How you pack for a trip has a huge role in determining the overall quality of your journey and whether you enjoy it. Of course, needing something essential during your trip and not having it with you is a depressing travel mishap. This idea is what often leads many to pack everything they can think of, leading them to have multiple heavy suitcases with them. This isn’t a good idea either because the heavier your luggage gets, the more tiring your journey becomes.
So, what’s the best step to take in such a situation? Of course, you can reduce the time you need to carry your luggage at the airports using your Clear or TSA PreCheck status. If you’ve no idea about these, we suggest you search for more on TSA PreCheck or Clear and try to get at least one of these for easier airport time on all your journeys.
Coming back to packing, if you take it seriously, it is no less rocket science. Your worry regarding packing is natural if you don’t want to leave any important item and cannot carry heavy suitcases all the time.
Understanding how this is a common concern of almost all travelers, we decided to bring up our favorite and working packing tips that should help every duysnews traveler regardless of the factors that define their traveling style and make it different from others. Read on you’d thank us later for sure!
1. Know What Your Airline Allows And What It Doesn’t
First things first, you should always go through your airline’s policy on luggage weight, what kind of items you can take along and what you can’t. You also need to know what can be put in the handbags and what goes in the big suitcases.
Other than this, you must know the maximum luggage weight that you can carry and what you have to pay in case you want to exceed that limit. If you have time, you can also check the luggage-related rules of your destination country and what you can take there. These things help you easily pack only the stuff that can be used by you and is not just another weight-inducer in your bags.
2. Make a List of Absolute Essentials
Many people tend to pack their stuff for a journey haphazardly. As a result, they forget several small, yet essential, items and also bring along a little too many of the items that qualify under the “What if I needed it” category.
The best to go about smart packing is to start by writing down all the items that are a must-have on your trip. Try to keep this list as minimal as possible. When shopping, try to buy separate items that you can mix and match easily. Don’t keep two pairs of jeans when you know one can work. A good idea is to always restrict yourself while making your lists and then edit them to shorten the length.
3. Roll The Things That Can Be Rolled
Yes, folding your shirts and trousers is the most common way to put them in the bag properly. But, rolling them works better. Rolled clothing items take very less space when compared to the space taken by the same items in a folded shape.
Make sure to tightly roll the things as is often demonstrated in several packing guides online. Rolling the stuff also ensures less stubborn creases and you won’t have to look for irons everywhere too.
4. Be Ready For Some Laundry
If you are staying somewhere for a long time, it is best to book a place or hotel room that offers free laundry services. If that is not the case, then you should prepare yourself mentally to have some laundry days during your travel.
Keep a detergent with you no matter where you go and learn the art of washing your items in sinks. You can easily reuse your clothes multiple times on longer stays if you are ready to do this labor. And trust us when we say this, laundry during trips is fun and enticing for sure.
Oh and, if you want some advice, do not try to hand over your dirty clothes to a local laundry service shop. They are surely going to charge you a lot and some of them are notorious enough to demand more money from travelers.
5. Get Bags That Can Expand And Have Compartments
The interior of your luggage bag can play a huge role in determining how well or badly you pack your stuff. We suggest going for bags that have at least two big inner compartments and a lot of small pockets to safeguard your smaller stuff. Some bags are also easily expandable and that helps when you are packing to come back home. Of course, there are gifts, souvenirs, and other stuff that you got during your stay, and these have to be fitted inside the same bag now too.
So, it is best to be very picky about the luggage bag you choose and not just take along any random bag because it looked strong and cute to you.
6. Use Packing Aids
There are so many packing aids available at cheap rates on Amazon and other stores that anyone can use. These are inflatable bags, zip-lock bags, jewelry boxes, hangers, and so much more than can help you pack your stuff in a way that takes minimal space inside the bag.
You can also vacuum the bags that contain your clothes and then put them in the bigger bag. This also saves up a lot of space inside the bag and keeps things organized too.
7. Layer The Stuff
You cannot expect your TSA agent to feel very good about you if your bag is not packed in a way that helps them the screen quickly. The same goes for your overall journey too, the more scattered your bag is, the more annoyed you’d get every morning.
So, make sure you layer all the shoes together and then place a thick layer of all your clothes above it. This way, the stuff stays neat and you also pass through the security line faster.
