5 Reasons Why We

Always Travel

with Packing Cubes

The first time I ever heard of packing cubes I thought it sounded like something from the space age.  I was packing for a 10-day trip to Italy with girlfriends and someone suggested these cubes as a way to squeeze more stuff into our suitcases. I had to know more.  The idea of cramming in extra jeans, scarves and shoes within the same amount of space delighted me to no end. 

Well, it worked, but for many reasons other than that first attention-getting promise. What I didn’t know then, was that packing cubes would revolutionize the way I packed for family travel as well. 

Now we always travel with packing cubes!

Each person in our family has their own color and I have become a complete packing cube evangelist.  Is it possible to love fabric and a zipper as much as I do? 

 

1. You Can Squeeze More In
Okay, so first let’s start here.  After all, it’s what got me interested in the first place.  It’s true.  Packing cubes will allow you to squeeze more into the same amount of space.  Personally, I like to roll our clothing into little sausage shapes.  This helps with the wrinkles, but I also think these sausage shapes can more easily fit inside the cubes.  To get the most out of the space, really squeeze them into the corners of the cube.  I must mention here, that while the space may be the same, the weight is not.  If you’re packing more clothes, it’s going to weigh more,  plain and simple.  So keep that in mind if you’re checking bags and weight matters.   

Lots of stuff here - will it all fit?
It sure did!
Roll into little sausage shapes to maximize space and cut down on wrinkles

2. Color Coordinate for Each Family Member
Whether you’re sharing suitcases and duffel bags or not, getting everyone’s stuff mixed up can easily happen when traveling as a family.  In our family, we have purchased a different color set of cubes for each person.  I have found the 3-pack sets to be the most convenient.  I will usually put jeans, shirts and sweaters in the larger size, swimsuits and pajamas in the middle size and socks and underwear in the smallest size.  

3. Unpack with Ease
I love that when we arrive at a destination, unpacking is a snap.  Packing cubes easily fit in drawers.  Simply unzip them, fold the top portion back, place in a drawer and you’re unpacked!  Before packing cubes, I would have opted to NOT unpack if just staying at a place for two or three nights.  But with packing cubes, it’s really no trouble.  And when we’re getting ready to leave, packing up is just as easy.  We just zip the cubes back up and place them back in our suitcases.

4. Separate Items for Different Events
I have also found packing cubes to be very helpful for separating items for different events.  Here’s what I mean:  On a recent trip to Europe, we needed clothes to wear to see the Vienna Boys’ Choir and also a stage production in Budapest.  I didn’t want these special clothes that were meant for these two dress-up events to get mixed in with all our other things.  After all, they would just be in the way and risk getting dirty or wrinkled before we needed them.  So I placed everyone’s clothes for these events in a single packing cube of their own.  I kept this cube in our suitcase, never unpacking it, until we needed it.  It was so convenient to have these items set aside and ready for when we needed them.  The same was true for a road trip we took heading up the California coast this year.  Most days we just needed regular clothes to wear… t-shirts, shorts, etc.  But on one of our days we were heading out to the Channel Islands National Park where wet suits, water shoes, etc. were needed.  It was so nice to place these items in a packing cube of their own and set it aside until we needed it.

5. Laundry Bag
As the trip progresses, accumulating laundry is a reality.  As soon as we have laundry (usually one or two nights into a trip), I switch out one of our packing cubes to become “the laundry bag” and start adding to it.  Everyone’s laundry goes together.  As our trip continues we end up with more laundry bags and less fresh clothes bags.  When we get home, it’s so easy to open these “laundry bags” and separate according to color and then wash.  Even the packing cubes can be washed.  And because the packing cubes are partially made of mesh and can breathe, there’s never a chance of mildew or mold.

So now you know why I love packing cubes so much!  They have so many practical applications and have made packing and traveling for our family so much easier. 

Looking for more tips to simplify packing for your family? Check out Five Tips to Simplify Trip Preparations.

Below are some Amazon links with the bags that we currently own.  This is not a sponsored post, but I will get a portion of the sale if you decide to click through and purchase.  You'll notice with the links below that I'm not partial to a particular brand.  I have several different brands and have found them all the be equally reliable.  If ordering from Amazon, just read reviewers' comments to make sure.

Have I missed anything? If you use packing cubes, what are your reasons why?