If you pack your suitcase according to the rules, everything you need will fit in it.
Who knows best how to pack their things – professional travelers, flight attendants, maybe the military? As Lenta.ru notes, the correct answer is the military. They often need to take only the essentials, pack everything with unparalleled neatness, and at any moment be ready to remember exactly where they put their toothbrush, clean underwear, or a grenade. We used their advice as the basis for our instructions.
Repack things many times
Do you know how military personnel manage to fit so much provisions into a small duffel bag? They constantly practice, and this is the main advice to remember when learning extreme packing.
Lay out all the things you plan to take on vacation, open your suitcase, and start. Try different methods – socks in the lower left corner, shirts in the upper right. Repeat in reverse order.
Believe me, after trying five or ten options, you will realize that where your laptop lies in the suitcase matters a lot. We are sure that by the end of the exercise, you will be surprised to find that after packing all your things, there is still free space in the suitcase.
Pack everything in reverse order
When your repacking skills are honed, it's time to move on to more complex exercises. The military advises packing things in the suitcase in reverse order. That is, first we pack what we will use least often, or what we will need later (for example, pajamas or an extra pair of pants).
Accordingly, we pack last what we will need first – a laptop if going on a business trip, or a swimsuit if heading on a beach vacation.
Don't forget about weight
If you are going on vacation with a backpack, remembering the weight of things is almost a top priority. In general terms, the rule is: place the heaviest items in the central part of the backpack, closer to the back. This way your spine will experience less strain.
With some modifications, the rule also works for a suitcase: put medium-weight items at the bottom, the heaviest in the middle, and light items on top.
Roll, fold, and twist
Imagine you are playing Tetris, but instead of blocks, it's your underwear. Socks should be folded into each other, and T-shirts, ties, and belts rolled into cylinders.
The same goes for bulky items – jackets, scarves, or sleeping bags. For outerwear, fold the sleeves inward and zip it up, then roll it into a sausage. This way, you can free up a bit more space.
Build walls out of things
Another packing method worth trying is building a wall out of things. Imagine you are laying a fence. Shoes, cosmetic bags, and electronics are your bricks; T-shirts, jackets, pants are the mortar between them.
Besides saving space, this packing method will allow your things to move less during transport. Once you master this method, you can even check in bottles of wine without fear of them breaking.
Take more socks
When you have more or less mastered all possible packing methods, you should have a little extra space inside the suitcase. Fill it with socks (folded into each other). First, a clean pair will never be superfluous after long walks on vacation; second, without empty spaces, your things won't rattle around in the suitcase during transport.
Replace one bag with several
An important tip for girls: don't put all your eggs in one basket, i.e., all cosmetics in one bag. Buy several small ziplock bags and distribute your shampoos, facial cleansers, and mascara among them. Now you can use them instead of the socks from the previous point – to fill empty space.
Throw away everything unnecessary
The military says that if you doubt for even a second whether you will need an item on a hike, i.e., vacation, then you don't need it. Before packing things in your suitcase, divide them into two piles: in the first, put what you absolutely need; in the second (which should be larger), put what you can do without. First pack items from the first pile, and only then tackle the second.
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