Top Packing Tips For Travelling Light This Summer

1. Size Matters

The importance of the size of your weekend bag cannot be stressed enough, because at the end of the day (or more likely, throughout the entirety of the trip) you will be the one carrying it. It’s always nice to have a large roomy bag that can fit every item you need – and all the ‘could possibly need’ items – but said items do have a real tendency to behave like gas in Kinetic Molecular Theory: they expand to fit the available space! So, if the aim is to travel light, choose the smallest bag you think you can survive with and edit your clothing choices down to what will fit in it.

If flying, keeping within cabin baggage dimensions has to be the hold grail – no queuing at the carousel or worse still, lost luggage. Soft bags can cheat the system a little here – much easier to squish into both those unforgiving measuring frames and the overhead lockers.

Of course, if you plan to do some serious holiday shopping, you will either need a bigger bag with a lot of space left inside, or a second bag packed inside the first for the outward trip (an easy trick to pull with our Explorer bags). 

2. Lay It Out First

To pack like a pro, you need to see the whole lot before it goes in the bag and assess everything for travel rights before it makes the cut. Simply lay the whole wish list out on a bed and stand back to make a frank assessment. This usually brings forth a pile of ten favourite tee shirts all vying for space in the bag – that could be a few too many if your trip is only four days…

3. Choose Carefully

Consider your likely activities and go for items that can serve in more than one situation. Choose coordinating pieces, so you can mix and match to put different outfits together – a neutral palette across the board with just a few key items or accessories for colour accent is a good plan. And select forgiving, fairly crease-proof fabrics – who wants to do the ironing on holiday?

Shoes – you never need as many as you think… choose them and then lose at least one of those pairs and leave them behind.

4. Fold and Roll

Any practised backpacker will tell you that the most efficient way to pack to maximise the use of space and minimise creasing is the fold-and-roll. So, having edited down your wish list to the bare minimum, use this trick to help them make the trip in the best shape. Take it a step further and add selected stuffing – socks and ties into shoes and shoes into shoe bags to keep them off your clothes. Fold any tailored jackets inside out with the arms inside the body of the jacket, which will protect the jacket from creases.

And just like the supermarket shopping – place heavier, robust items at the bottom of the bag and the more delicate, lighter items at the top (after all, no one wants their favourite shirt emulating squashed salad).

5. Extra Pro Tips

Manage in miniature – little versions of all your favourite bathroom and cosmetic essentials are your friends for staying under the 100ml limit, or invest in a set of travel bottles to decant into.

Keep travel documents and currency in a dedicated pouch – our large zip pouch is perfect for this.

On your return – this is the best time to make a note of what you learnt. Especially if packing for a family, write a list of all the things that you remembered and found useful on your trip, then add any things you forgot and would want to remember next time. By the time the next trip comes around, these things will be lost in time, but hopefully, your list won’t be.

And Finally… 

Make sure your bag itself doesn’t become the villain of the piece. No-one wants a bag that splits, breaks or is just difficult to move with. Our travel bags all have slip pockets, reinforced handles and strong zips, so you won’t have to worry about your bag opening at inconvenient times, or your handle breaking when you decide to pack a little too much. It’s important to us that your bag becomes a faithful friend, always ready for any adventure you have planned.