Packing can be quite a chore, especially if you’re traveling for weeks and months at a time, as I often am. As I was packing for my wedding and winter trips, I thought it may be helpful to share some of my go-to packing and luggage items that make my life easier. I find it very important to stay organized to reduce stress while packing and traveling. I try to organize my suitcase by item or outfit, but that organization can quickly come undone among all of the unpacking and packing that happens during extended travel. Because of this, I treasure luggage and packing tools that make it easy for me to stay organized and find exactly what I need when I need it.
For my checked bags I always prefer a hard-shell suitcase, we all know our bags can get banged up once they’re out of our hands at the airport, the hard-shell is extra security- keeping my belongings intact. I love Calpak suitcases because of their protective shell and locking system, but also because they have a great organizational system inside, with several different pockets and dividers. Jen Atkin recently came out with her own Calpak design and it made packing for my wedding so much easier. For something similar at a lower price point Target has similar designs by Swissgear, Skyline, and Designlovefest.
Along with my suitcase I use Calpak’s packing cubes to keep all my like-things together and organized. That way I know exactly where to look for specific items throughout my entire trip and I can be less concerned with misplacing things. When I’m traveling for an extended period, I will also use Ziploc’s Space Bags in their travel sizes. These come in handy when I have to travel to several different locations back to back. Items or outfits I won’t need until later in my trip I can pack away without taking up a great amount of space and what I take out of the Space Bags can be replaced with clothes I’m no longer using and sealed back up.
The last set of items I use while packing are to keep my clothes clean; two affordable items that are helpful and worth the investment are shoe bags and a bag for dirty laundry. These allow you to keep all of your things together in one bag without worrying about your clean clothes getting dirtied by shoes or dirty laundry.
Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to packing, whether it’s rolling your clothes or folding them flat. But no matter your preference, I’d recommend all of these packing items to stay organized and reduce stress when traveling.
What do you think?