General Travel Tips – Living out of a Suitcase

Another question we get a lot is “what was it like living out of a suitcase for nearly 3 months?”  Honestly, it wasn’t that bad because we were organized and didn’t overstuff our bags.

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In the past, my philosophy was that if you could get the bag closed, you were packed just fine…Let future Justin worry about packing for the return trip.  That is not the philosophy you want when moving around a lot (or really ever).

We stayed at 27 different places over the course of our big trip.  That meant packing/unpacking 27 times.  If you are not organized, you will go crazy.  Also, the more spare room you have in your suitcase, the quicker and more stress free packing will be.

One of my favorite things for staying organized is packing cubes.  We used these eBags packing cubes.  I’ll admit that I didn’t really “get” packing cubes when I first read about them, but other people seemed to really like them.  I thankfully ordered some to try because I can’t imagine having done all that travelling without them.

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We each used a multi sized 3 pc set.  I’ve since gone back and ordered more.  Plenty of companies make packing cubes, but I don’t see any reason to spend more money on them than the eBag cubes we have.

My absolute favorite packing accessory is this Eagle Creek Pack-It Garment Sleeve.  I used two on our trip – one in my checked bag and one in my carry-on bag (yes, these fit in the Aeronaut); Alyce had one.  Each sleeve holds 4-6 hanging shirts/pants/jackets/etc.  They have a hanger and hang directly on the closet and fold up in seconds.  They also do a very good job of keeping the clothes wrinkle free.  I now never travel without at least one of these, and we own something like 5 of them.

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If you’re like me, you don’t like shoes rubbing up against your clean stuff.  The Osprey bags we used actually had a shoe compartment, but I Still found these travel shoe bags to be very useful.

It is also important to keep your electronic gear/chords/etc. organized.  It can be very frustrating if you do not.  These mesh storage bags help with that.  You can also keep your loose chords organized with these small or large ties.

One last thing we both had was a hanging dopp/toiletries kit.  I don’t have a link for the exact bags we have (they were a gift from my parents), but they are pretty similar to this one on Amazon.

So to conclude all the packing talk…If you only take one thing from my posts, make it the importance of staying organized when going on a trip with many stops, as well as packing as light as possible.

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