Have you ever had a long travel day, finally gotten to your hotel, you open up your suitcase to find your pajamas because all you want to do is take a hot shower and go to bed – but you can’t for the life of you find your pajamas?? And then in the process of finally finding them, you mess up your entire packed suitcase? OR you take the time to neatly fold and pack all of your items just to have them shift the moment you stand your suitcase upright?? OR maybe you’re trying to fly carry-on only and need to fit a week’s worth of stuff into that 21-inch approved roller bag?
Yea – this is exactly how I felt – in ALL of these various scenarios .. and it only got worse as I was starting to pack for 2 then 3 then 4 & now 5 people! Do you pack for your significant other, too? Hoping it’s not just me ;/
Anyway, I needed a solution and I needed it FAST! It first started when Chance and I were traveling carry-on only when he worked for Delta Airlines, and we frequently flew standby. We never checked luggage because you just never knew if your flight was going to get changed at the last minute or if you were even going to end up at your originally planned destination. LOL Those people you see running through the airport? Yea, we were there a time or two…it happens!
The need for a better, more efficient packing system really hit us hard when we were attempting a week in northwestern Europe in February – so think puffy jackets, bulky sweaters, and boots. Not to mention we were traveling to a few different cities, so we did not want to be lugging huge suitcases on the trains with us. All of our individual clothing items had to fit in our one carry-on rolling luggage piece; and I don’t know about you, but I personally hate having to carry a big jacket through the airport. It has to fit into a bag for me. I just think about it getting all dirty and germy laying around on seats or accidentally forgetting it somewhere.
I did a lot of research before this trip and found these two items that turned out to be game changers for us! I’m happy to say we easily traveled to Europe for 7 days with our carry ons. We still use both of these tricks on every vacation we go on now. I discovered these compression bags on Amazon, and we used these packing cubes back then. We’ve had to purchase more of each to accommodate our growing family, and the compression bags get used to store winter clothing at home now – such space savers and SO easy to use! We’ve actually changed up our packing cubes and we now use these. I like them a little bit better and the variety pack sizing/pricing meets our needs.
We do still use our original ones, though, as they still work perfectly fine. We also occasionally use these compression packing cubes – not to be confused with the compression bags or packing cubes mentioned above. These are three separate products with different uses for us.
I will say that packing cubes do take a little more time to pack on the front end before your travels, but it’s SO worth it when you arrive at your destination and everything is neat and organized. I’ve even started packing the boys outfits in cubes or bags organized by day, so that Chance knows exactly what shirt matches which shorts. This allows him to get the boys ready while I get myself ready, prepare breakfast, pack for the day, etc – hello, major time saver!
It does take a little trial and error to figure out the best packing methods for you & your family. Different cubes are different sizes and dimensions, so some hold things better than others. It also depends on the clothing size. Chance’s clothes pack wayyy differently than the boys’ clothes obviously. I tend to use the long, slim style for the boys because they fit in there just perfectly. Chance usually gets the largest cube size, and I use a mixture of square and rectangular. Weird how mom always goes last/gets the leftovers in everything :/
You definitely get a feel for what works the best after playing around with them a little. I would recommend not waiting until the last minute to pack the first time you use these, as you may want to do a little shuffling to get it all situated. Because then you have to pack all of the cubes most efficiently in the various sized suitcases. But don’t worry … you’ll be a pro soon enough and I’m going to give some tips below!
Checked Bags
I personally use our packing cubes in different ways depending on the type of trip and maybe even depending on which bags we’re bringing. I’ve packed by each person, I’ve packed by days/nights – it really just depends on the trip, how we’re traveling, length of stay, type of clothing etc. I find my most common method includes packing similar clothing articles together.
For example, if I’m packing by person, I put all of Chance’s boxers, undershirts, swimsuit, and socks in one packing cube. His casual shorts and shirts are in another. Same for my items and same for the boys. Then, I’ll typically have a catch-all for one sweater for each person and other items that were forgotten or didn’t fit.
If I’m packing by item type, however, all the pajamas for everyone will go in a packing cube together, all of the swimsuits for everyone will go together in one packing cube, etc.
If we are going somewhere that we might need nicer outfits, those get packed in this “cube” because I find the shape holds better and we have less wrinkles. This does fit in a carry on sized roller in case you’re wondering! This was our very, very first packing tool many years ago; but honestly we don’t use it as much now that we have the compression bags and cubes. It really is great for keeping clothing packed extra nicely though, so any dresses or button down shirts will go in here.
On a trip where maybe we have to move hotels once or twice, I pack by location. For example, when we went to California last year, we spent a few days in Los Angeles before heading to San Diego for the rest of the week. In this instance, I packed all of our pajamas together for LA and then all of our pajamas together for San Diego. I also separated our casual clothing items for each destination and packed the boys together and Chance & I together. This was great because we weren’t pulling out things we didn’t need in LA and vice versa!!
And don’t discount the compression bags – man have those been a game changer for us – especially if you’re trying to utilize carry on only. I say this because the more you compress in a bag, the more it will weigh. Unless flying internationally, US domestic flights don’t typically weigh your carry on like they do your checked baggage. But these compression bags are SO great when you’re going to colder weather climates. They can reduce the size of your bulky sweaters and heavy winter jackets by half!
When we use this approach, I usually put the heavy compression bags with our pack-n-play foam mattress, nighttime diapers and any other light but fluffy items that are coming with us! They are so easy to use and are truly an awesome space saver!! A lot of other options we found on the market are easy to compress at home before your trip, but you have no way of getting them compressed and back home – which just doesn’t work obviously!
I do also recommend purchasing a luggage scale – in general, but especially when you’re using compression bags – because you do not want to get to the airport and be overweight! Ask me how I know ………….
Personal Items
We’ve also started using packing cubes in our personal items that we carry on the aircraft. This is actually where the compression packing cubes come in the most handy! Again, carry on baggage isn’t weighed, so we’re more focused on space-saving and organization in our personal items. We’ve actually found the perfect size compression packing cube for holding diapers which really came in handy when we had 2 in diapers!! For the other cubes, we still bring a change of clothes for the boys with us. By putting their clothes in a compression packing cube, we’re able to minimize the amount of space they take up and put them to the bottom of the bag in hopes of not needing them.
Additionally, if we’re heading to a cold destination, we’ll put our coats into a compression bag and put them in our overhead bin bag. Before kids, Chance and I would just risk the lost checked luggage; but we would never want our kids to be without their winter jackets upon arrival. We always carry them on with us now, but these compression bags make it so much easier! They take up SO much less space and are easy to get out when we arrive at our destination. You can read more about our process for packing carry on bags in this post here.
