Preparation: Rolling clothes

One thing I have a tendency to do is overpack clothes. I want to make sure I am prepared for any situation and I do not want to do laundry all the time, so I pack a lot of outfits. The problem with being so prepared is finding room in the suitcases for all those items.

I had always heard that rolling clothes was an efficient way to pack them. I was skeptical, but I tried it. I was amazed how well it worked. First, I counted the number of tops I was taking with me and divided that number by three. The next thing I did was make three piles of fairly equal height. In two piles were tops I knew I would not wear for some time. The third pile, which contained the tops I might wear if my trip took longer than I anticipated, was placed on one side of the suitcase. This placement enabled me to easily remove those clothes from the suitcase if necessary.

I rolled each pile of clothes and secured each roll in a mesh laundry bag which helped keep the clothes in place. I thought the mesh bags could be used for dirty clothes later!!  My largest suitcase held all three rolls of tops, so my experiment was a success.  Rolling also works for jeans, slacks, dresses and other items of clothing.

(Photo taken in 2012)