Packing Cubes

Game changer for me when I started - a good few years ago.
Like others, it's not about fitting more in, it's about packing like with like, or at least being able to grab what you need quickly instead of unpacking everything.
I have loads of different brands (I use larger ones to store my summer clothes in the winter) and I recommend having a few shapes and sizes.
I pop my in flight essentials in a small one, and I have a larger one for dirty clothes for the way home. All washed at the end of a trip.

I love them. Its not about efficient packing, I was taught how to do that my military father who took it far too seriously (think stopwatch). For me it's organisational. We often travel with one suitcase for all 4 of us and everything being colour coded/labelled and separate makes a huge difference.

Packing cubes saved us when our suitcases were inspected by customs/airport security.

Also a family member's suitcase split (the zip broke) and thanks to the cubes, it was easily sorted.

Also I use them for work trips - to keep my clothes separate and tidy in my work bag.

I started a thread on these last year. They were brilliant!

Amazon Basics packing cubes are brilliant 🌟

I used to use freezer bags but have found the clothes get less creased in the packing cubes. I am a convert and they make packing so much more organised.

Absolutely they are brilliant. I've been using them for about 8 years. My teens actually find them handy as they don't unpack, just use the cubes. Any will do, I got mine on Amazon.

I use a few cubes to keep things like underwear and swimwear together just to save me rummaging through my case (I don't unpack everything when I get to the hotel because I'm lazy). I haven't used the compression cubes because I fear I might end up with an overweight case and have to repack before I leave.

I've not used compression cubes but I have done lots multi city public transport. I would be concerned about the weight of that many clothes, as compression can't do anything about the weight.

Pack as light as you can. Wash things halfway round. Or sometimes we plan to buy a few new clothes then post the old stuff home. (Never time for clothes shopping in daily life but quite fun in limited doses on holiday)

I love my packing cubes. I'm a dab hand at packing a case and utilising every inch of space but packing cubes make it easy to organise everything.I put tops in one,underwear in another etc. They are certainly very useful if you're on a multi centre trip and living out of a suitcase.The last big trip we did we stayed in 15 different locations over the course of 4 weeks.

Love them for city breaks.
I pack each day's outfits into a different cube.
Chuck in a folded hand held steamer and I'm good to go and don't need to unpack for such a short trip

Love mine, and have converted neat freak DH to them too

it did take me a couple of goes to work out

• you don’t have to put every single thing in a cube
• you don’t have to use every cube on every trip

To prevent creases I roll everything rather than fold, but don’t travel with much stuff that would need serious ironing unless absolutely necessary.

They aren't any better than this.
And in days where every time you shopped, you got a plastic bag it worked just perfectly.
But those days are gone. So you need a version that replaces all the carrier bags. And packing cubes are one such replacement for the old tesco carrier bag.

Yes! I do the same! I use the IKEA freezer bags to pack. I use all sizes from small for to xl which fit entire outfits.

If you use compression packing cubes, don't your clothes end up horribly creased?

I've only ever used the bag type 'cubes' to keep different types of clothes organised - invaluable for underwear. But, I'm due to go on a multi city break abroad for 8 nights and will be using public transport so will have a bit of suitcase lugging to do. I'm hoping to go with a medium suitcase rather than large (no way I'll do 8 nights with a 10kg cabin bag!). So I was wondering if compression packing cubes would help me - but I don't want to look like I've slept in my clothes, nor do I want to spend my holiday ironing.

Yes get some. Cheap ones fine. They aren’t ‘new’, I have been using them at least 20 years.

Advantages.
I can just unpack using them as the storage if needed, if I’m staying at friends or family where no actual storage I can stand them on top of dresser and use as temporary baskets of each category. Same in hotel if just a quick 1-2 night stay. They rarely have space to fully hang or unpack 3 people’s clothes.

I often am packing for 2-3 of us in one bag. Ie if we travel 2 weeks often pack one large suitcase for all our stuff so can use to filter toddler, mine and dh into each. And then often we pack for an overnight stay on route into just a handluggage, so we don’t have to even open main case for 1 night. So can have packing 1 day worth per person, plus electronics separately all in one small bag. On arrival can just put each persons near their bed. So im
not rummaging through whole bag for toddler spare socks.

At airports or security for some trains. If bag gets checked, basics are in small packing bags. So no pants flying around.

I mainly use s or medium size, don’t use L as that’s not the way I pack.

I'm not using packing cubes to fit more in, I'm using them to avoid my suitcase becoming a giant mess.

I'm not a naturally tidy person so they do help a lot with that.

Generally I go with 1x underwear 1x jumpers/vests/leggings/swimwear/cover-up (holiday dependent),1x dresses/outfits. That takes up 1 half of a Ryanair sized suitcase.

The other half doesn't have packing cubes and instead has shoes, goggles, jewellery, chargers, medication, toiletries, hairbrush. I do sometimes wonder if I should get some sort of cube system for that side as well but I haven't thus far.

My mum takes a dry bag for dirty washing, which is a level of organisation I haven't yet risen to.

If I am going away for just a night I can use my biggest packing cube in a normal sized rucksack to segregate it from all my day to day stuff/work stuff which also works quite well.

Mine were cheapo ones from Wilko's, not compression or anything.

Got some in a Kris Kringle year before last. Thought I would never use them. Now i'll never travel without them. Everything is organised perfectly.

Great when you are touring. I use my suitcase full of packing cubes like a cabin trunk. Everything gets put away after it’s been worn and I have one for dirty washing. I can always find anything i want.

I’m a very recent convert to packing cubes, having admittedly “not seen the point” of them previously.

Absolute game changer, and have bought more to convert dh

I can see that they are useful but I'm not sure why they are any better than using lots of different sizes carrier bags that can have a sticker on to identify the contents and be squashed into all the corners of a case or rucksack to pack in as much as possible? Not pretty obviously but doing exactly the same job.

Packing cubes aren’t just about avoiding creases though. They’re about organisation too. After having to empty my suitcase once at airport security, I got some packing cubes. I love them, my very well travelled DDs love them too. I also use them at my destination to organise my dirty washing and when I arrive home instead of the usual pile of laundry I have a pile of cubes organised by washing needs so it’s much quicker to bung it in the washer.

It isn’t (just) about space and filling in every corner. It is about efficiency, especially if you are on a road trip or are staying at a a couple of different places. Arrive, pull out a few packing cubes, unpacking done.

I love my packing cubes! I'm not using them to fit more in my suitcase, I'm good at packing and don't over pack. I use them because they organise things, which makes them easy to find. I'm going away for a couple of nights today, and my case is packed with all underwear in one cube, day outfits in another, swimwear in yet another. I can take things out of my little case without having to rummage (which, if you pack like a PP says, and roll things up and fit them into corners, fill your shoes with jewellery or whatever, you do have to!).

Brilliant too if you have more than one person's stuff in one case (different coloured cubes).

Mine are just Amazon basics ones.