Table of Contents
Crazy but true: sometimes it costs more to carry a suitcase on a plane than the seat itself. And with airline baggage fees constantly rising, it’s never been more important to pack well and pack light.
Unfortunately, this is not something that comes naturally to all of us. I always carry more than I need and live in fear of airport scales. That’s why I make an emergency call to an expert and ask him to teach me how to prepare my carry-on luggage for a weekend getaway to Barcelona.
Into my life comes Karen Powell, dragging her rolling suitcase behind her as she promises to help me create more space.
She is known professionally as The Organizing Lady and has been packing other people’s ‘nick nicks’ (her words not mine) for 25 years. She takes one look at the swimsuits, shorts, and sunscreen spilling out of my Antler suitcase and realizes that she has her work cut out for her.
Jo Kessel with her overflowing suitcase. She always carries more than she needs and lives in fear of the airport scales.
The process
The first thing Karen sees is my hair dryer, which she immediately sets aside. “Most hotel rooms have one,” she says firmly, “and if they don’t, you can ask for one at the front desk.”
Then she takes everything out of the case and makes piles: tops in one, bikinis in another, etc. An eyebrow is raised at my four pairs of shoes.
‘You’re only going for three days, how many can you need?’
He shows two sets of flip flops in one hand, two sets of sneakers in the other, and makes me choose one of each.
Elimination and compression.
It’s painful at first because everything she puts on the rejection pile is something I want to accept. But the process is also liberating.
Four pairs of shorts become two, six tops become three, and I can keep all my dresses because they’re thin and bunch up.
Fold and load all of the above into a pair of compression packing cubes, which flatten to half their size once double-zippered shut. Is magic.
Then, she pours my toiletries into 100ml reusable soft bottles and swaps my two chunky jewelry boxes for a thin, padded bag into which she slips my necklaces.
‘We don’t want anything with a hump or reinforcement. The goal is to keep everything flat,” he says. TIME TO PACK
I never realized that most cases have an inner lining that opens for some reason. Because? So you can store your dirty shoes underneath. One trainer has a bikini top wedged inside; They put a belt on another, then they go under that lining, followed by the flip-flops.
There’s a gap between us, so Karen rolls up my jeans to cover the gap. In artistic terms, packing is like making a collage. You continue adding bits until you create the perfect, flat, cavity-free, compressed shape.
The trick is to fill the suitcase to the brim.
Karen Powell, left, shows Jo how to divide and conquer when it comes to packing a suitcase effectively.
Final touches
While Karen places my brush on one end and my adapter on the other (a universal one with built-in USB sockets is ideal), she makes some final suggestions.
Instead of packing my bottle of Chanel No 5, she suggests we open the squeeze cubes and spray perfume on the clothes inside. Genius!
And no one should travel without a silk pillowcase, he says: “It’s kinder to hair and skin and can be used to carry dirty clothes on the return trip.”
Once everything is packed
The case closes easily and there is plenty of room.
Shopping spree in Barcelona here we come. . .
