What’s in Store for Travel Storage

Like building a better mousetrap, the search for better products for carrying travel gear is an endless quest. Whether it’s jewelry, maps or just loose stuff, it’s always nice to find a new approach to hauling hard-to-organize belongings. Herewith, items to hold a variety of travel basics, including a neat new option for storing and viewing photographs. Prices exclude shipping and handling.

Found: the perfect case for the woman who travels with a stash of jewelry. This 7-by-5-by-2 1/2-inch suede, zippered jewel pouch from T. Anthony, a New York store that specializes in leather accessories, has a place for everything. The large open compartment has ample space for bracelets, broaches and other larger baubles, and there’s a snap-off ring holder and a sewn-in strip for attaching pierced earrings. A small zippered pocket on the inside of the lid can hold slim items or receipts for goodies bought on the go, and a removable three-pocket zippered section can store particularly delicate items individually to avoid scratching. This gorgeous case doesn’t come cheap, but it’s one of the most efficient (and classy) solutions for toting jewelry I’ve seen.

Travel Jewel Pouch (Item No. 1478) is $155 in fuchsia, royal blue and aqua Nu-Buck suede from T. Anthony; tel. (800) 722-2406.

On a more budget-minded tack, Sassaby, a California manufacturer, makes brightly colored plastic cosmetic organizers designed to appeal especially to young women. I liked the sturdy compact case, which at 6 1/4-by-4 1/2-by-2 1/2 inches, is large enough to store a small powder compact, lipstick, mascara, makeup pencils and other basics for a quick touch-up. Behind a mirrored middle section (released by squeezing a latch) is still more space for keys, a note pad or other small items.

Sassaby Compact with mirrored compartment in purple, blue or green (No. 110) is $4.99 at cosmetic counters of department stores . For a store in your area, call the manufacturer; tel. (800) 468-7277.

Keeping items neatly arranged in a car often is an exercise in futility--but it needn’t be if you’ve got this useful nylon organizer that hooks onto the back of a seat via flexible metal hangers. Five mesh pockets of varying sizes are ideal for maps, guidebooks, a flashlight, cassette players and tapes, and other handy items that otherwise might get lost under a seat or mangled under a heavy foot.

Car Organizer in red (No. 815622) or black (No. 628129) is $9.98 from Lillian Vernon, a mail-order company; tel. (800) 285-5555.

Shoes often either get damaged or do damage to other items in a suitcase. These tartan-colored cotton flannel shoe bags can protect both the shoes and the rest of your clothes. The bags also keep the shoes together so you don’t end up finding one shoe, with the other one missing somewhere in the suitcase.

Tartan Flannel Shoe Bags (No. 1360-5G18) are $7 a pair from Land’s End; tel. (800) 356-4444.

Finally, a really nifty way of storing and displaying snapshots. The Showbox Photo Viewer, created by Burns of Boston, a well-known manufacturer of quality picture frames, looks like a thick plastic frame and stores up to 40 photographs in a slide-out drawer. By opening and closing the drawer (which slides into the frame part), the photos rotate in sequence, a new photo appearing in the window after each open-and-close motion. The Showbox comes in a hard cardboard sleeve with an inner pocket for storing extra photos and/or negatives.

Caution: You must store a minimum of 20 photos for the rotation to work, and prints should be in good condition, with no frayed edges, or they could snag.

Showbox Photo Viewer is $14.99 at department stores and camera shops . For a location in your area, call the manufacturer; tel. (800) 998-8090.

Gear & Gadgets appears the first week of every month.