden boxes, or even a vintage sink or bathtub repurposed into raised beds. These will give plants extra warmth and help keep slugs and other pests out.

Vases, pots, and water jugs could make interesting containers for smaller plants. Mix in a few classic patio pots for a more modern look.

Don’t forget to install a little bench or chair in a nice sunny spot. You’ll need somewhere to put up your feet and enjoy the fruits of your labour on quiet afternoons. You could also install some of these nifty solar lights and turn it into a nighttime fairy garden.

Prepare Your Garden

Before planting, you’ll need to prepare your beds by working in homemade compost and setting up irrigation for the season.

Make sure you have a good working hose and nozzle ready for the months of watering ahead. Collecting rainwater is a great practice that lowers the demand on your main water supply and contributes to a more sustainable, efficient garden.

Now open up that handy gardening toolkit you prepared earlier and get ready to plant! Experiment with companion planting and see how different combinations fare. Be sure to make a note in your journal so you can adjust and rotate your crops next year.

Maintain Your Garden

The true key to cultivating a gorgeous green garden is to keep it manageable. There is always a push required to get things set up and growing, but once the plants are established, your garden should switch into maintenance mode.

Now you can relax into watering daily, weeding as needed, and watching with fascination as things grow and develop. It’s curiously fun and exhilarating to see your garden transform before your eyes!

If you have space, mix things up with vegetable beds, herbs, small fruit trees, flowering trees, perennials, shrubs, and flowers. This will keep things blooming and fruiting across the entire season which is interesting and exciting.

It might also be a good time to add some fun decorations to your garden while you’re at it.

Share the Harvest

Before harvest time, you’ll notice you’re not the only who has moved into your garden. Bees and birds (among other creatures) will be regular visitors, which can be a delight to watch.

Encourage birds to come by setting up a bird house. It’s fascinating to watch them feed, converse, and settle around the garden.

Perennial herbs, like lavender, sage, and thyme, are great for attracting more pollinators too. They smell beautiful, require very little maintenance, and are great for cooking.

Finally, don’t forget to invite your friends and neighbours to enjoy your gorgeous green garden. They may be happy to lend a hand for harvesting, canning, pickling, and other fun food preserving activities that come along with a plentiful garden. Or, make it a relaxing evening in the garden while the sun sets. Light up a Citronella candle and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

With a little effort and care, your green garden will benefit you, your family, and your community for years to come.

Visit your local London Drugs or check out our outdoor living guide for more gardening tools and decor.

Real Expert Interview: Family Travel Tips with the Traveling Canucks

Travelling as a family can be tricky. Luckily, for those of us with a need to explore, it’s not impossible. It just takes a shift in mindset from the way you may have thought about travel as a single person.

Travel experts Nicole and Cam Wears of Traveling Canucks are the perfect example of how to travel with kids. Together, they travel around the world with their two young boys. It’s taught them a lot about what it means to travel as a unit, as well as loads about themselves and what they should or shouldn’t do or expect when they’re on the road. They believe it’s possible to have it all — build a career, grow a family, and travel the globe!

So, we asked them eight questions about exactly how they do it. Their thoughtful stories and advice will inspire you to travel more with your family and balance it all.

1. Everyone’s story is unique. Can you tell us a bit about how you came to be an expert in travelling?

We consider ourselves very fortunate to have travelled to over 75 countries and territories together in the past 15 years, fulfilling many of our life goals and dreams along the way.

Travel is a common passion that has always played an important role in our lives. Our exposure to travel began at young ages, with Cam living in Nairobi, Kenya at age 12 and Nicole backpacking Europe at age 19. After living in Malaysia in 2004 and exploring most of Southeast Asia, we got bitten by the travel bug and have continued to make travel an important part of our lives, even after having kids.

Ten years ago we started Traveling Canucks after we finished an around-the-world tour. Our travel blog has evolved over the years and now the goal of our blog is simple – to share our family travel stories from around the globe and in our beautiful backyard, with the hope that it will inspire others to travel more and help our readers plan the big adventure they’ve been dreaming about.

2. Travelling can be hard. Can you please share any growth moments or revelations you’ve experienced while travelling?

Traveling as a family has taught us a lot! We’ve learned about us and our boys. It’s also taught us many things we shouldn’t do when travelling with young kids. A few of our key lessons learned while travelling with young kids are:

1) Don’t try to replicate the way you used to travel before having children. Things are different now, so try not to squeeze too many activities or sightseeing into one day.

2) To ensure everyone gets a good night’s sleep, it’s best to find accommodations that have separate sleeping areas.

3) Jet lag is real – especially with kids. Plan for the worst, hope for the best!

We have a story with more information about this topic. For a list of our top 10 lessons learned for family travel, you can find it here.

3. Do you have any guidance for those wanting to travel more? Perhaps some preparation, tools, or mindset suggestions?

Travel with kids, especially young kids, can be seem daunting. But, the more you travel with them, the easier it gets. They’ll learn what to expect and what’s expected of them during the trip.

Both our boys flew for the first time at three months old. We went to Palm Springs both times. We chose Palm Springs because it was an easy two-hour flight from Vancouver and it didn’t involve a time change. We then worked up to Europe with our oldest son when he was eight months old.

By taking smaller trips with him prior, we felt mostly prepared for travelling with him through Europe.

4. What are some things you can’t — or won’t — travel without?

1) We try to capture a lot of our trip and experiences in pictures and video. So we always bring our camera and GoPro with us.

2) We also always bring our tablets. They provide entertainment for our kids on long car rides and flights. We download Netflix movies and shows before we leave home, so we don’t need to rely on having wi-fi on the road.

3) Our kids can’t travel without their puppies (aka stuffies). It would be a disaster if they got left behind so they are one of the first items to be packed in their travel suitcases.

4) We always bring kids Tylenol, Advil, Benadryl, and Kaopectate. When you need them, you’ll be happy that you brought them. If you aren’t sure what your kids need, talk to a Pharmacist you trust.

5. What about items people tend to pack but don’t need? What are a couple things people should NOT travel with?

We are getting better, but we always tend to pack more clothes than we actually need. One question that we now always ask ourselves is: At any point will we have access to a washer and dryer? If our answer is yes, then we halve the amount of clothes that we intended to bring.

Another question to ask is about car seats. Do you need a car seat with you? In some cases, you do. But if you’re going to an all-inclusive, it’s possible you may not need a car seat.

6. How do you decide what to pack, and what not to pack?

It depends on where you’re going, but the one thing that we do is we pick clothing that is versatile.

For example, a pair of jeans or a pair of black leggings can be worn with most tops. I recently became an ambassador for a Canadian travel clothing company called Fig Clothing, and now most of my travel wardrobe is from Fig. It’s comfy, stylish, and versatile, which is exactly what I look for when travelling.

Another tip is to start packing a week before you leave. This gives you time to think about what you actually need. If you pack the night before leaving, you’ll likely add way more items than you actually need.

7. For folks looking to skip the baggage carousel with just a carry-on, what advice or hacks do you have about travelling light?

We like using packing cubes to help organize our clothes because it separates our items (shirts, pants, and underwear, etc.). We’ve found that it has helped us be more organized by having a dedicated space for certain items, and we pack less and more carefully. Plus, it’s a lot easier to find your clothes when you arrive at your destination.

We mentioned it before, but we also try to book a place where you can wash your clothes part way through the trip. This will allow you to bring less.

8. What are a few unconventional, surprising, or quirky suggestions you have to pack like a pro?

We always bring a separate bag full of food and snacks, especially when we are flying. You may think that you can’t bring food with you on a plane, but you can! Just stay away from fruit and meat. Our youngest has an allergy to dairy and eggs so we are always planning ahead when it comes to food, but it’s a really handy tip for any travelling families.

We always include snacks, like crackers and chips. A few unconventional items that we bring are instant oatmeal and Mr. Noodles that come in individual containers because all you need is hot water. We also like to bring small cereal pouches and plastic bowls and spoons. Our kids can choose to eat the cereal plain, or we ask for milk and they can have a bowl of cereal. For our son with the dairy allergy, we bring rice milk with us and declare it at the airport when we go through security.

Pro tip: especially when you’re flying, don’t expect the airlines to have food for your kids. We bring our own food for the trip so they can eat when they are hungry.

Cam & Nicole Wears are a Canadian couple with two young boys, who choose to make travel a priority. They believe it is possible to build a career and family AND travel the globe and follow your passions. Their blog is where they share their travel stories and tips they learn while balancing travel, work, and family. Learn about their story here, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

For additional tips on how to pack like a pro, or for travel insurance, drop by your local London Drugs and talk to any of our in-store experts.

6 Tips for a Beautifully Organized Pantry

If the kitchen is the heart of the home, then the pantry is what keeps it ticking. It’s no secret that a well-stocked pantry simplifies kitchen productions. The trick is organizing it — and keeping it organized — so that it becomes a joy to use, rather than a chore. Follow these six essential tips for maintaining a pretty pantry.

1. Go Vertical

Use wall or stackable shelves to make use of empty vertical space. Don’t forget stackable drawers for larger items and, again, think “up” — instead of nestling them side-by-side, stack them up high (and secured to the wall) to free up valuable floor space. If your pantry has a door, a door organizer hung onto the back can hold unwieldy items like your Swifter, mop and even larger BBQ utensils. Not only will they have a home, but they’ll be out of sight.

2. Match It Up

It’s worth investing in matching containers, which will not only serve a purpose as storage, but also create a sense of unity and visual harmony. Large mason jars are a quick and inexpensive way to corral baking ingredients, for example. Plus, you can see immediately if you’re running low on anything.

For larger items, baskets are an attractive and efficient way to group things like crackers and snacks into subdivided categories: salty snacks, sweet snacks, kids’ snacks, etc.

3. Label It

Invest in a label maker and never misplace anything again. Labelling everything is absolutely necessary in a place like a pantry where turnover is high, and especially if more than one person has access. It all seems like a perfect system until somebody adds sesame seeds into the quinoa jar. Matching labels, like matching containers, help give your pantry a cohesive foundation that you’ll be more inclined to keep organized. If you’re more into freehand calligraphy or doodling, explore sticker labels.

4. Take Inventory

Keep track of what’s in your pantry by maintaining a general list of what’s in it, especially for items that have a shorter shelf life. Update this list as you plan for your week, adding ingredients you need to buy to complete your snacks and meals. You can do this on a device with a spreadsheet if you’re digitally inclined, but a simple dry erase board or chalk board can be a fun and even entertaining way to communicate with everyone in your household what needs to be replenished in the pantry.

5. The Fun Zone

Organize your pantry into zones the way your favourite supermarket does: grains and cereals, sweets and baking ingredients, canned goods, crunchy snacks, etc. We already know this system from decades of grocery shopping, so applying this method in your home pantry should make sorting and retrieving items much easier.

Also, don’t use up all the available space; give yourself some breathing room for special occasions that will need their own prepping zone. For example, you might audit your pantry once a year so a special bin for “eat now” items that are soon to expire is handy to have. Or when you’re planning a big holiday party or prepping for a camping trip, you’ll want some extra space for containers that will accommodate this sudden but short-lived abundance in groceries.

6. Something In, Something Out

Your pantry is not the walled version of your junk drawer. Once you’re happy with your supply level, implement a strict “something in, something out” rule. Bring something new in, take something out (unless you’re replacing something already gone). That way your net products will remain the same, so you’ll never be surprised to find a half-eaten bag of potato chips buried in the back, only to have to throw it away.

Looking for more organizing tips? Here’s a look at how to organize your home office.