I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m VERY set in my ways. Change comes hard for me; it always has. So when people have mentioned packing cubes to me over the years, and said how they made their travel so much easier, I always poo-pooed them.
I mean, I’ve been packing my own suitcase for a whole lot of decades. Since I’m so little (4’6″), the way I pack my clothes is probably slightly different from most people, because I can fit more clothes into a smaller space. My system works for me, so why mess with it?
But I wound up with a set of packing cubes from a friend who was no longer using them, so on a whim, I decided to give them a try during our week-long trip to New Braunfels, TX.
I get the impression there are a bajillion recommended ways to pack things in packing cubes but I didn’t look up any of them; I just did them in a way that seemed right.
The cubes were a set of 8 that fit inside each other and therefore got progressively smaller. I put my shirts in the 2 larger ones, shorts in the 3rd largest, underclothing in the 4th, and socks in the 5th largest.
We stayed in 2 hotels during the trip.
The first one was “our” Candlewood Suites. We’ve stayed there many times in the past (although we’re not going to stay there anymore) and because this visit was relatively short (just 3 nights), we pretty much just lived out of our suitcases for clothing changes, rather than unpack and put stuff in drawers.
You guys, it was SO EASY to use the packing cubes for that part of the stay – I just put them on the bed every day, picked out what I was going to wear, and put them back into my luggage.
We also spent 5 nights at the Courtyard by Marriott in New Braunfels. With that many nights, we felt more comfortable unpacking our bags and putting our stuff into drawers (this Courtyard by Marriott might not know what counts at housekeeping right now, but unlike some other hotels, they at least still have dressers in their guest rooms).
I was able to transfer everything from the packing cubes into my dresser drawers in about 3 seconds flat. And THEN I started using the packing cubes as temporary hampers, dividing all my dirty clothes into whites, mediums and darks. So when I got home, they were already pre-divided when I went to put them into laundry piles.
So am I packing cube convert? You bet I am! I still don’t think they necessarily save any space – a piece of clothing takes up the same amount of space no matter how you fold it, roll it, ball it up, or put it into a packing cube. But from an organizational point of view, they definitely make things so much easier!
Next up, I will start Googling the different ways I can use packing cubes, so maybe they can be even more efficient for me.
And for all of you who suggested packing cubes? You were right. My bad and I’m sorry.
Feature Photo: Amazon
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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