What You Need and don't need on a Trip

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.
• 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. 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. 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.

Traveling soon? 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 boxers 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.

Learn Efficient Packing and Organization Techniques while traveling

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.

Choose the Right Bag(s) when traveling

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.

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.

How to Fit 2 Weeks Worth of Luggage under the Plane Seat in Front of You

 

Back in the days, 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 less than 5 Thousand Naira. 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 in bags. I've had luggage lost, items stolen, property destroyed, and a myriad of other issues. I’ve 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 few months of practice, I can pack for a two week  trip and fit everything into a tiny space. In subsequent posts, we'll look at how