Many people ask the best way for using packing cubes. Maybe because they have just purchased packing cubes or maybe because they are still wondering how they make packing so much better.
Let’s first look at Packing Cube features and what they offer:
Mesh or Solid
Mesh cubes can be great because you can easily see what is inside them. If you use the roll method then you can see the whole contents of a cube at one time making it easy to work your way through your clothes during your holiday.
Solid cubes are harder to see what’s in them but they are better for keeping dirty clothes away from clean ones. Once you’ve decided a clothing item is ready for the laundry, you don’t need to see it anymore.
There are some cubes that have both: a mesh side and a solid side. With those cubes, you can migrate clothes from one side to the other as you wear them.
Different Sizes
It’s handy to have different sized cubes because:
- It makes packing your suitcase easier if you can arrange the different sizes to suit your luggage;
- You can put different sized clothing items in a cube that suits; and
- If you store like-clothes together then you’ll always find you take more of some items than others so the different sized cubes make it perfect for organising.
Colours can be good
When taking young kids along you’ll often find that they end up sharing a suitcase either with their sibling or with a parent. Using packing cubes that are coloured makes it easy to keep each person’s clothes together. Even if cubes get unpacked in your hotel, it’s still nice you know which ones belong to which traveller.
And, it’s always nice to have cubes that colour-match to your luggage, or just to your personality.
Water Resistance
Solid cubes that are water-resistant can be great for keeping damp clothes away from your dry clothes. It’s still advisable to get fully waterproof bags for very wet clothes but at least a water-resistant cube will handle clothes that get damp from light rain.
The Roll Method
For items such as shirts, if you roll them up then insert them into a cube side-by-side then it’s easy to see each of the clothing items. If you use mesh cubes you can even see without opening the cube. The rolling action also keeps clothes relatively un-creased and it compacts them down fairly densely.
Using Packing Cubes
Here are some tips to get the best from packing cubes:
- Put fresh clothes in mesh bags and save solid bags for laundry
- Put like-clothes together and use the best size that suits each type of clothing
- Roll clothes before putting in cubes so that you can easily see all the clothes in a cube
- Make use of colours by keeping each person's clothes in a like colour.