Now for my next dumb question.. (inspired by my husband). If the purpose of this exercise is to keep things together, neat & TSA free, how about if I use my handy-dandy vacum sealer? No, I won't use the expensive bags that are intended for food/freezer, but I could use any other plastic type bag. That machine will definitely get all the air out of the bag.

We buy plastic bags for sealing both food and shipments from this company. www.pacnseal.com They are very nice, a family owned company. We've saved a ton of money. The bags they sell are food safe and so cheap we use them for all sorts of things.