17 Travel Packing Secrets Every Frequent Flyer Should Know
One thing about traveling is that you have to leave familiar territory for a while and one of the compromise you make is deciding which stuff to carry with you and what it is that you are to leave behind.
Whether you are constrained by circumstances of your own making, or you have to for instance heed to airline rules, this article will help you make the best decisions on packing relatively few stuff without feeling a great deal of inconvenience. I do this by sharing several hacks as well as specifying which things you should leave or take. Also to be expected are other good practices.
The data relied on is drawn from material shared by experts in the area so it is pretty solid. Let’s dive in.
1. Packing cubes
Okay, this is not going to go well with some of you. Please here me out first though.
Most people have suggested that packing cubes are a good way to do packing but I am heavily opposed to the notion. For one thing, we do need every space we can get and adding cubes takes away some of it.
Moreover, the reasons given in their defense are not compelling at all. To say that they help bring about organization is to presume that suit cases are big enough to have stuff get lost in there.
2. Think again about your dress code
It is not uncommon for people to carry clothes across countries only for them to return home without ever wearing them. Why is this the case? Because we are constantly overestimating our needs on a journey.
If you are wondering how you can get practical, one way is follow a formula recommend by the Australian fashionista Mark Wendy. He has come to conclude that multiplying any given number of bottom outfits with the available tops gives the you possible number of outfits that the clothes in question can birth e.g. 7 tops × 5 bottoms = 35 outfits.
3. Playing with toiletries
Like them or not, we do not have the option of living toiletries behind. What we can do however, is be creative.
One such way out is to buy them at the place where you are headed. This means that you won’t have to worry about creating room in your bags for them. When doing this however, it is important too that you buy them in smaller quantities. Otherwise, you will find yourself having to create space on your return journey.
If buying is a pain, then you can instead pour the quantity that will be needed for the trip in smaller containers and take those with you instead.
4. Don’t plan on ironing
There are several wrinkle free fabrics out there including the ones that are stretching or knitted. Others do develop creases if folded but then they fall out once hanged. Again, the goal is save space in this case, the one that would have been occupied by a flat iron.
If you cannot avoid it, then I recommend that you carry the smaller flat irons– the kind that does not weigh more than two pounds. Hotels also usually have ironing services so you can plan to part with a bit of cash on this rather than carry around weighty stuff.
5. Shoes
Let’s start with the fact that they are usually soiled. The only way to protect the rest of the material that the bag carries from this dirt then, is ensure that you place them in shoe bags.
Then there is the issue of knowing which of the many pairs you should have. One rule of thumb is what has come to be known as the three-shoe rule. It suggests that carrying sneakers and then two more pairs (one casual another smart) should do.
Shoes are also an item that you do not have to worry about much in packing. You could carry a carabineer with you for example, and have it help you keep them attached on the bag.
6. Souvenirs
Souvenirs are a tricky part of luggage not least because we don’t carry them with us initially. It can be tricky thus to find space for them when we are returning.
One great way around this conundrum is to always assume that you will certainly see something beautiful on your trip and that you will want to bring it back home for someone. That way you can leave space in your bag as you do the initial packing. The beauty is that even if you don’t find such a thing, there is no much damage caused.
The only thing I can think about is that bags with spaces tend to have their contents move around on the inside a problem that can be gotten around by filling these gaps with items that you won’t bring back with you.
7. As much as possible, stick with soft copies
With the technology available, why make your life miserable? A clear path to not fall into this trap is work with softcopy documents. For books thus, having a kindle gives you the liberty of reading as much material as you like without having to worry about where you will fit it.
If you insist on doing your things the hardcopy way, then you can scan the copies you possess, keep them on your phone, PC, flash… and then print them out once you have arrived to the place where you are headed. The cost of all this is so cheap that you do not have to think about it even once.
8. Mainly carry multipurpose items
The idea here is to get more done with as little as possible. If you have several things with you that fit more than one or two purposes thus, it means that you are carrying one item in the place of many in a host of instances. Be sure to think more closely about the stuff you intend to take too because at times, something might not be conventionally designed to complete multiple roles and yet you can achieve this objective with it still.
Common multipurpose objects are charging bricks that have more than one port and reusable bottles (one taking the place of numerous disposables).
9. Carry a blanket of your own
Planes always have blankets but because it is a general service, they do the bear minimum. At times for example, the blankets will not be as warm or grow to become somewhat rough because of over washing.
There is no reason thus, for you not to still aim for comfort when travelling.
You should pay more attention to this tip if you intend to travel a very long journey because jet lag is always worse in these cases. For those that can go an extra mile, having stockings and eye masks will accord you a bonus.
10. Do not forget your mug
If you have a vacuum cup, please bring it with you. Sure you might constrain yourself from doing a lot of things but thirst is a reflexive reaction. It automatically kicks in once you take a while without drinking. You will be allowed entry to the port with the vessel being empty upon which you can feel it once you are inside.
You might say that drinks will be served on board and it is true, but then you do not get to determine what kind they are or when it happens. Another alternative is to buy the cup at the airport but then the prices there will be at least three times more than what cups cost ordinarily.
One last question for you, what are you to use the collection of mugs resulting from purchases made every time you travel (assuming money is not a problem)?
11. Don’t fold those clothes
For most people, folding comes naturally but it is not optimal for traveling. Instead, rolling works best. For tops, place them down, fold the arms, then roll from down to top. Bottoms are simpler; whether it is a skirt or pair of pants, fold it along its center (vertically) and then roll from bottom to the waist.
Folding clothes lets you carry considerably more clothes than folding does since you can always squeeze them in any hanging spaces no matter how small. Folded clothes are further less likely to require ironing before wearing.
12. A first aid kit is crucial
Human bodies are always failing at times during periods when you least expected it. Whether you think that you are perfectly healthy or that you have your situation controlled, the truth is that we do not know when it is that the next medical issue will arise.
Good enough, a first aid tool kit is neither expensive nor difficult to operate so you should have no excuses.
None of this is to say that a first aid box is replacement for regular medical care but it makes all the difference if a complication arises in a place where it takes time to reach the nearest hospital. Additionally, some situations are minor such that attending to them yourself helps avoid unnecessary anxiety that would have arisen in the counterfactual.
13. Washing and rebounding
You really can use some washing and it won’t cost you much. Before you lament about working on vacation or something similar, let me clarify. Surely you can find time and effort in the evenings to wash your undergarments, stockings, handkerchiefs and other light items rather than feel your bag with them.
Relatedly, you don’t have to wear new clothes for each day. Just be sure to skip days in between wearing an attire already worn. And sometimes, you do not have to wash them over again. Fibers like merino wool are structured in a sense that dirt particles have a hard time sinking into them so they can come in handy.
It goes without saying that this window is only open to you if the kind of activities that you are involved in do not involve sweating.
14. Put on the heaviest clothing of all that you intend to wear
This approach helps you save the space that this stuff would have occupied or even abandon it altogether i.e. carry a much more portable suitcase. A good example is men that wear boots, those things carry some impressive weight.
Another clear illustration is wearing a jacket for warmth when you get to the cabin thereby replacing a blanket which despite its limited application, makes a significant portion of luggage when packing.
If you are smart about this, you can even wear clothing whose primary role is not traveling e.g. a suit. It would mean however, that you need to have it dry cleaned prior to wearing it again.
Extra Travel Packing Tips for Air Travel
- Be sure to acquaint yourself with the regulations of the airline you are operating that relate to luggage.
- Do not forget the electronics that you will need.
- Place the outfit that you intend on wearing first at the top.
