Based on your SN, does that mean you come home with more bags than you departed with?

I've been gone since January with only carry-on luggage. Tumi tri-fold carry on with NB minimus running shoes, 2 bathing suits, workout shorts, toiletries, a paris of socks and some odds and ends tucked in the front. 1 sport coat, 6-8 dress shirts and a few pairs of pants and whatever else can be jammed in the main part. A large second carry-on with flip flops, boxers, t-shirts, polo shirts and electronics. Wear jeans, regular shoes and warm jacket on all the flights. Works pretty well. Wash as needed, ship stuff home if you need to. Usually you're packing twice as much stuff as you need. This has kept me properly attired from Tokyo nightclubs to drinking on the river in Laos.

I travel a lot less than I used to (maybe once a month, either accompanying my husband on his business, for leisure, or for my own stuff).

Anyway, even back in the day when I was on the road five-six days a week and saw my home on Saturdays, only to fly out again on Sundays, I was the type to unpack everything in my hotel room. Dirty unmentionables would be placed in the plastic bag from the hotel, to be returned home and placed in the hamper so the housekeeper could deal with them. As suits and other business attire needed dry cleaning, the hotel(s) took care of that, and that got put on the bill. I also (girl problem) had an allowance for hosiery. :rolleyes:

Traveling with my husband, I have noticed that, while I unpack everything, he only unpacks his suits, shirts, and toiletries, leaving everything else in his suitcase. It is definitely a different mindset, but it works for him.

I only unpack toiletries and clothes that will suffer from being squashed. Makes it harder to forget stuff. However it is nice too know that all the chests of drawers in hotels do actually get used.

I have a stuff sack which I use for dirty stuff. Nylon bag with a drawstring neck, I can stuff about 5 days worth of socks/undies and t-shirts in it and it takes up very little space.

I don't ship anything home, but I'm frequently carry-on only on the outbound and checking a bag on the return.

The checked bag contains any 'dirties', most clothing, any 'gear' that is now no longer critical (boots, bike helmet, mask/fins, etc). The carry-on contains anything I've bought during the trip as well as (usually) an extra change of clothes and minimum toiletries just in case there's a hiccup on the way home (delay, cancelled flight, bump opportunity - anything that might require an unanticipated overnight or extended stopover).

I never unpack in a hotel as I'm likely to forget things in a drawer. And when I stay with a friend I unpack everything that's clean into a box right next to my suitcase and move the dirty clothes over to the suitcase as I use it. That keeps everything side by side and easy to find.

Pack-it system from Eagle Creek has changed how I organize myself on travel.

They have shirt holders that hold the main clothes stuff like tops and pants. I'll often put things that will mix and match well with each other if I have more than one Pack-it.

Tubes and Cubes hold socks, sundries and other such things. Socks/Underwear go together for 3-5 days worth of experience per tube/cube.

Pajamas/night clothes get their own small cube, which holds the pajama bottoms, a t-shirt and if needed, some cheap slippers.

Now the trick -- my wife and I co-pack, which means when we travel if a checked bag gets misplaced - we still have what we need until the airline finds the errant suitcase. If we each have 2 shirt/pants packits, and 2 sundry packets, then it's easy to swap 1 for 1 as we pack.

On arrival, you take the pack-its out of your bag and put them on the shelf/drawer/whatever but don't unpack them further.

Used clothing goes into one of those vac-seal bags. It will grow as the other items shrink. usually we have two of these... sundry and normal clothing (or if the normal clothing isn't terribly soiled, just have a 'clean' and 'slightly used' pack-it halfway through the trip.

Everything neatly organized - easy to find (if you purchased multiple colors of pack-its and tubes/cubes instead of a uniform one) and nothing shifts around inside your case.

Thanks for all your good ideas and the links! Keep 'em coming!

Sorry to be a dolt, but do you set your suitcase upright when using this method, in order to stack your clothes/packing cubes? (This might be answered in the links you provided, but I haven't had a chance to look through them yet, will do that this weekend.)

No, not at all. I set the suitcase or duffle bag in the very normal position one would automatically use, flat and not upright.

Like filling a box with books. If you just lay the books in there with the jacket parallel to the bottom of the box, you will have to take out the upper layer of books to get to the lower layer. But if you put the book perpendicular to the bottom of the box, i.e. with the backs facing you, you can not only identify each book instantly but also take any book out at any time and put it back in without disturbing any of the other books.

That's the idea behind what I call "stacking". I admit the word is perhaps not chosen very well because for many people a stack implies a vertical array, as you have also implied.

Maybe I should have called it the bookshelf system? ;)

Till

That information is classified.;)

My husband is an unpacker. I am a live-out-of-suitcase type. I like using zippered lingerie bags to help keep my clothes separate so small things like my socks are easy to locate. I also just use old plastic bags for dirty laundry.

Only if staying in a hotel for more than a week or so. Otherwise I don't bother.

Everywhere I travel laundry is usually very cheap. If not at the hotel, whiten a block from the hotel. That's Asia, Europe may be different but I'm sure the locals don't all have washing machines and aren't all rich so they must be getting their laundry done cheap somewhere without paying $10 for a shirt to be laundered or something.

I travel with 2 sets of clothes plus the ones I'm wearing and have laundry done almost daily. Works for me. When your traveling, you tend to see different people every day so no one ever questions that you are always wearing the same clothes.:D

In Western Europe most people, I'd guess 90% or more) do have their own washing machine. This is why launderettes are rare where you have coin operated machines to do it yourself. Even in a big city like Berlin it will be hard to find one downtown and almost impossible outside. In Paris there are still quite a few because the apartments there are so small there is often no room for a washing machine. Otherwise prices for a shirt are around 3 Euros per shirt. At least that's what I see posted ranging from 2.50 to 3.50. Dry-cleaned pants will be around 6-7. This is a direct function of labor cost being expensive in Europe, cheaper in the US and cheapest in Asia. Here in Austin I can get a shirt laundered and delivered folded or on a hanger for $1.50. That's less than half of the cheapest price I've seen in Europe. I expect it would cost not more than a dollar in India or HK.

Till

My husband is an unpacker. I used to live out of my suitcase, but after 14 years with my husband....I now unpack - even on trips when he's not there:rolleyes: (if I'm in the same hotel more than 2 nights....I do have limites;))

I put my dirty laundry into a hotel plastic bag or one of my packing cubes, if I've used them that trip. Or if I have a suitcase with a built-in laundry bag (my eagle creek rolling duffel has one) I use that.