This $40 cable organizer is the travel upgrade I never realized I needed

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• On a recent trip I was able to test out Twelve South's BookBook CaddySack, a sleek cable organizer designed make traveling with tech less stressful.
• I was able to fit six cables up to six feet long and a multi-port charging hub inside without any problems, and none of them got dislodged.
• Although its $40 price tag is a little steep, the CaddySack is extremely well-designed, and made it a lot easier to keep my charging accessories organized.

I've flown between the United States and Europe over 20 times, and I've learned that the most important parts of traveling smoothly are preparation and organization.

Because of my job, I'm always traveling with a ton of gadgets, and keeping my charging cables neat and consolidated has always been an issue. But on my last trip, I flew with Twelve South's Book Book CaddySack, a cable and charger organizer I was sent to test. After one trip it's become one of my must-have travel accessories.

The CaddySack has a simple but elegant design. It's compact, with a soft-but-rugged outer layer that looks like a well-worn book when it's zipped up. But, as always, it's what's on the inside that counts.

The inside of the CaddySack is split into two sides: On the left, there are three smaller straps and a mesh pouch designed to hold charging cables, and on the right there are two larger adjustable straps that can hold a laptop charger a and thicker charging cable. There's also an additional cable strap in the middle, or "spine" of the CaddySack.

On this past trip I traveled with an iPhone XS Max, third-generation iPad Pro, Nintendo Switch, Kindle, Nimble Battery Pack, Apple Watch, and a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. The CaddySack held everything I needed to charge most of those devices at the same time.

The left straps were big enough to accommodate six-foot Lightning, Micro-USB, and USB-C charging cables, the mesh pouch held a US to European power adapter, and the larger straps on the right-hand side held Anker's PowerPort-5, a multi-port hub and its charging cable. Even at full capacity, the CaddySack neatly zipped up without bulging.

In the past, I would keep my cables organized in a small plastic bag, but they always ended up getting lost somewhere in my backpack after I used them during my flight. The CaddySack kept them all in one place, and I could easily grab and return them as my devices needed charging.

That remained true when I finally got to my destination. I took all of the cables and adapters out of the CaddySack, set up a charging station in the corner of my Airbnb, and returned everything to it on the last night of my trip. I've lost count of how many cables I've accidentally misplaced while traveling over the years, but I don't see that happening anymore.

My one reservation before trying the CaddySack was its $40 price, but now I couldn't imagine traveling without it. Having all of my cables neatly arranged in a compact organizer made me feel a lot more comfortable grabbing one in the middle of a flight or during a layover.

What's even better is that I've been keeping all of those charging cables in the CaddySack at home, so I only have one thing to grab the next time I go on a trip. I'll never need to frantically double-check that I have the right chargers before heading off to the airport ever again. Combine that with the CaddySack's beautiful design, and its price tag is entirely justified.

If you're the type of traveler who already knows to wear slip-on shoes and no belt to save time during the TSA's security screening, Twelve South's BookBook CaddySack is a very wise investment, and a travel upgrade you won't realize how badly you needed it until you have it.

Twelve South BookBook CaddySack, $39.99, available at Amazon