Packing cubes - the lowdown

[carrie74]

I keep seeing people commenting on using packing cubes, and as I'm always interested in packing tips was wondering how they make your life easier.

Currently, we tend to take 2 large bags on holidays (2 week holidays, 2 adults, a 14YO and 12YO) - half a bag each per person plus fitting in various incidentals. I roll up all clothes and put socks/pants in shoes, try to keep things roughly together (T-shirts, shorts etc). I don't particularly like the idea of packing separate outfits as one, as that's generally not how I choose what to wear each day, most of our clothes are mix and match and will depend on what we're doing each day (sightseeing, pool, indoors, outdoors etc.).

I do like the idea of compression cubes. And I like the idea of everyone having their own colour. In terms of washing, we always stay SC with a washing machine, then I put any dirty clothes in the separate netting in the roof of the suitcase, so I'm already separating clean and dirty clothes.

Will packing cubes revolutionise my holidays?

I wouldn't say revolutionise, but they do make finding things easier. I pack t shirts/shorts/leggings in one cube, underwear in another, tights/socks in the smallest (with random bits like belt/scarf) and my hanging up stuff in the suitcase lid.
I then know exactly where everything is, and if I unpacked into drawers (I don't, have left too many things in hotels) I'd be unpacked easily in one go

They have revolutionized my holidays, but then we rarely stay in one place. If I was just going to a hotel, unpacking and staying for a week or 2, I wouldn't bother, but we tend to move every 3-4 days and it made the world of difference. It makes it easy to find something, rather than scrabbling around in a case looking for it.

We're usually moving around a bit too (this summer we've got 4 nights in one place, then a week somewhere else, and 2 nights somewhere else). For the 2 night stay I'll probably rejig my packing so we're all using one bag, and one can stay closed and unpacked.

I only tend to find them useful if we're moving around a lot, so I can use different cubes for different destinations.

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, compression cubes don't reduce weight so they don't necessarily help you take more stuff.