Thread: Packing tips for traveling

Colleen had suggested I post up on SRP.com some packing tips that I emailed to her...so here they are!
Hope they can be of some help!

(Essentially cut and pasted from the email )

A well traveled friend of mine gave me a unique suggestion for packing pants:

Fold your pants in half along the vertical axis (ie. Along the zipper), put the waist end into the suitcase and keep the legs draped outside the luggage.
Fold the next pair of pants the same way and lay over top the first pair but draped across in the opposite direction. Keep doing this crisscross style for as many pairs of pants as you’re bringing, then place some shirts or other pieces of clothing on top of all the waist portions inside the luggage.
Then take all the legs and fold them into the luggage.

I suppose the rationale for this is that when a piece of clothing is pressed tightly together against itself, it will crease. So you want the clothing to “roll” instead of “fold,” which is why the pants are overlapped on top of each other so it has some kind of cushion to be wrapped around.

Also, she mentioned that for packing T-shirts it is more space saving to roll than to fold.

For dress shirts which need to be folded, if you’re going to fold it like a standard retail store (sleeves behind back, shoulders into center line of back, fold whole shirt in 1/2 or thirds) that paper towels or tissue paper should be placed on top of the back of the shirt (when face down) before folding.
This goes back to the same idea with the pants, where a thicker folding area creates more of a roll than a fold. Not really sure how thick paper towel can get but I suppose it’s better than nothing if you’re short on time and ironing resources.
Then hang up your shirts in the shower, turn on the hot water and steam out the wrinkles.


Another packing style for dress shirts that I think may work better than the above:
Flip the whole shirt inside out (including sleeves), take the shoulder seams (leading to/from the collar) and match them, folding away from the shirt buttons (keep the shirt buttoned up).
Lay it down, fold both the sleeves together towards the body along the armpit seam as much as possible (sleeves will be at an angle).
Then fold the shirt in half or in thirds with the body of the shirt being on the outside and the sleeves on the inside. Keep the collar popped and protect it with the shirt by folding the bottom of the shirt on top of it (for folding in thirds) or if you’re halving, just use the shirt on top to protect the collar from folding/creasing due to movement.

The above was suggested to me by a gentlemen who travels frequently and works in retail.


A couple other pointers I remembered but didn't include in the email:
-Pack the contents of your suitcase tightly. The tighter you make it, the less moving around, less movement = fewer wrinkles & creases.

-Stuff your shoes with socks to keep the shoes from being crushed.

-Roll your belt up

-When packing a suit jacket/blazer/sport coat, it's better to use a suitcase with a dedicated foam roll for suits.
Fold arms along armpit seams and cross them across the front. Fold suit in half/thirds with the foam roll as the guide. Again this is the "roll" vs "fold" technique.
Keep it buttoned up.
Hang up in shower and steam out wrinkles ASAP upon arrival.


Feel free to add to the list!