Back in the day, checking your bag on a trip only cost you 20 minutes of your time after a flight. Now you're lucky if it only costs you $20. With rampant theft, high bag check costs, and overhead bins filled to the brim, learning how to pack efficiently matters more than ever. With the right strategy, you can fit everything you actually need into the seat in front of you.
I hate checking bags. I really hate checking bags. I've had luggage lost, items stolen, property destroyed, and a myriad of other issues. After an incredibly degrading experience with checked luggage, I decided to approach every future flight as a challenge. I tested new ways to ensure I get my bags on the plane and, more recently, that they can fit underneath the seat in front of me if necessary. After four years of practice, I can pack for a two week week trip and fit everything into a tiny space. In this post, we'll look at how.
Pick the Right Bag(s)
Most luggage wastes space in favor of added protection or aesthetics. You'll want that protection when traveling with fragile items, but most of the time your primary bag won't require much padding because you'll fill it with clothing. Clothing serves as a wonderful source of padding on its own, so even if you do have a fragile item or two you can pack it inside of your clothing to avoid damage. When fitting a large number of items underneath the seat in front of you, and still retaining room for a personal item (like a medium-sized backpack or messenger bag), flexibility matters most.
Few bags provide more flexibility than—or cost as little as—the duffel. For around $30, you can get a malleable carrier that houses about as much as a carry-on suitcase. As a result, size isn't paramount because you can fill a portion of the bag and squeeze it under the seat with little effort. You don't have a lot of room under the seat—bags are supposed to measure no larger than 8"x17"x12"—but because a duffel compresses well, the bag's measurements can exceed those limits without causing a problem. This Adidas duffel bag costs $25 and only exceeds standard underseat bag measurements by a few inches in each dimension. It also offers an outer pocket on one side, providing an optimal temporary storage space for liquids you'll need to remove during security screenings. Most any small-to-medium-sized duffel will do the trick, but bags geared towards sports activities tend to be smaller and flex a bit more than their canvas and leather counterparts.
What you put inside of the bag counts, too. While you can pack arbitrarily with good technique, you lose the advantage of organization. A few inexpensive tools can help solve that problem. First, packing cubes provide structure so you can separate pants from shirts from undergarments. They even work well with technology if you have enough of it. Additionally, mesh bags work well when separating smaller items like toiletries and some travel documents. Utilizing both will keep everything in order and much easier to unpack.
As for your second bag, or "personal item" as the airlines like to call it, read our guide on creating a modular go bag for help with packing a great one.
Learn Efficient Packing and Organization Techniques
Most people fold and pack their clothes into squares, but other packing methods save more space and can even avoid wrinkles. While we could cover a myriad of options, you only need two techniques to fit a lot into your bag: rolling and building a foundation.
First, the rolling method couldn't be more straightforward. You literally take your clothing and roll it up into a tube. In some cases, rolling multiple shirts into one tube can save space. The image to the right demonstrates how many items you can fit into a suitcase with this approach.
Second, you need to build a foundation by packing heavier items at the bottom and lighter items at the top. Whether you've opted to use packing cubes or just dump everything into your bag, heavier items create a foundation at the bottom to reduce movement and can withstand more weight. Lighter items cannot, so putting them at the top keeps them in good form and aids the rolling method in preventing wrinkles. Perhaps these methods seem almost too easy, but you don't have to trust me—flight attendants pack the same way.
Know What You Need (and What You Don't)
Most people don't know what they need to bring on a trip, save packing for the last minute, and end up bringing twice the number of items they actually need. I am, by no means, exempt from this situation. On my last trip, I packed five pairs of pants when I needed only two or three (or, if you're like some crazy people I know, one). Why? They were new and I wanted to wear them. Did I end up wearing them all? Not even close. Packing well allows you a little bit of inefficiency, but many travelers could probably halve the contents of their suitcases. Nobody thinks they can, but a little forethought goes a very long way.
When you pack a bag for a trip, you want the following items:
Everyday clothing (e.g. shirts, pants, underwear, socks)
Weather-specific clothing (e.g. coats, swimsuits, boots)
Toiletries (e.g. toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, cosmetics)
Travel documents (e.g. boarding passes, itineraries, your passport)
Entertainment items (e.g. computer, tablet, books)
While you won't require every example of every category, you'll certainly want a few items in each. Problems occur when you start thinking of everything you pack as "single use" items. With the exception of undergarments, most clothing can survive at least a second day and retain a clean feeling. Jeans last even longer, especially if you can toss them in a freezer overnight. Because travel often feels boring, we feel the desire to pack too many entertainment items. If you start looking at your belongings as a little more versatile, rather than how you may use them in your everyday life, you can save yourself a lot of room in your suitcase. Here are some examples:
Pants: In my book, a pair of pants (or skirts and dresses) have a usage life of 2.5 days. Unless an awful spill occurs, your pants should survive more than one use before washing. If you're traveling for a week, you can wear one pair and pack two. This saves a ton of room in your suitcase and offers three different pant styles for good versatility in your outfit choices.
Shirts: While undershirts and t-shirts tend to get dirty after one day of use, overshirts (especially quality button-downs), sweaters, sweatshirts, and hoodies can last about as long as pants. If you're traveling for a week, wear one and pack three. Save room for more undergarments. If you overpack anything, that's what you'll want to have in case of emergency. You can spot clean an overshirt, but undergarments will leave you feeling dirty unless they're washed after one use.
Technology: If you're bringing your laptop, do you need your tablet? If you just want to relax and don't have work to do, will your tablet do the trick instead of your laptop? Figure out how many devices you actually need. Even if they don't take up a lot of space, chargers do. Choose your entertainment sparingly and choose your options based on battery life. The longer the battery lasts, the more use you'll get out of it. If you actually need to pack a handful of USB gadgets, however, consider creating this seven-port fast charger. It travels well, manges your cables automatically, and helps to ensure you (and probably any of your travel mates) always have a place to plug in.
Toiletries: Travel-sized options cost more, so people often avoid them in favor or larger items. Instead of paying extra for tiny toiletries, just buy empty bottles and containers (from Target or The Container Store, for example). They cost very little and you can reuse them on future trips.
Travel Documents: If you have a smartphone, you can store most of your travel documents there. Obviously you'll still need to carry your passport in some cases, but with an Evernote account you can have fast access to important documents when you need them. For boarding passes, many airlines can text a QR code to your phone. If that's an option, use it. You save paper, a tiny bit of space, and you load up your pass on the way to the gate if you forget.
Books: If you're a fan of paperbacks and hardcovers, you probably don't want an ereader. That said, it will save you a lot of space. If you must take a larger, bulkier library, pick your books frugally. If you're traveling with others, share books so everyone can pack fewer options.
Coats: You can wear your coat on the plane or just lean it against your seat if you don't want to put it in the overhead bin or shove it underneath the seat in front of you. Packing a coat just wastes space, so don't do it.
Suits and formalwear: Apparel of the fancier variety often requires more care and space when packing, and fitting all your luggage into the seat in front of you doesn't really work if you have a lot of it—especially when it comes to suit coats. That said, sometimes you have an alternative option to packing your formalwear: nicely ask a flight attendant when boarding if they can hang it up front for you. Most planes have a place to hang a few items, but they're reserved for first and business class passengers. If you want, you can always fib a little and tell them you need your formal attire for an important job interview and you want to make sure it doesn't wrinkle. If they have room, and you ask them nicely, they may make an exception and store your clothing for you.
Shoes: If you can, pick only one pair of shoes that you can wear throughout the trip. A pair of tennis shoes serve as the most versatile option, but if you need something a little classier you in addition you should pack those. Tennis shoes add the most bulk, so wearing them on the airplane saves space in your bag. If you need to change later you can, but don't pack the bigger shoes even if your tennis shoes aren't a perfect match for your outfit. You'll only wear them on the plane, and nobody will ever see them.
This list doesn't encompass every item you'll ever need or want to pack, but covers the basics. In general, consider what you can use more than once and what items work in multiple situations. You'll find that much of what you want to pack can remain at home.
There Are No Packing Paradigms
You can't have a perfect packing system. You will find yourself in circumstances where everything you need will not fit underneath the seat in front of you. For example, you may move across the country and prefer to take a few items on the plane rather than ship them. You also may not want everything in the seat in front of you because you'd rather put your feet there. The goal of this guide isn't to force as much crap underneath someone else's seat as possible, but rather to provide the option. If you want to avoid checking bags, this is a surefire approach. When you can put a bag in the overhead bin, you should. If you find yourself in a situation where you must pack more, you should do that as well. When you can pack efficiently, however, you'll make your trips much easier. Good preparation makes for better travel.
Images by Vector pro (Shutterstock), Thor Jorgen Udvang (Shutterstock), and me.