What Is The Best Way To Pack A Suitcase – Get Organised With These Top 13 Tips

What Is The Best Way To Pack A Suitcase – Get Organised With These Top 13 Tips

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has ever wondered how to get all of their belongings into their suitcase, but what is the best way to pack a suitcase? I’m also sure we have all experienced this one way or another: the holidays are upon you and hopefully everything is sorted; you have your passports, flights are sorted, hotels are booked and your pets are being looked after.

Now all that’s left to do is to pack your suitcase. Where to start and what to pack? How to avoid clothes from getting wrinkly and fragiles from breaking? I’ve done some research for you and included some of my best practice tips. I hope these will help you make the packing part of the holiday easier and therefore more relaxed.

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Tip 1: Make A List – Essentials, Handy To Have’s, Just In Case’s

Checklist for packing a suitcase
Print out a checklist

This is something that I have done for most of my trips. I have to confess that sometimes it’s just easier to throw everything in as you go, but those were also the times when I forgot to pack essential items or left things behind in the hotel room.

Having a packing list means you can check off whether it’s all packed before your travel and then also makes it easier to tick off items when you pack for your return. But first things first: to write a packing list, start with your most important items you’ll need, such as your passport and tickets, glasses and prescription medicine, phone chargers and toiletries.

Which of these items have to go into your carry-on and which ones should go into your checked luggage? Or maybe you are just staying a few days and can pack everything into a carry-on?

Next plan your clothes. How many days are you going away for? Are you going to be able to wash your clothes while you’re away or will you need something for every day of your trip? What is the weather most likely going to be like? Is it likely to be changing between warm and cold? Is your itinerary fully booked or is there time to read a book?

If you would like a hand with writing a packing list, you can access my printable Checklist For Packing A Suitcase HERE.

Pack flip flops

Tip 2: I always take flip-flops (here in Australia we call them thongs). They are handy to have as house shoes and when using public toilets or showers when coming from the beach. You can wear them with shorts and summer dresses and they really do not take up much room at all.

Tip 3: I also always take a bathing suit (here in Australia we call them swimmers). These are “just in case”. Even if you don’t go for a beach holiday, most hotels have pools or spas or even a sauna that you might want to use.

Or, for example, if you happen to travel through Singapore airport, you could go for a quick dip at their roof top swimming pool, which only costs you a few dollars and is really refreshing after a long flight and great for stretching your legs and relaxing all over. They also have pool-side bar.

Save Space And Stay Organised

Tip 4: Roll Your Clothes. The one thing that everyone who’s ever tried to fit many things into a suitcase agrees on is to roll your clothes. Not only will you safe a lot of room and fit more in than you might need, but it’ll also help keeping your clothes from getting wrinkly.

Vacuum bags

Tip 5: Vacuum Bags. Another essential is to take a few vacuum bags. Even if you don’t need them on your way there, you might buy a few more items while you’re on holiday and those bags will help you make even more room. Just put the clothing item in (you may roll it to save more room), seal the bag and push the air out.

Tip 6: Cube Bags. These are great to keep your things organised. You can coordinate your outfits that way, or sort all of your underwear into one bag, socks in another, and so on.

When packing, put your heaviest items to be bottom of the suitcase, or if it’s a spinner suitcase, which opens up like a clam shell, put the heavy items to one side and use the divider to hold them in place and put your lighter items on the other side.

Keep It Safe – Make Up, Valuables, Fragiles

Tip 7: If you can, leave heavy glass bottles at home and pour some of your favourite perfume, shampoo, lotions etc into small plastic travel bottles. Or just buy everything travel sized. To make sure those bottles aren’t leaking, use a little bit of cling wrap to cover the neck of the bottle before replacing the lid. And remember that there are restrictions on what you can and cannot take in your carry-on.

Plastic Travel Bottles

Tip 8: To stay organised, use clear zip lock bags for your toiletries as well as your headphones, chargers, house keys, medication and all the other small items that might get lost otherwise. Use zip lock bags to put everything in you might have to take out/off when going through security. It will make the process so much easier and quicker.

Tip 9: Use empty lotion bottles to pack and disguise your valuables, such as money and jewellery. This is also something you can use when going to the beach for a day and you want to keep everything safe. For powder and eye shadows, place cotton wool pads inside them before closing the lid, this will prevent them from breaking.

Tip 10: Protect breakables. Make sure to put breakables into the center of the suitcase with lots of things around them to protect them and not on the outside to prevent breaking. Socks are great to protect fragile things, you might even be able to put smaller things inside your shoes, but make sure those are things that won’t burst inside your shoes.

Keep It Fresh And Clean

Tip 11: You’ve got everything sorted in your vacuum bags, cube bags and zip locks. But what about dirty laundry and shoes? To protect your clothing from dirty shoe soles, use the free shower caps from your hotel room to cover them up before putting them into your suitcase. Use the divider of your suitcase to keep one side for fresh and unworn items and the other one to put in dirty and worn items.

Tip 12: Put a softener sheet inside your suitcase to keep a fresh smell at all times.

Are You Sure You Really Need All Of This?

What I have learned from my traveling experiences is that most of the time I tend to pack too much clothing and other items I won’t need along the way. It helps to first make a list of things you need to take, then lay everything out and decide on a few outfits you can wear. Try to pack things you can combine with other items.

And don’t pack too many pairs of shoes as you most likely won’t need them. Pack a pair of comfortable, good quality walking shoes, or even better, wear those during the flight, pack something dressy and a pair of flip-flops. Shoes are heavy and bulky items that will take up a lot of room and weight.

Tip 13: Before you leave, make sure you weigh your suitcase and check restrictions with your airline to avoid having to pay for excess baggage.

I hope this helped a bit in preparing for your holiday.

Safe and happy travels!

 

 

 

 

4 Replies to “What Is The Best Way To Pack A Suitcase – Get Organised With These Top 13 Tips”

  1. Quite an interesting article, one of my worst fears when travelling is forgetting my essentials. It has happened to me several times where i forget to pack some items or i leave some in the hotel room. I love your idea of writing down a packing list, never thought of it before i will definitely use that method from now.

  2. An alternative to vacuum bags is to use compression sacs. They work the same way as vacuum bags but they are much more convenient. You can use them to compress clothes at any stage of the trip and you don’t have to constantly search for a vacuum each time you open a the bag to get some clothes out.

    1. Hi CJ, you don’t necessarily need a vacuum for the vacuum bags. You basically just push the air out and close them. Maybe we’re even talking about the same thing? 🙂 Thanks for stopping by. Petra 🙂

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