With every trip, we get a little smarter about packing for our trips. Along the way, we’ve picked up a few tricks that really do make a difference. We go out both day and night when we travel and usually want a variety of clothes with us. So these tips aren’t about packing for a six month backpacking trip, we wouldn’t even begin to know where to start. This is about making the most of your luggage space or simply packing smarter, whether a suitcase that you’re going to check or a carry-on bag.
- Roll Your Clothes – Honestly, it makes a difference. Physics tells us that an object should take up the same amount of space regardless of whether you fold or roll your clothes, but for once physics is wrong. For some reason, rolling your clothes really allows you to put more into your suitcase or carry-on. In addition to making more room, your clothes will also be less wrinkled, a win-win.
- Use Contact Cases – For moisturizer, face soap, conditioner, foundation, lotion, creams or gels that you don’t need a lot of while you’re travelling. Rather than taking the large container that the product came in or buying expensive travel size containers, using contact cases can save a lot of space.
- Choose One Color Palette – Whether for clothes or make-up for women, sticking to one color palette can save you space and aggravation. You can bring a single belt, single pair of shoes, pants with multiple tops/shirts, etc. Stick with black or brown with warm or cool tones and it will make getting ready to get out the door a breeze and save space.
- Put Plastic Wrap on Liquids – Putting plastic wrap over the spray nozzle or top of a liquid container can save you from opening your suitcase only to find that something has leaked over your clothes. An ounce of prevention can make a world of a difference.
- Wrap Your Necklaces in Plastic Wrap – Obviously, this one is for the women, but necklaces can get tangled when you travel, even if you use a jewelry travel case. Lay a piece of plastic wrap down, lay your jewelry on it with a space between each piece, then put another piece of plastic wrap on top, pressing down between the necklaces. No more tangled mess.
Love the contact lens case idea! Also, never thought to wrap the necklaces. Thanks for the tips!
Hope they work for you as well as they do for us ☺
Thank you for the useful tips! Yes, I like the contact lens case idea, too I will try this pretty soon 🙂
☺
I love the tip for rolling and have done this for year since reading one of Rick Steves’ books. The thing I’ll tack onto that is putting small rolled items (like t-shirts) into gallon size zip-topped bags. if you suck the air out, then you can squeeze even more into that tiny space.
Very true, that is a good tip as well.
Professional packing, wow! Some of my friends are on this level, I’ve been too traditional till now, just the colour matching. But I’ll try the rolling next time – up to now I’d only done that for the dirty linen (in plastic bag haha) – and contact cases good idea too. The sucking out the air thing – comment from Lula Harp – sounds too much like taking a baby black hole along into the plane 🙂
That’s too funny. They actually sell bags that you can use a vacuum to suck the air out of, but we haven’t done that either. The more that airlines charge for luggage, the more that people will get creative 🙂
Thanks for all these wonderful suggestions. I just started rolling my clothes the last few trips and it does seem to make a difference. So glad I listened to someone and tried it, lol. I hadn’t thought about using the contact cases before. Will have to try that in the future. However, I have to really thank you for the plastic wrap for jewelry suggestion.I had never thought of it. It always frustrates me to have to untangle stuff when I get where I am going. 🙁 I will definitely remember this one. Thanks again for all the great tips. Happy travels.
No problem, we’ve spent many hours untangling jewelry until we learned this trick ☺
Oh my gosh, I can attest that the rolling concept works so well! Aside from a few hanging items, I have all of my clothes rolled in plastic containers under our RV’s bed. It helps so much and keeps them from being creased by folds! Never thought of the jewelry idea though – that will definitely make life easier, so thank you!! 🙂 By the way, we enjoy reading your blog and nominated you for a Sunshine Blogger Award. You can see the nomination post here https://johnandkatiesrvhoneymoon.com/2016/11/14/sunshine-blogger-award/. Would love to see your response if you have the chance! Regardless though, thank you for doing what you do and keep travelling! 🙂
We really appreciate that you like our blog site. Putter the jewelry in saran wrap has definitely helped. Thank for nominating us for the Sunshine Blogger award, we will take a look at the link this evening ☺