Suitcase Packing Tips

Traveling long distances in itself is often very stressful. When you have to pack your suitcase for that, you feel all the more anxious. There are so many things to be packed like clothes, toiletries, shoes and so on. You feel helpless when you would discover in your trip that you have forgotten to pack any of those essential items. You want to ensure that the packed clothes do not get wrinkles. You will hate yourself if you see any liquid spills on your clothes, when you open your suitcase at your destination. All such pitfalls can be avoided, if the right packing technique is followed.

Tips for Packing a Suitcase

There are some suitcase packing techniques that helps to keep clothes and other items in good condition. A few such valuable suitcase packing tips are as follows:

Tips #1
Prepare a list of items that you think you have to pack in your suitcase. A packing list for travel will help you to arrange them in one place, well in advance, and will make packing easier for you besides saving you a lot of time. Another advantage is that it will serve as a checklist while packing for the return trip. Thus you will not miss out any of those things in your hotel room.

Tips #2
Clothes should not be folded as crease marks may appear on them while packed in the suitcase. Rather, rolling them with medium tightness will keep them crease free. You can roll up two or more of the same kind of garments together. Take the trousers, close their buttons and zippers and fold them lengthwise. Now place all of them one over another and roll up. The skirts should packed in the same manner. The arms of shirts, tops and sweaters should be folded at the back first before they are rolled. Keep all these garments next to each other.

Tips #3
Keep the number of shoes, handbags and belts minimum, as they occupy a large amount of space. Take those pair of shoes that can match well with most of the clothes you are carrying. The shoes should be cleaned up thoroughly, before they are packed or else they will badly soil the clothes. Place the shoes at the border of the suitcase, in such a way that the soles touch the lining of the suitcase and not the clothes. If required, you can cover them up with plastic bag to protect the clothes from dirt.

Tips #4
Pack all the essential toiletries like toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, sunscreen, medicines, and other such important things in clear plastic bags with a zip lock. Thus any leaky items will not spill on to your clothes and ruin them.

Tips #5
The clothes and accessories should be arranged in layers. Keep them in the order in which you need them. That means the clothes that you need on the last day of your trip should be kept at the bottom. If your suitcase does not have a separate section for socks and undergarments, keep them at the bottom corner. The laundry bag in which you will put all your dirty clothes should be kept at the top for easy access. The bag containing all the toiletries should be kept below the laundry bag. Fragile items should be kept in between the top layers of clothes, so that they get adequate cushion. The valuables like cash, travelers checks, bank cards, should not be kept together. Keep them in different pockets of the suitcase.

One of the most vital suitcase packing tips is that you should only pack necessary items, in order to keep the weight of the suitcase light. If you stuff them with useless items, you may have to regret later. For air travel, there are permitted weight limits for luggage, which every passenger has to strictly follow. Moreover, it will be tough to close an over packed suitcase after an inspection at the airport.