There has been some debate in my house over the years on how to pack in the most efficient way. I could do an entire separate post on what to pack (i.e. capsule wardrobes for traveling), how much of something you really need to pack, and so on. The word of the day today, though, was efficiency.

As we prepare for our trip to Germany, I have been slowly completing tasks to try to be ready on Go-Day. Today’s task was packing my clothes (I like to be done a little early with this part). I will preface this next portion with the following information (because I know someone will bring it up): I didn’t use a vacuum sealer. I know there is a popular trend of vacuum sealing your items to get on a plane. More than once my travel party has had someone have their bag “searched” (for no real reason that we were ever informed of) and things were left a ghastly mess. My biggest fear with vacuum sealing is having to sit in an airport trying to get everything back into bags and vacuum sealed after. Honestly, I don’t know a whole lot about the process of how security decides who or what to check and how they would handle vacuum sealed items (I can’t imagine they would just leave them sealed).

The three methods I chose were the packing cube method, the rolling method, and good old fashioned fold. I am packing enough clothes for nine days in Europe when the weather will be in the 60s during the day and the 30s at night. We will be spending a lot of time outside and I do practice the capsule wardrobe (reusing pants, jackets/flannels/button ups, etc while changing out undershirts, etc) and for the purpose of this comparison, I am only doing the side of the suitcase I put clothes in (no toiletries, etc)

The first method was packing cubes. These cubes were ones that my husband purchased on Amazon with a double zipper method (a zipper that closes the cube and then a zipper that compacts the cube down. With this method, the clothing heaped just a little over the edges of the suitcase, but all fit into one side of the suitcase. It would not have been very easy to cram them down any more as they are already crammed into the packing cubes themselves. Pros: This method achieved the goal of getting all of the clothes snugly into one side of the suitcase, makes sure that all items are very organized, and allows for the possibility of starting to separate clean vs dirty clothes in different cubes as travel moves on. Cons: It would have been very difficult to cram the clothes down further so any hope of cramming in an extra pair of shoes is pretty much obsolete, the zippers can be a little challenging when trying to compact the bags as they tend to snag, and there’s not much ability to conform different items to a different shape to fit better.

The second method was rolling. Everything was rolled as tightly as possible. With this method, they were all just below the top of the suitcase (which means more could have fit), however more rolls would not have worked this way as they would have been a signifcant amount of space above the top of the suitcase. I will say that this method works quite well with more compact summer clothes as you can have more than one layer of clothes fit nicely. In this case, I wasn’t able to fit all of the clothes comfortably into one side of the suitcase as you can see a cube’s worth of extra clothes. Pros: With warm weather clothes, this method allows for two layers and can fit many more clothes into one side of the suitcase. You can incorporate a complete roll with underwear, socks, etc in one roll (I tried this a few different ways when I was packing). Cons: With cooler weather, I don’t think this method works as well. If it had to involve winter clothes, I wouldn’t have even come close with this method if it involved sweaters, etc.

The third method was a good old fashioned fold. I was able to comfortably fit everything in one side of the suitcase with a little bit of room to spare in some parts for an extra pair of shoes, etc. This method allows for a little bit more flexibility to cram items like socks or underwear into crevices which gave a little bit of advantage. After I took this picture, I actually pressed down on these and confirmed that when compacted down, they were able to leave a gap of about a half inch at the top. Pros: Everything fit comfortably and was able to be compacted down easily as there was not anything holding the clothing to conform (as with packing cubes). Cons: Unless you’re going to mix up clothes and toiletries, etc throughout the trip, this doesn’t allow for separating dirty clothing from clean clothing throughout the trip.

What’s the Right Way?

I think this is up for debate, honestly. I think that there is some merit to the rolling method when smaller, more compact summer clothes are in need and I do think that rolling allows for the ability to prevent wrinkles a little better. With that said, I think the cubes versus fold is a matter of preference. For me, I think the cubes are far more trouble than they are worth to try to get them to compact down with the zipper getting snagged over and over. I do love that there is an ability to separate clean from dirty, but I also achieve this on trips by bringing with a canvas bag or two (which fits easily when you can compact). If you’re a fan of dryer sheets, you can stick those inside of the bags and help keep sweaty clothes from smelling up your suitcase.

What methods have you found for making the most of your packing space when traveling internationally?