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Home > Packing > Different Bags
You may only be gone for one night, or weeks at a time. Once you choose the bag that will carry it all, you have to make it all fit. Each kind of bag favors a different kind of packing. These tips will help. Pack smart, and no matter which type of luggage is making the trip with you, your clothes will look as fresh as you do.

Packing a Pullman
The best way to prevent your clothes from wrinkling is to pack them so that the fabric wraps around a curve rather than crease over flat. Many casual garments can be rolled into a cylinder. This also makes them easy to remove from your case without disturbing other garments. Delicate garments can be laid on top of a tee-shirt before rolling. Rolling is also a great way to pack jeans.

Here's another great method: Wrap one garment around the next as you lay them in the case. For example, start with a pair of slacks, laying them flat and centered over the case, allowing the ends to drape over the side. Then lay a sweater sideways over the middle of the slacks. Wrap the ends of the slacks around the sweater, then the arms of the sweater over the ends of the slacks. All the garments will fit snuggly into your case and each will be cushioned by the others. Fill in around the edges with underwear, socks, bathing suits, etc.

Make your shoes work for you. Don't let the space inside travel empty. They can be filled with socks, underwear, lingerie, etc. Unless your luggage has a special shoe pocket, pack them seperately in the case wherever the gaps in clothing permit. The shoes don't care, and it's a lot more space-efficient.

Remember to attach a luggage tag to the outside of your case, but don't make your address visible from the outside. An additional sheet of paper with your name and address should go inside along with your things.



Packing a Carry-On
Be sure to put a few necessities into your carry-on just in case your checked in luggage doesn't complete the trip with you. This includes a change of underwear and any medications you are carrying with you. Strongly consider bringing one or two bottles of water. Recirculated air on board airliners can dehydrate you fast. One frequent traveler we know always carries a photograph of her large rolling pullman case in her carry-on case. It's apparently eased the frustration of claiming a bag from lost luggage more than once.

And you should still label your carry-on on the inside as well as on the exterior luggage tag, even if it is going to be traveling with you. Two similar carry-ons in the overhead compartment can easily end up in the wrong hands when a crowd is trying to depark in a hurry.



Packing a Garment Bag
Garment bags let you leave your clothes right on the hanger, but s are soft-sided and leave your garments vulnerable to crushing and creasing. Common dry cleaning bags can help eliminate a lot of the problem. Hanging one garment over another on a single hanger, with bags separating each layer, will do even better. The plastic lets one fabric slide against another, and provides a little padding, especially since the plastice can trap air between layers. That can make a big difference when the Garment bag is closed, folded, and stored on the plane.

You can expand on this use of plastic dry cleaner bags to form a kind of mannequin effect for each day's outfits. A bag goes over a hanger followed by a tee-shirt. That gets followed by a shirt or dress. Push the arms of the tee-shirt into the arms of the shirt. A vest or suit jacket goes over that collection. Again the arms of the inside garments are pulled into and through the arms of the outer garment. Put a dry cleaning bag over the whole thing and you can organize each days clothing (and unpacking) before you even leave home.

As always, remember to lable your bag on the inside as well as on the exterior luggage tag.



Packing Duffle Bags and Travel Packs
Soft sided duffles are great for expanding around a load. However, they do have thier drawbacks. Duffles and travel packs are usually one big compartment that get packed in one position and carried in another. Things tend to move around inside, and the larger the bag, the more likely it will be that smaller items will become lost in the pile. Finding a rolled pair of black socks inside a black duffle can cause even the most seasoned packer to just dump the whole thing over the bedspread.

The immediate solution to the problem is to roll your garments into cylinders before you pack them. That isn't the most wrinkle-free method ever devised, but if wrinkles are your enemy you should be putting the Duffle aside for a Pullman or Upright case anyway.

The next trick is to make gravity work for you to keep everything in place. Pack heavier items like shoes at the bottom of the duffle, the bottom when it is being carried. Consider buying some mesh laundry bags and dividing up your clothing by type. You can see through the sides of these bags easily enough to grab what you want with ease. Packing your reading material in the outside pockets keeps it accessable, and also forms a semi-stiff outer shell that protects your clothing.

Again, remember to label your bag on the inside as well as on the exterior luggage tag.