Most packing hacks are somebody rolling a t-shirt and calling it a system. These 28 are the ones that survive an actual trip, and the best of them cost nothing at all. A button keeps a pair of earrings together. A binder clip caps a razor so it cannot slice your hand. A hotel shower cap goes over the soles of your shoes so the rest of the bag stays clean. There are two sewing projects in here for anyone who wants a cord organizer or a roll up jewelry case that ends tangled chains permanently, plus the carry on only crowd’s whole method, the fabrics that refuse to crease, and the one rule I would keep above all the others: heavy things at the bottom, light things on top, so the bag stands up at the gate instead of folding into the backs of your knees. Steal three of them before your next trip.
Packing Hacks for Travel
1. Roll, Don't Fold Clothes
Rachel at DIY in PDX has not checked a bag in years, and her case for rolling is the practical half: rolled clothes crease less and more of them fit. It only pays off if the contents coordinate, so she picks a colour palette and packs a capsule wardrobe rather than outfits, in black, white and grey. Her most quotable line is about shoes. She took three pairs to Australia and says her Converse alone would have done it. Wear the bulkiest pair on the plane and stuff the packed ones with socks.
Get the full tutorial at DIY in PDX.
2. Pack Blazers Inside Out
A blazer is the one thing in a suitcase that punishes a lazy fold. Parisian Gentleman’s method takes about five seconds: lay the jacket flat, turn one shoulder and its sleeve inside out, then stuff the other sleeve into the inverted one so the two nest together. The lining ends up facing outward, taking the rubbing and the creasing, with the structured face of the jacket protected inside the fold. Fold it gently in half, lay it across the top of everything else, and hang it up the moment you reach the room.
Get the full tutorial at Parisian Gentleman.
3. Fold Your Jeans to Save Space
Shirts forgive a sloppy fold. Jeans do not, because the waistband and the seams spring back open under anything heavy. This method locks the bundle: fold the jeans in half lengthwise on a flat surface and smooth them out, fold the crotch in, fold the waistband down to the crotch, then lift the upper leg and fold it out at an angle, fold the top once more and bring the bottom leg up to tuck under that last edge. The same tuck works on any heavy trousers.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
4. Keep A Pair of Earrings Together with a Button
Earrings go into a suitcase as pairs and come out as singles, and The Krazy Coupon Lady ends that with a spare button. Push each post through two holes of the button, fasten the backs on the other side, and the pair travels as one object that cannot separate. It works on studs and on dangling pairs alike, and the loaded buttons then live in a zip top bag or a travel jewelry case. Raid the sewing drawer for one button per pair before you pack anything else.
Get the full tutorial at The Krazy Coupon Lady.
5. Roll Your Necklaces Into a Travel Jewelry Case
Necklaces tangle because nothing holds them still, and the roll up case Stefanie sews at girl. Inspired. solves that properly. Seven pockets divided by six lines of stitching, with a small fabric loop above each pocket so the chain hooks over the loop and the pendant drops into the pocket underneath, then the whole panel rolls and ties shut with ribbon. The loop is the part to keep, because a pocket alone still lets a long chain wander out. It takes half a yard each of two fabrics plus interfacing and piping.
Get the full tutorial at girl. Inspired..
6. Use Binder Clip to Protect Your Razor
A loose razor in a toiletry bag is an ambush waiting for a reaching hand, and a binder clip over the head ends it for about a dime. That is the exact reason The Krazy Coupon Lady gives: if you cannot locate the cover, you could get cut badly. The clip covers the blades completely and stays on through the worst baggage handling. One genuinely useful footnote most lists leave out is that razors are not permitted in carry on bags, so this one belongs in checked luggage. Test the clip size on your razor before you fly.
Get the full tutorial at The Krazy Coupon Lady.
7. Sew a Travel Cord Organizer in About an Hour
Cords knot themselves quietly in the dark and there is no polite solution, only a physical one. Megan at The Homes I Have Made sews a flat panel with quarter inch elastic laid in rows and stitched down about every inch, so each cable slides into its own column, and the whole thing rolls up and ties. It is straight seams and about an hour, and most people can make it from what is already in the craft stash. The labelling idea is worth as much as the panel: washi tape in a different pattern around each person’s plugs.
Get the full tutorial at The Homes I Have Made.
8. Shower Cap Storage For Shoes
The hotel shower cap nobody ever uses has one perfect job. Stretch it over the soles of a pair of shoes and the elastic grips a pair of flats or sneakers snugly, so street grime never reaches anything clean in the suitcase. It weighs nothing, it is fitted where a grocery bag is not, and you almost certainly have three of them in a drawer already from previous trips. Keep one cap per pair permanently in your luggage so the system survives repacking.
Get the full tutorial at Vessi.
9. Pack For Two Kids In One Bag
Beauty Through Imperfection puts two children into one suitcase using clear packing cubes, and the sorting is the clever part. One cube holds shirts and trousers, one holds underwear, socks and swimsuits, and the third is for dirty clothes, so nothing worn can quietly get worn again. The cubes are colour coded per child, which is what makes sharing a suitcase survivable. There is a bonus at the check in desk too: if the bag comes up overweight, pull a cube out and carry it on as a personal item.
Get the full tutorial at Beauty Through Imperfection.
10. Pack Heaviest Item At The Bottom
Chrissy at Organise My House, who has spent over twenty one years as a professional home stylist and organiser, puts it in one line: consider which way your suitcase will be held, then put the heavier items at the bottom and the lighter ones on top. It stops the bag toppling over and it creases everything less, because nothing soft is carrying the weight of shoes. In a roller that means the toiletry bag and shoes down by the wheels. This is one of 101 tips on that page, so pace yourself.
Get the full tutorial at Organise My House.
11. Smart Packing Tips for a Trip
Eight tips, and two of them are genuinely new. The first is an outfit ratio rather than a count: bring one bottom for every two tops, which cuts the pile and increases the combinations at the same time. The second is free storage, which is to save the zip bags your sheet sets come in and use them as shoe bags, since they protect clothes from dirty soles and go straight in the washer afterwards. Everything gets rolled rather than folded, and hung up on arrival.
Get the full tutorial at Organize and Decorate Everything.
12. Place Necklaces Between Two Pieces of Sticky Wrap
Tip five out of ten at The Inspiration Board, and it is one line long because it does not need any more: place your necklaces between two pieces of sticky wrap so they do not get tangled. Press around each chain so nothing can slide, and the whole sheet goes flat into any gap left in a full bag. Because the wrap is clear you can see which necklace is which without unwrapping anything. That post also comes with a free printable packing checklist, which is worth the click on its own.
Get the full tutorial at The Inspiration Board.
13. Tips for Traveling With a Newborn
The method at Frugal Mom Eh! is one bag for the day and separate bags for the destination, which is the difference between reaching and unpacking. The day bag carries enough diapers for the day, food, a change of clothes, toys and a blanket, and everything else can live in luggage that stays shut until you arrive. Have feeding sorted before you leave, either stored milk in a cooler or bottles of filtered water alongside the formula, within reach rather than in the boot.
Get the full tutorial at Frugal Mom Eh!.
14. Use Pill Case Compartments To Store Jewelry
A weekly pill organiser is the cheapest hard sided jewelry box travel has ever produced. Each snap shut compartment takes a pair of earrings, a couple of rings or a thin bracelet coiled up, separated from everything else and visible through the lid. The case is rigid enough to protect delicate pieces and small enough to vanish into a corner of a carry on. The labelled days are a small bonus if you enjoy planning accessories in advance. Dollar stores sell them for a dollar.
Get the full tutorial at Travel Fashion Girl.
15. Wrap Belt Inside The Collar Of Your Shirt
A belt is the most awkward object in any suitcase: too stiff to fold, too long to lie flat and heavy enough to crease whatever it lands on. Coil it inside the collar of a packed dress shirt instead. The belt props the collar up so it arrives crisp, and it occupies space that was doing nothing anyway, so two problems cancel each other out. It works the same way in a garment bag, a suitcase or a duffel, and neither item costs you an inch of room.
Get the full tutorial at The Travel Hack.
16. Pack The Perfect Beach Bag
Kalyn of Creative Savings, writing at Org Junkie, starts with the tote rather than the contents: does it need compartments, is the material water resistant, and do you want it to coordinate with the swimsuits and towels. Then a mini pouch inside it for the small things that always sink, phone, lip balm, sanitiser, wipes, sunglasses, hairbrush, a card and a couple of plasters for sharp shells. Plastic bags protect electronics from sand and water, grocery bags take wet swimsuits home, and an extra towel each means nobody lies on a wet one.
Get the full tutorial at Org Junkie.
17. Slip Delicate Glass Items Into Socks
ChiWei at One Dog Woof wraps a wine bottle in a sock as gift wrapping rather than as packing, but the mechanism is exactly what you want around a souvenir bottle, and one detail is worth stealing. She slides one sock inside the other before the bottle goes in, so the glass gets two layers rather than one. She also notes that bottles with an indent in the base sit better, because the sock seams tuck underneath. Pack the whole thing in the middle of the bag with soft clothes on every side.
Get the full tutorial at One Dog Woof.
18. Use Packing Cubes
Hippie In Heels keeps two sets of cubes, which tells you how far this can be taken. One cube per category, or one per person in a shared bag, and unpacking becomes a matter of moving cubes into drawers instead of rehanging a whole suitcase. She also keeps dirty shoes and dirty laundry in old cotton purse dust bags, turned inside out and washed with everything else when the trip is over, which is a free version of the same idea and costs nothing at all.
Get the full tutorial at Hippie In Heels.
19. Keep Liquid Products From Spilling by Using Plastic Wrap
Four steps and about ten seconds a bottle. Tear off a sheet of cling film, cut it into squares with scissors, unscrew the cap and lay a square over the open neck of the bottle, then screw the cap back down over the top of it. The film makes a seal under the cap that pressure changes cannot push past, and the cap cannot work loose in transit either. Trim the overhang if it bothers you. Do this to everything that pours, and absolutely to the sunscreen.
Get the full tutorial at The Beauty Department.
20. Pack the Fabrics That Don't Wrinkle
Most packing advice starts once the case is open. This one starts at the wardrobe. So Sew Easy names six fabrics that travel well: cashmere, neoprene, merino wool, nylon or polyester, knits and denim. The tip buried in the knitwear section is the best thing on the page, which is to wrap whatever creases easily inside a knitted sweater and let the knit absorb the abuse. Polyester earns its place on a long trip because you can wash it at night and wear it the next day, and sweater knits are useful on a cold plane.
Get the full tutorial at So Sew Easy.
21. Organized Travel Packing With Kids
The Crazy Craft Lady starts by rejecting the advice everyone else gives, which is packing one specific outfit per day into its own bag. Her reason is that it survives exactly until somebody spills something. She colour coordinates instead: every top has to go with at least half the bottoms in the bag, which is a capsule wardrobe for children and means any two items work. Then clear cubes, one colour assigned per child, so a whole week for each of her twins fits in one large cube inside a shared suitcase.
Get the full tutorial at The Crazy Craft Lady.
22. Try A Clam Shell Suitcase
The World Pursuit travels almost entirely in clamshell hard sided cases, and the argument is access. The bag opens into two fully walled halves, so it packs like a portable chest of drawers and nothing avalanches when you open it on a luggage rack. They flag two honest drawbacks as well: a clamshell takes up more floor space in a small hotel room, and it is easy to end up with all the weight in one half, which makes the bag hard to roll and prone to falling over. Balance the halves.
Get the full tutorial at The World Pursuit.
23. Maximize Your Carry On Luggage Space
A week long trip, a twenty five dollar checked bag fee and a packing list demanding two outfits a day, which is where this one starts. Snail Pace Transformations got eleven shirts, six pairs of shorts and a week of boxers into the carry on itself, with the last t shirt and two more pairs of shorts going into a backpack as the personal item, alongside a twin sheet set, a beach towel, toiletries and snacks. The logic is re wearing the outer layers and changing only what sits against the skin.
Get the full tutorial at Snail Pace Transformations.
24. Place Dryer Sheets In Your Luggage
A suitcase that has been shut in a closet since the last trip smells like a suitcase, and by day two everything folded inside it smells like one too. Jackie at I Heart Arts n Crafts puts the fix in one line: add dryer sheets in between your clothes in your luggage to keep them fresh. Slide one into each layer on the way out and one into the dirty clothes bag on the way home, which is the leg that really needs it. Her list also turns a pot holder into a heat safe case for a curling iron.
Get the full tutorial at I Heart Arts n Crafts.
25. Packing an Organized Suitcase
The problem this solves is shared luggage. One parent, two small boys, one case, and a helpful husband and toddler who between them stir everything so thoroughly that nobody can tell whose clothes are whose. The fix at Hello Sensible is clear cubes that turn the suitcase into a set of drawers, with each person’s clothes in their own cube so nothing mixes and nothing migrates to the bottom. At the far end the cubes lift straight out onto the dresser and the case is basically empty.
Get the full tutorial at Hello Sensible.
26. Store Q tips in an Old Pill Bottle
Loose cotton buds roll around a toiletry bag collecting whatever they touch and arrive unusable. An empty prescription bottle is waterproof, crush proof and almost exactly the right size, and it is already in your recycling. Society19 suggests decorating the bottle, which is where the patterned paper in the photo comes from, and it takes about a minute. The same bottle format is just as good for bobby pins, hair ties, cotton pads or a tiny sewing kit. Peel the old label off or run it through the dishwasher first.
Get the full tutorial at Society19.
27. String Necklaces Through Straws
Thread one end of a chain through a drinking straw and fasten the clasp outside it, and that chain physically cannot knot itself against anything else in the bag. It is the most rediscovered packing trick on the internet because it works every single time and costs nothing. Reusable silicone or metal straws hold up better than paper ones for repeat trips. A longer chain can be doubled through the straw for a snugger hold, and a band around the bundle keeps the whole set together.
Get the full tutorial at Borsheims.
28. Ziploc Bag Packing
This Grandma Is Fun tried it on a trip to Utah and reported back honestly: it took longer to pack, every bag had to be burped to force the air out, and some clothes were a tight fit that wanted a larger bag next time. And it was completely worth it, because there was no morning of “where are my socks” or “where did you put my pyjamas” for the whole trip. Handing a child one bag containing everything is the entire payoff. Buy the larger bags before you start.
Get the full tutorial at This Grandma Is Fun.
