How to pack more wrinkle free clothes into a small space
Are you still folding your clothes into your suitcase? How old school.
How inefficient. How time consuming when you take out your wrinkled mess of an outfit, complete with plenty of deep fold creases. And, the outfit parts and pieces you finally found? It came together only after unpacking everything else in the top layers of your suitcase right?
Unfortunately, I just learned about rolling last year. No wonder the packing process – and unpacking, and repacking – was such a nightmare.
Apparently the military has always known this and consider the rolling of their clothes a near art form. If you don’t believe me just watch the steps for rolling a shirt into the perfect burrito. Of course, it’s not perfection you’re after…it’s the concept.
How to roll and pack your clothes properly
- Start with a staging area where you lay out everything you need for your trip.
- Throw in a couple of extra plastic bags for dirty laundry or who knows what later. They won’t take any extra room.
- Assess your clothing and make hard choices. Pick your favorites. Try to leave out the “just in case” extra type clothes. When traveling, chances are very good you’ll be much more preoccupied with your adventures than what you’re wearing on any given day. You will probably find something perfect to wear a time or two or few. (You won’t see some of these people again right?)
- Remember item 3) especially if you’re planning to jump around. You’ll thank yourself for cutting down on your workload and not having too much to repack at every stop. You also won’t curse those extra three shirts that are not getting worn.
- Roll your clothes. Practice on the length of your clothes’ burritos until you find the perfect combination of burrito sizes.
- Pack in the priority of largest, bulkiest items in the middle.
- Thin items like t-shirts get filled in around bulky items. Small items like sock balls can go into the outer edges and fill in every weird nook and cranny.
- Make sure you think about what’s most important to find first. Shorts and a t-shirt with a morning arrival in hot weather? Your pajamas for a late night arrival?
Rolling your clothes has advantages.
- You can usually fit more items.
- Your clothes don’t have creases.
- You can find things easier because the “burritos” are more visible than the layers.
- You will have officially mastered the new trend and life changing magic of Tidying Up. Or, the very old trend of military style organization.
It’s also perfectly okay, and time efficient, to simply throw all your items in a suitcase in random wads. If you feel like it. This is especially true if you’re heading home. You may have to utilize the delicate art of sitting, smashing and zipping your suitcase. No matter how you roll on a certain day, you’ll know the difference between perfect organization or a lovely mess.
It’s all good.