A GUIDE TO PACKING

i've gotten a lot of questions about how we're getting all of our stuff over to spain & the answer is.. we're not. this is not the typical move where we have to deal with loading & unloading all of our things, even though we did have to pack & store it all (i truly hate packing, if you can't tell). we just have to load & unload our clothes, shoes & a few random items (measuring cups/tablespoons, a few books, some toys for cedar, etc.). the rest of our stuff is all boxed up & stored away in my moms garage!

when i tell people that we're only taking clothes they normally ask how we're planning to fit everything into our suitcases. since every person is allowed two suitcases we're planning on taking the allotted 6 suitcases & packing as precisely as we can. trying to get as much into the bags as possible without going over the weight limit, which has been surprisingly easy partly because of the huge closet purge i have been doing all summer.

& on top of that i've *tried* to be really selective in what to take to spain, which is the hardest thing ever, partly because i'm oddly attached to my clothes. the hardest thing to pick though are shoes, which i'm trying to fit all into a carry on since there isn't a weight limit...we'll see how it goes.

when i originally started packing i was doing the rolling method & just putting them into my bag & it was working wonderfully. but then i saw austin using the roll & stuff method. he was rolling up his gear & putting it all into ziplocks. at first i laughed at him thinking it was far too much work to pack that way, but then, i saw how much he was fitting into his bag & i decided to give it a try.

i unpacked my bag & stuffed ziplocks with my pre-rolled clothes & was shocked at home much extra space i had. originally i had only been able to fit some pants, dresses/skirts & sweaters in one bag because of how much space my sweaters took. but. by putting my clothes into zip locks i gained sooo much extra space in my bag. i was able to fit almost all of my clothes in one bag. socks, scarves, sweaters, a couple sweatshirts, some workout clothes, pants, shirts, dresses, skirts. all of it.

& this is the method, step by step.
1\\ lay the shirt flat
2\\ fold it in half with the sleeves on top
3\\ begin to roll the shirt
4\\ roll it as tight as you can
5\\ line the shirts up
6\\ stuff as many as you can into a ziplock & squeeze out the air.
1\\ if your bag has the little extra space at the bottom created from the rods in the bag, stuff little things into it. i put socks/tights, scarves, etc. so that you don't have unused space.
2\\ stuff the ziplocks into the bag. i start by outlining the bag with upright bags.
3\\ repeat step 2.
4\\ start piling the bags ontop of one another till it's full. in my suitcase i was able to fit 12 zip lock bags. i think 5 of those bags were the really big ones, & 7 of them were standard gallon sized ones.
& boom! my bag is packed & read to go weighing in at 48 lbs. i even had extra space in the bag! but i couldn't fill it because i don't want to go over the 50 lbs. weight juuuuust incase our scale was slightly off or anything like that.

& with that, have a happy weekend!

6 comments

  1. great tips! I've done the rolling method but I've never even heard of the ziploc bags.

    xo T.

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    1. it's definitely worth a shot, i was able to fit so much!

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  2. so smart! i'm impressed you're at 48 pounds and mostly DONE with the packing! SO SO SO exciting!!

    xo welltraveledwife.com

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    1. haha thanks! it is a time consuming way to pack, but totally worth all the space

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  3. i'm very impressed! i've traveled with you before and you usually have a very full suitcase...but, not like this! i am always amazed though how you're like houdini and pull things out of your magic carpet bag!

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