Loving Packing Cubes for Vacay

Have you ever said to yourself, “Why didn’t I invent that?”  With two friends (who love to travel) retiring this year, I found myself reading travel blogs to get some gift ideas for my soon-to-be newly retired gal pals.  One common suggestion in many of the blogs was to use packing cubes.  Checking out reviews led me to words like, “long-lasting, practical, organization, compression, affordable” and sounded like the perfect gift for a new retiree.   

In case you are unfamiliar with packing cubes, they are zippered fabric containers used to organize the items inside your luggage.  Unlike compression bags, they can be used to organize all kinds of gear, not just clothing.  Twenty-something years ago, I created my own version of packing cubes that worked like a charm every time we traveled.  Packing individual outfits in Ziplocks for each day of vacation was an organizational lifesaver for our family.  The kids would each grab a Ziplock and change into their outfit for the day.  Easy Button.  So why not just use Ziplocks?  I decided to see for myself and give the packing cubes a try on a recent mini-trip to San Diego.  

After researching various brands using travel blogs and Amazon, I decided to order the Shacke Pak 5 Set for each of my retiring friends and a set for myself.  The Shacke Pak sets arrived from Amazon in 2 days (yay for free shipping).  My first impression was, “all of my stuff is going to fit in here?”  I began folding, rolling and organizing.  Soon I had a generous array of clothing, shoes and essentials neatly packed into the five cubes ready to be placed in a carry-on for a four day getaway to California.  There are various ways to organize the cubes - by clothing categories, weather, travel outfits - depending on your situation.  The obvious choice for me was to organize by clothing categories, so the five cubes were used for bottoms, tops, dresses, shoes and cosmetics/other.  A fan of carry-on only for mini vacays, my goal was to fill all five cubes, fit them into my carry-on luggage, and use my tote bag for wallet, laptop, book and phone only.  

My evaluation of the packing cubes?  Awesome!  I was able to organize more than enough clothing and essentials for my trip, and use all available space efficiently to allow for plenty of room.  Compared to the Ziplocks I used years ago, they are more durable, larger and makes packing so much easier.  The shape of the cube easily accommodates rolled clothing without wrinkling.  After taking my rolled clothes from the cubes - hardly a wrinkle!  

Check them out - you won’t be disappointed.