Whether you’re going out of the country on vacation or spending the weekend at a local beach house, you’ll definitely need to pack some luggage. And if you’re anything like me, the excitement of a get-away still isn’t enough to motivate me to pack my bags on time! I heard somewhere that you can’t fully enjoy a trip if you pack your bags early and if you don’t leave something behind. Ok, maybe I made that up, LOL, but the point is last-minute packing adds the right amount of adrenaline needed to kickstart your trip!
Here are five essential travel packing tips for last-minuters:
1. Use the Internet- Once you’re packing at the last minute, it’s highly likely that you’ll forget something. To prevent forgetting something super important, you could search for a last-minute packing list online and use that as a checklist. Here’s a good list I’ve found. An alternative is to also make a packing list for yourself ahead of time so when you’re ready to pack, it’ll be handy.
2. Roll your clothes- Pretty common. I’m sure you’ve seen this in a video on social media somewhere. But really, rolling your clothes saves you some space in your suitcase/bag instead of folding them. In my opinion, rolling your clothes makes the suitcase/bag less bulky and call me crazy, but I swear it makes it feel lighter than when you’ve folded them. And it’s way faster than folding too!
3. Use all the empty spaces- Get creative and fill up all the empty spaces you have. For example, you can fill the insides of your shoes with small items like socks or your sunglasses and so on. It’s guaranteed to save you a lot of space in your suitcase/bag.
Bonus Tip: Use the inside of your socks for your phone chargers, USB cords or small power banks. This way, they’re organized, and it’ll be easier to remember where you’ve put them.
4. Stay organized with clear bags– The key to last-minute packing is being organized. Since you’d want to enjoy every minute of your vacation, you wouldn’t have a lot of time to spare trying to figure out where you’ve put something. Clear bags are the answer. You can separate your items into categories and have a clear bag for each category. For example, you can have a clear bag for makeup and put all the relevant items in there. So, when you’re in a rush to get to your next vacation activity, it’s easy to identify what’s in the bags because they’re clear. Of course, if you have some time beforehand, you can label the bags as well. Clear bags are also useful for storing your wet clothing. We all know how important that last-minute dip in the pool/beach is before we board our planes back home!
Bonus Tip: Most bed sheets are packaged in clear bags, so the next time you buy one don’t throw the packaging away. It’ll come in handy for your next trip!
5. Use your scale- This tip is for those who are going on vacation to another country. Airlines have restrictions on the weight of your luggage, so if you have a bathroom scale, you can weigh your luggage. This way you can do a quick check to see if you’d have to unpack some stuff or if you can pack some more. It’ll save you some money because if your luggage is overweight, you may incur a fee when checking in at the airport. And let’s be real, that money could’ve gone to a souvenir from your trip!
Bonus Tip: Some bathroom scales are really small. Thus, you may not get a true weight of your luggage as your suitcase may not fit perfectly on the scale. So, what you should do is weigh yourself first, then weigh yourself holding the luggage and subtract the two to get the difference. Sounds a little odd, I’m sure, but this may give you a more accurate luggage weight than if you just place your luggage on the scale alone.
I hope these tips help you when you’re packing next and if you have any hacks, you can always share them!
