How Packing Cubes Changed Our Travel Editor's Life

For so long, no matter how carefully I layered my clothes, seperated my toiletries, or stacked my shoes in my suitcase or weekend bag, I would arrive at my destination with the polish of a Pan Am flight attendant and not soon after be left with what looked like a minor explosion detonated.

Just trying to find where I had placed a certain tank top in the stratum of clothing looked would result in a complete collapse of the Tetris puzzle. Then I reluctantly decided to try a set of packing cubes that I had been slow to try because I thought they would be one more thing caught in the chaos of my carry-on.

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I have been forever changed. On their maiden voyage they not only kept my clothes from being strewn across a hotel room bed, but also left them in a less wrinkled and more searchable state where I could easily find what I was looking for without digging and rummaging like a crazed honey badger saving me many minutes of steaming and stressing.

My set includes a large one, which I use for dresses, jumpsuits, and jeans; two mediums, one I fill with folded tops and shirts and the other with casual t-shirts, tanks, and shorts; and perhaps the most useful, the two smaller ones, which I use for underpinnings that would always seem to get lost in the fifth dimension of my duffle bag in the past.

But perhaps the best feature, they make packing up and getting out by check-out time, a gosh darn breeze. Before I would question the universe and the laws of physics as to why my suitcase would not zip-up when it did before with the same amount of items. Now, I slide the cubes inside my bag and boom.

While more expensive sets exist, this $20 kit from Amazon is quite nearly identical in construction and machine-washable. They also fit inside each other so you can keep them stored inside your suitcase until you book your next trip.