Packing cubes. Useful or waste of time?

[Toddlerteaplease]

Thought I might try them as staying in several different places this year. Are they a help or a hindrance?

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If you’re short on time, here’s a summary of the best packing cubes Mumsnetters are recommending on this thread:

➡️ ELEZAY Hanging Packing Cubes (£30)

➡️ WOWTOY 6PCS Packing Cubes Value Set (£7)

➡️ Eagle Creek Reveal Cube Set (£42)

For more recommendations, check out our guide to the best packing cubes, featuring products that have been tried and tested by Mumsnet users and editors.

MNHQ

How many cubes can u fit in an average size suitcase? I want to be able to have a cube each (4 of us) in each case (3 cases) so 12 altogether. Would 4 of the bigger size be too big?

Basically do they squish down easily?

I love them. I'm a long haul backpacker so I'm often only in each place for a couple of nights or so. All I need to do is take out me cubes as put them on the floor, and they basically act like drawers. When it's time to move on, all I have to do is pop them back in my pack. Takes two minutes.

The alternative used to be burrowing down to the bottom of my pack for what I needed or ending up with everything strewn over the floor, and taking ages to pack again.

I use one for underwear, one for tops, one for trousers/a dress and one for the remaining clothing. I also have one for my gadgets, and a couple of spares for things picked up along the way.

The compression ones are great for clothes. I pack them as normal going out, then use the compression zips to come home, which creates some extra space in my pack for the souvenirs I've bought.

Oh yes, and I have one for my hand luggage (just a small day pack) which had a complete change of clothes in etc, in case my main pack goes awol.

I haven’t used them yet but this year I’ve bought packing cubes in different colours for each family member. I intend to put clothes/ swimwear/ nightwear for each day into each cube and then put one of each colour into each suitcase so if a case goes missing it isn’t such a big deal. I’m also going on a multi-location holiday later this year so I think the cubes will make things much easier for this, and I’ll put one in my hand luggage for my overnight stop while travelling. I’m going to get some cheap luggage tags to label them as mentioned earlier in the thread, so I know which cube is for which location. I can’t wait to pack now!

I agree as do a lot of "seasoned travellers". If people learn to pack efficiently you can get a lot more in, without creasing, if you don't use cubes. And you can slip a few bin bags in for wrapping dirty things in (shoes, worn clothes etc) to keep things separate.

I disagree. I've been traveling for more than four decades now, and I've been able to fit far more into my backpack (or my cabin suitcase on short haul trips) since the advent of packing cubes - especially the compression ones That's the second best thing about them (behind the simplicity of unpacking and packing every couple of days). The secret is to get the right sizes to make the most of the dimensions of your bag. That can be tricky as many are only sold in mixed size sets, but it's doable.

I have always organised my packing in reusable plastic carrier bags, even when I was backpacking as a teen. Then I progressed to using laundry mesh bags with zips (they come in different sizes and are great for undies, socks, dirty clothes)and are super cheap besides being dual use. So of course I have packing cubes now but they are not strictly necessary tbh. There are already things around the house you can use.

I also disagree. I regularly travel for work with a set cabin small suitcase and I literally take the same things for a 4 day trip each time, exact same outfits, numbe rof pans, socks, washbag etc. Last week I couldn't find the suitcase that had all the packing cubes in and packed without them and my case was way more crammed than it is with the packing cubes and it was a struggle to do it up, no room for bringing back sweets for the kids etc. I use normal ones, not compression ones, but they do definitely compress, say, a stack of trousers or tops way more than if you put them in without.

I am not a light packer though, maybe its only people like me who like to take lots that fell the benefit.

The name annoys me they are not cubes.

Unless you have the compression ones how is it different to using cloth bags.

To some on here, it seems that packing is like a military campaign! Relax folks, the trick I found for myself is that NOTHING I bring anywhere requires ironing (or at home either!), so it doesn't matter what or how I squash things in, they come out of the magician's bag like new.

We buy eagle creek - expensive but very light. Some other brands can be quite heavy.

We find them really handy for our campervsn but o ly bought the cheap ones so far need to find a good compression one for longer holidays!

Then you're not using them right!!!
At your destination, just unzip the cubes and place them in the drawers / open shelves. If you’ve rolled up your clothes, you can easily see whats in there. You definitely can’t fit more in the suitcase without them if you use compression cubes.

So useful! We were away for 3 weeks laat year and our hotel room had shelves but no drawers

I just put the cubes on the shelves. We each have a colour so it meant I could just throw DS his undies / socks cube and his t-shirts / shorts cube and he could choose his own

Kept everything neat and tidy rather than having to ransack the shelves every day!

You dont need big ones - in fact, smaller ones are better for organising clothes. I put underwear in one small one, swimwear in another, tops another, shorts / jeans another and dresses in another. None of them are bigger than 12” long.

I like them, I went away for 5/6 weeks last year and found they were great way of packing.

I tend to take shorts, jeans, skirt and a few tops to go with them - so would pack each cube for 3/4 days with underwear and outfits probably one skirt, one shorts and 3 tops. That way I could just take one cube out and the rest all stayed neat in my case

We use them in the caravan as the cupboards are quite small and clothes drop out if they are loose, it makes it very easy to find things

Had mine years and utterly brilliant.

Last year DH bought another set for him to use, this is high praise if he thought they weren't 100% useful

I haven’t used packing cubes, but for years I’ve used vacuum pack bags (not vacuumed though) for packing. Keeps everything orderly in the suitcase especially if the kids stuff is going in with mine. I might try packing cubes though this year.

I’m going to take a vacuum bag for dirty clothes as mentioned above - that is a great idea.

Because they're a neat, squared off shape with straight sides. So folded clothing fits in them in neat piles, and you can jigsaw and stack the cubes into your case and easily see what's where when you open the lid (especially if you buy the mesh typed ones).

...And when you take then out of the case, because of those straight sides, they're basically little drawers that keep your things tidy.

Yes, I love mine. I also use them to store out of season clothes on the top shelf of my wardrobe.

Game changer. We particularly like to use to put our first night clothes together so easy to grab without full unpack if we arrive late. We do this for last day of holiday too once everything else is packed we keep 1 cube out. We prefer those with handles as sometimes just lob them in car without suitcase for UK hols. We also like eagle creek wet/dry packing case to put our dirty clothes in or our wet swimwear on last day of holiday if not dry when we leave - although obviously a plastic bag suffices here too!