After over a decade of travel in my adult life as a single twenty-something, to a couple, to a family of three and then five, I have used a lot of different packing methods. Getting my whole family unpacked when we are on vacation is something that I prep for for weeks, if not months, in advance.
There are so many great packing tools out there to keep yourself and your family members organized. Over the years, I have used packing cubes of varying shapes and sizes, compression cubes, hanging toiletry bags, non-hanging toiletry bags, and small bags to stay organized inside big bags.
All of the above packing tools I’ve used were lovely and served their purpose, but I wasn’t packing for just me anymore. Once I added 3 kids to the mix, I found myself spending an hour unpacking on our first big week long family vacation. That was way too long, and I was ready to find another way, and so I did.
Hanging Packing Cubes
My most recent discovery are hanging packing cubes, and they proved to be an absolute game changer for unpacking. We had a two night trip in the fall followed by a 5 night trip a few months later and it took mere minutes to get our clothing unpacked.
To start, you just hang up the hanging packing cube and get all the clothes loaded in. You just need to be careful not to overstuff it, but, even so, it’ll still work but may not compress completely. Once the hanging packing cube is packed up, you simply place it in your suitcase (either compressed using the straps they come with or by being placed in your suitcase without sans fastened straps). Once you arrive at your destination, remove the hanging packing cube from your suitcase and then hang it up. Voila! You have unpacked your clothes.
The whole process from start to finish packing and “unpacking” the hanging packing cubes was so simple and yet I still sit here with my mind blown. Why didn’t I discover these packing cubes sooner?!
For our family of 5 (2 adults, 3 young children), I used a total of three hanging packing cubes. To keep things streamlined, I happily do laundry half way through longer trips in an effort to halve the amount of clothing we need.
Heading to Disney World? Check out my post where I share an important tip when using Disney’s Magic Bands.
