Did you know that according to a research conducted in 2019, 65% of Brits are not packing their luggage efficiently? By maximising the space and minimising the weight of your suitcase, and knowing how to pack a suitcase efficiently, you can significantly reduce the amount of stress you face when travelling and have a perfect holiday experience.
It all starts with picking up what you need and what you want, and we are here to make the most of that situation by giving you some tips on how to pack a suitcase.
In this article, you will discover expert advice on how to pack your luggage efficiently to ensure you save time and effort while travelling.
Tips on how to pack a suitcase and what to take on holiday!
To experience the ideal holiday, don’t forget to start from the basics. That’s right, this time we’re going from scratch on how to pack a suitcase for a perfect holiday. Ready to pack up?
We’ve got the best suitcase packing tips for you on what to pack when going on holiday and how to pack a suitcase.
We’ve filtered the tips for you here, choose according to your convenience and start planning!
- Choosing the right luggage
- Using packing cubes
- Essentials to pack
- The rules of packing shoes
- Multi-purpose items to choose
- Tips to packing clothes
- Packing for a family trip
- Unused space for travel-sized items
- Size chart for luggage
1. Choosing the right luggage
Before we start packing up, choosing the right luggage stands as an essential part. By not selecting the correct bag, you can end up not having enough space for your belongings, so we’re going to do this the right way!
Get yourself a hard suitcase to help store things in place, and you can easily stuff in packing cubes that don’t mess up your clothes.
If you are stuck between whether to take a travel backpack or a suitcase, don’t worry, we have an answer to that as well.
For journeys that involve moving around on high-quality surfaces like airports when travelling between countries, then going for a suitcase would be perfect for you. But if you are going to get adventurous and stumble between muddy trails and cobblestone streets, then a backpack would do.
Here are some of the travel bags to consider –
- Wheeled backpack
- Rolling duffel bags
- Travel tote
- Hard side bags with spinner wheels
- Travel backpack
Have you figured out what your pouches for travel are?
2. Using packing cubes
This is your packing plan saver right here!
If you are wondering how to properly pack a suitcase without messing up your clothes and keeping them wrinkle-free and without wasting any space in between, Packing cubes help you fill more, and their convenient shape doesn’t allow you to leave any unused room.
Pro tip – Label your packing cubes with the type of clothing you are going to load it up with, and in that case, you know exactly where to look when struggling upon finding a set of clothing.
If you are travelling in a suitcase, packing cubes are highly recommended!
And these are not just for clothes; you can find packing cubes for your tech stuff as well. Keep your power bank, chargers and cords safe in these speciality packing cubes.
3. Essentials to pack
On the list of things you need on holiday, we have some things that cannot be crossed out.
While packing clothes, shoes and accessories, don’t forget the essentials.
Other than the travel documents and travel money, we have a lot more going on that you should keep close to you as you fly. When packing your pouches for travel, these essentials are a must to stack.
The best way to remember the list of the items to pack would be to make a list of everything to take. Jot everything down to tick it off while you pack everything up.
When we learn how to efficiently pack a suitcase, we also learn to keep these essentials close to us –
- Face towels
- Sunscreen and moisturiser
- Travel first aid kit
- Multi-purpose items
- Waterproof jacket or lightweight jacket (according to the destination)
- Extra bag for laundry
- Sleep kit for longer flights
- Plug adapters
- Extra socks
If you are travelling with kids, of course, there are more things than usual, including extra clothes, nappies and extra snacks. But normally, the list of essentials depends on the type of destination you are flying to.
If it’s a winter holiday, you might consider the lightweight jackets and winter sports gear for a starter and if you want to know a detailed list to start packing, check it out HERE.
And if it’s a beach holiday, make sure to grab beach towels, slippers and hats in your beach bag.
Are you ready with your essentials packed up?
4. The rules of packing shoes
The shoes you carry stay on top of the important things you need on holiday; If you wonder what kind of shoes to take that will be useful for multiple occasions, we’re going to help you with the perfect suitcase packing ideas for your shoes.
Keep heels aside and choose a nice sandal if you’re out exploring by the day with a lot of walking included and, in the night, if you are to hit the restaurant or bar. It’s the perfect choice for a lively day!
If you are planning for long walks on the adventurous side, you can consider taking sneakers.
Oh, and don’t forget to use resealable bags when packing shoes to avoid dirt from messing up your clean clothes.
But how to efficiently pack a suitcase when it comes to shoes? We think two different kinds of shoes that suit multiple occasions are more than enough.
Pro tip – Always wear your heaviest and bulkiest pair on the flight so that you can save the space in the suitcase for something else.
5. Multi-purpose items to choose
As much as we love going on holiday, we don’t enjoy the process of packing up.
how to pack a suitcase and avoid unnecessary clutter?
All hail the multi-purpose stuff we can carry to show how to efficiently pack a suitcase for our family and friends.
We’re here to help you with multi-purpose items to help you save some space on that suitcase and only carry what you need.
Bringing you all the things you need on holiday that save you from carrying a load of stuff.
Girly update alert! If you’re here thinking about how to pack a suitcase with all of those makeup kits and skincare products, find the products that do multiple works. Multipurpose makeup like BB cream, brown pencils and highlighters can work so many wonders.
If you are all sorted on how to pack a suitcase with multi-purpose items, here are some things you can carry with you!
The trail guide compass watch works as an alarm, compass, thermometer, altimeter and even a timer.
You can wear a bandana! This doesn’t have to go into your suitcase packing, you can wear it while travelling and then it can work as a band to cover your neck from the sunlight or even tie any items together. When you forget things in a hurry, it is alright to look for alternative ways to fix the situation.
Some of the best things to grab are –
- Coconut oil – This versatile oil works as a moisturiser, lip balm, sunburn relief, leave-in hair conditioner and many more.
- Sunscreen and face moisturiser – Find the moisturiser that also works like sunscreen, so we’re saving the spacing of bottles and tubes that fill up your suitcase.
- Sarong – This is come in handy in so many ways! From wrapping them around your waist to tying them into a summer dress (you can watch some super easy tutorials on this.) Not just to use as a clothing accessory but also as a picnic blanket or a shade to tie between trees.
Along with snap-lock bags and safety pins that make their way into the list.
6. Tips to packing clothes
When packing bags for clothes, make sure to choose the fabric that can be used more than once. Narrow down your must-haves! Our suggestion would be going for lightweight multi-purpose clothes like crop T-shirts, dresses and regular T-shirts.
Pro tip – When packaging bags for clothes, don’t forget that you can mix and match crop tops and dresses to make them look like a completely new outfit!
Don’t forget to choose neutral colours and always pack a sarong, just in case you spot a temple or a mosque to explore; it would come in handy to cover yourself.
If feeling creative is going to take up a lot of space when suitcase packing, try outfit planning.
Just like you figure out what specific clothing you wear on a daily basis when you are thinking about how to pack a suitcase efficiently,
plan out an outfit for each day and only carry those.
So finally when you unpack, you have an outfit ready to wear. Now this saves you a lot of time as well.
When you’ve chosen the perfect clothes that don’t take much space, use packing cubes. But always roll your clothes when arranging to get more space in between to stack more.
If you are wondering how to pack a suitcase efficiently with travel cubes, keep the rolling method in mind.
All the things you need to take on holiday can be arranged on the travel cubes and not just when leaving for the holiday but it also helps with separating dirty clothes while coming back home.
Travel cubes make suitcase packing easy to take out stuff too, would you try it out?
Just so you get to squeeze in some sunhats, scarfs and belts.
If you are wondering how to pack a suitcase with some heavy clothes like pants and long sleeves, always keep them over the soft clothes to avoid the inconvenience of taking more space.
Are you ready to get dressed up for pictures?
7. Packing for a family trip
First thing, this might seem like a stressful task to do, but if you really look into it, that’s all about cracking up a code of just adding some essentials that will keep you out of problematic situations.
how to pack a suitcase efficiently avoiding inconvenience?
Getting into the part of how to properly pack a suitcase when travelling with family, from the basics for the whole family to the extras you carry for the kids, it’s all an easy list you can follow.
Make a note and tick them off when arranging it in your suitcase!
Let’s start with the first aid kit with suitable medications, bad weather outfits and extra face masks. These are some things you cannot leave back when travelling with your family and just don’t want to take any risks.
These are some essentials to jot down –
- Refillable water bottles
- Hats and sunglasses
- Plug converter
- Inflatable neck rest
- Off- and online entertainment
Coming to the part where we keep kids entertained and involved in the holiday, it’s always best to carry snacks, zip lock bags for half-eaten food and colouring books in a place where you can easily reach them.
If your kids prefer carrying backpacks, you can take full advantage of them with their snacks and toys ( we recommend not over-filling the backpacks to be heavy.)
Sometimes when going on a family holiday, the things you need on holiday might seem like a big list.
Depending on the season you are travelling in, wearing bulky items instead of packing them always seems like a great idea when stumbling on how to efficiently pack a suitcase.
Family holidays hold a myth of being stressful, but would we harden that shell with rock-hard suitcases?
When you are travelling with people of all ages, choose soft-sided suitcases.
Use packing cubes to separate spare clothes for both kids and parents to grab in case of an emergency.
Pro tip – Some pouches for travel that are convenient for kids are backpacks! Fill it up with snacks and your kid’s favourite toys.
8. Unused space for extras
Having trouble on how to pack a suitcase when you carry skincare and haircare products?
If you think about carrying your half-used shampoo and body wash bottles, think again as they use up space you can actually use for something important. We recommend getting mini silicone bottles to fill up any hair care products you have and keeping them in easy reach.
Or we also recommend using toiletry capsules when struggling with how to pack a suitcase efficiently.
The labels are customizable and it’s leak-proof too! Before you let anything unwanted take up the space, these are the things you need on holiday when it comes to convenience.
If you have unused space between your stacked up clothes, fill it up with your mini jewellery boxes and maybe extra socks, you will always need extra socks!
Also, If you don’t want to use the extra space for jewellery, wrap them up and put them inside your shoes! We all know shoes take some major space; why not make use of it?
9. Size chart for luggage
Before you check how to pack a suitcase efficiently, check on the carry-on luggage size chart of the airlines you are travelling with and take your luggage accordingly. Before adding extra luggage and after, there will always be a dimension to follow; take a look and pack up according to your size chart.
Our list of tips on how to pack a suitcase and what to take is guaranteed to help you out when getting ready to hit the flight, have a doubt? Try it out when you plan your next holiday with us! Are you ready to fill your suitcases up?
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