Perfect Packing: how to make it happen
Love travelling, but hate packing? You’re not alone… Fortunately for you, dear reader, CD Traveller has some handy hints on how to perfect your packing
Make a list
Not to get all Monica (the anally retentive one from Friends) on you but the art of packing, lies in making a list. Work out how many days you’ll be at your destination and write down all the items you’ll need from your driving licence to underwear, medicine etc.
Be ruthless
Less is more. How many pairs of shoes will you really wear on a two week beach holiday? Pack only what you know what you will use and leave the rest at home. The same rule applies to toiletries… if you’re planning on staying in a mid range-expensive hotel room, chances are that the bathroom come kitted out with toiletries. This means you don’t need to pack industrial strength sizes of shampoo and conditioner, or worry about running foul of the airplane liquid rules.
Rolling rules
Forget folding your clothes. Rolling ‘em is the best way to avoid wrinkles. Heavier clothes should be placed at the bottom of the case, with lighter clothes on the top.
Plastic fantastic
Green fiends look away. Plastic bags maybe unethical, but the fact remains that they are a useful resource for travellers. They can prevent toiletries from leaking and can be used to separate your dirty clothes from your clean ones. The message? Keep a stash in your suitcase at all times.
Inspect your suitcase
Speaking of which, don’t leave it until the last minute to get your suitcase down from the attic. Get it down in plenty of time so that should you find any broken or missing parts, you still have time to repair them – or invest in a new suitcase.
Tag time
Make sure to remove all your old luggage tags from your bags. Should your luggage get lost, you want airport officials to be able to send it to where you’re going, not where you have been. Talking of tags, don’t write your home address on your luggage labels unless you want to draw attention to your empty home. The solution? Put your business card in your luggage tag instead.
Wear it!
Worried about the weight allowance (with the exception of BA, most airlines these days only allow customers a meager 20kg and charge heavily for an extra kilos)? Wear your heaviest gear on the plane and free up your precious luggage allowance.
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some more tips…..
If you are taking a lot of stuff, Space bads are amazing! :https://www.spacebag.co.uk/
Put all underwear in your shoes – also saves space!
If someone is dropping you off at the airport, ask them to hold onto any heavy hand luggage, as you can be charged for this, and/or you end up with it in the hold. Once you have your boarding pass, pick it up and proceed with your journey – thay do not seem to give two hoots about it after this point! (Europe only)
Cathrene.
Cathrene, Re your comments on ‘heavy’ hand baggage.
Sorry, cannot agree or endorse your comments here!
We have this year witnessed Ryanair SIZE checking and WEIGHING with a hand held scale at the BOARDING GATE and turning the passenger around to go and check the bag into the hold and PAY 35 euros for the pleasure. (Lanzarote)
Some years ago (Gatwick) passengers were given the opportunity of transferring items to their hold luggage from overweight hand luggage at check-in. In many instances handluggage is no longer weighed at this point so if you are caught your hold luggage is long gone!
All airlines reserve the right to insist on compliance and to get caught out is rarely convenient.
Incidentally I have also witnessed Singapore Air 747 flight doing the same SIZE check at the BOARDING GATE in Brisbane. Too big and it goes no further!
Denis
Another tip, although it contrasts with Cathrene’s idea of rolling clothes, is to put the clothes in on lightweight hangers. This may mean having to travel with a couple of items less, but it makes unpacking so much easier, and very few hotels provide enough hangers to be able to hand clothes up properly without double or triple hanging.
Much the weight allowance of hand luggage seems to be taken up by various chargers and relevant adaptors! USB chargers are not much help if one is not going to have access to a computer, other thanone’s own laptop, which needs charging anyway! Why isn’t it possible to get chargers here with the small lighter european style plug? UK 3-pin square plugs are big and heavy and need adaptors. I recently saw a universal type charger advertised – but it STILL had a UK plug on the end!
I had my cabin case weighed at the security point in Hanoi Airport and sent back as it was above the limit. Fortunately I had a coat with lots of pockets so I stuffed as many heavy things as possible in the coat pockets, but in any case by the time I had done all this and presented myself at the security again the woman had gone so I was not checked again! On a recent BA flight from Barbados my checked in bag was over the limit but the helpful man on the check in told me to distribute the baggage between two bags (fortunately I had an empty soft bag in the case) as the limit was on each case and not the total baggage. I was grateful for this helpful advice but I must admit I don’t understand the logic.
John, I know that one! Leaving Hamburg to England, the hold luggage was over weight. I was told to remove stuff from the luggage, they weighed it, then was told to replace the items and my baggage went through! LOL.
that was Ryanair, BTW