Suitcase Packing Made Easy
By Diane Albright CPO, Organizing Expert and Speaker
June 23rd, 2010
As you leave from home for a trip to you ever have that sick feeling that you forgot to pack something? Instead, wouldn’t it be great to have the confidence that you are leaving home with everything you need?
Do you dread packing? Do you repeatedly go back and forth wasting time gathering items you need as they come to mind?
Our tips below should help cut down on your packing time and provide you with a stress-free vacation.
• Create a packing checklist to use over and over again. Save the list in your computer. Each time it is time to pack, print out the list then cross of the items that don’t pertain to your upcoming and travel and jot down additional items you need. To help you get started, we’ll share our travel packing checklist with you.
• Gather all the clothes that you would like to take and put half back. Keep the clothes that are in the same color families so you can mix and match. Don’t keep browns and blues for example.
• Lay clothing as flat as possible and as full length as possible. Having clothing in dry cleaner bags in a suitcase is a great way to prevent clothes from wrinkling.
• Place the clothing you will need first, on top.
• Divide clothes and other items between different bags in case a piece of luggage gets lost en route.
• Stuff shoes with sunglasses, other items you don’t want to break and electronic items such as cords.
• To prevent shoes from getting other items dirty, place in Ziploc® gallon size bags - especially on the return trip.
• Put items such as brushes that can snag or scratch things in a cloth or Ziploc® bag.
• Put toiletries in Ziploc® bags. If your toiletries are going in a carry on for air travel, prevent getting tied up at security by following the TSA (Transportation Security Administrations) rule of 3-1-1*. Each liquid, gel and aerosol must be in a container of no more than THREE ounces. All liquids, gels and aerosols must be placed in ONE quart size ziptop, clear bag - which makes it easy to pull out and place in the bin to be x-rayed at the security checkpoint. Each passenger may carry on only ONE ziptop, clear bag of liquids, gels and aerosols. Consider putting this bag in an easy to reach part of your carry on such as a zippered pocket. Travel size containers can help with the packing of toiletries. Bed, Bath, and Beyond carries a nice selection of travel size items and containers.
*Medications, baby formula and food, and breast milk are exempt from the 3-1-1 carry on rule in reasonable quantities. You can check out the TSA’s website http://www.tsa.gov/311/index.shtm for the most up to date information.
• Weigh your luggage at home. Don’t wait until you get to the airport, for you certainly don’t want to have to pay a fee or frantically try to move items from one suitcase to another to make the weight requirement. Check with your airline if you are concerned about their specific weight limits for luggage - typically for an economy ticket the weight limit for checked luggage is 50 pounds.
• Before leaving for the airport tie a colored ribbon to your luggage handle or place a large unique sticker on the side(s) of your suitcase. This way as the luggage carousel goes around you’ll be able to easily identify your luggage.
Wishing you packing success!
Tags: luggage tips and tricks, packing checklist, packing list, suitcase packing made easy
