Problem
How do I learn to pack a suitcase?
Can I get somebody else to do mine?
Can I teach somebody else to do their own better?
Answers
I just watched a video on Facebook showing an oriental looking lady folding tops like long sleeved tee-shirts, then a large item such as a duvet or sleeping bag.
Basically, you fold the item right to left half way, then left to right, making an item with two vertical folds into a long vertical strip, then fold that half way upwards. Finally you bring one part around inside out and back around the rest or it to make part of it into a bag securing the rest of it.
With a long sleeved piece of clothing, you fold the arms either into the middle or diagonally. Then use one of the sleeved or the back as a boag around the rest of it so the folds don't come apart and it stays compressed and in shape.
Start learning with a small item such as a tee-shirt. Then learn to fold a larger item.
I bought folding items, which look like triple mirrors or triple painting with two hinges joining the two outside pieces to the central piece. They are supposed to help get all your items tthe same size to make a neat pile to put in a cupboard.
The video is most impressive. Not just what she does, but also the speed. I have often watched demos at exhibitions. The person doing the job probably spent an hour or day or week training, repeating until they got faster and faster. Then they remember what to do, and are tired of it so they are keen to rush through.
I've seen chefs and knife demonstraotrs chopping up carrots and cucumbers in 20 seconds. I would go much slower, scared to cut myself. But I only ever do it once every six months. The same applies to packing a suitcase.
Packing Services
Some hotels offer unpacking and packing services. If you have an expensive suite you might get offered this for free as part of the valet service.
Packing On Hangers
I find packing and unpacking quickest if you keep everything on hangers. Take the item out of thw wardrobe on the hanger. The top edge is already straight. The lower edge follows the edge of the suitcase. A bouse or skirt might need only one fold. A longer item folds back a second time from the top. If necessary you then fold in from the sides, again using the suitcase iteself as the frame.
Which Hanger?
If you have had an item laundered or dry cleaned at a hotel it often comes back on a hanger or neatly folded. If you don't wear it, then it's ready to be packed neatly for your next trip.
If you have to choose a hanger, I find large hangers take up space. Plastic hangers sometimes break. The safest is a thin wire hanger, the sort you get free from dry cleaners. If you want to look neat, packs of hangers are sold by department stores, on line, or from bargain shops.
Free Hangers
I have also asked stores such as Marks and Spencer if I can keep the hanger. Often they say yes. If you are short of hangers, ask every time. Even if you get rebuffed half the time, you still get one or two new, handy hangers.
Double Duty Hangers
If you have a hanger with a dry cleaned item and a plastic cover on top, you can hang another blouse on top. Ideally you want to do this without too much creasing nor hiding of what is underneath.
On one occasion, I could not find any hangers. I asked a shop assistant if I could keep the hangers if I bought items. I bought a bra, matching pants (Americans call trousers pants and would say underpants) and a couple of cheapest t-shirt. I then had three hangers and I added my own clothes on top of the bought item for packing.
You can usually use a hanger for two items. If you add a third or fourth or something heavy you risk breaking the hanger.
Unpacking
Unpacking is easy. You lift each item out and hang it up on the rail in the wardrobe. (Americans say closet. In Britain we occasionally have a walk-in closet, but usually only in a hotel suite or mansion.)
For a five day conference I have five or ten outfits. I hang item for day one on the right, for evening one outfit on the left. Matching bra, slip or underwear is on the same hanger.
(An alternative method is to hide glamorous outfits under boring buttoned up coats. The idea is so no staff are tempted to try on the outfit or take it.)
You keep adding outfits right to left. I might be wearing one outfit more than once. If so it goes back at the left so I wear something different every day.
When an outfit has been worn, and you won't wear it again, it can go back in the suitcase. Then on the last day you have only that day's clothes to pack.
If you find an outfit is wrong for the climate, or too small, you know you are not going to wear it, or you adore one outfit which you wear every day, anything not needed can go back int the suitcase. This speeds up packing, and decision making when getting dressed.
Another system: Black skirt or jeans which I wear with everything, every day, goes on the right. White blouses or tee-shirts go on the left. Each tee-shirt after use goes inside a laundry bag, either sent off to the hotel for washing, washed and hung up in the bathroom to dry before packing to go home.
If you are short of time and need to pack dirty clothes, your night clothes on the last day, or your clothes from all week, pack dirty items in a laundry bag so they don't infect clean clothes. They are ready to be pulled straight out of the case and carried to the washing machine when you unpack at home.
We used to talk about German efficiency. Now we think of Japanese and oriental efficiency and Chinese business sklil. My biggest regret is not insisting that a three year old pick up his own clothes and toys and put them away each hour and each evening before bed time. What they learn at 3 they do at 30. If you pick up a child's clothes and toys they will still be throwing things on the floor later in life, as chaotic students, or singles who can't commit to marrying or can't find anybody to put up with their untidy habits. If you teach your toddler to do this, they can come round and tidy up for you when you are sick and tired or old. You won't need to ask. It will be a compulsion, an obsession. You know those people who insist on straightening your pictures, tidying your house as they walk around it, making tea, playing mother, instead of letting you be hostess. (In Asia often the eldest daughter. The same happened in large families in the UK in my maternal grandmother's day when by the time the oldest girl was twenty she had ten younger siblings to look after to help her mother who was pregnant or widowed or both.)
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on packing. Please share links to your favourite posts.
How do I learn to pack a suitcase?
Can I get somebody else to do mine?
Can I teach somebody else to do their own better?
Answers
I just watched a video on Facebook showing an oriental looking lady folding tops like long sleeved tee-shirts, then a large item such as a duvet or sleeping bag.
Basically, you fold the item right to left half way, then left to right, making an item with two vertical folds into a long vertical strip, then fold that half way upwards. Finally you bring one part around inside out and back around the rest or it to make part of it into a bag securing the rest of it.
With a long sleeved piece of clothing, you fold the arms either into the middle or diagonally. Then use one of the sleeved or the back as a boag around the rest of it so the folds don't come apart and it stays compressed and in shape.
Start learning with a small item such as a tee-shirt. Then learn to fold a larger item.
I bought folding items, which look like triple mirrors or triple painting with two hinges joining the two outside pieces to the central piece. They are supposed to help get all your items tthe same size to make a neat pile to put in a cupboard.
The video is most impressive. Not just what she does, but also the speed. I have often watched demos at exhibitions. The person doing the job probably spent an hour or day or week training, repeating until they got faster and faster. Then they remember what to do, and are tired of it so they are keen to rush through.
I've seen chefs and knife demonstraotrs chopping up carrots and cucumbers in 20 seconds. I would go much slower, scared to cut myself. But I only ever do it once every six months. The same applies to packing a suitcase.
Packing Services
Some hotels offer unpacking and packing services. If you have an expensive suite you might get offered this for free as part of the valet service.
Packing On Hangers
I find packing and unpacking quickest if you keep everything on hangers. Take the item out of thw wardrobe on the hanger. The top edge is already straight. The lower edge follows the edge of the suitcase. A bouse or skirt might need only one fold. A longer item folds back a second time from the top. If necessary you then fold in from the sides, again using the suitcase iteself as the frame.
Which Hanger?
If you have had an item laundered or dry cleaned at a hotel it often comes back on a hanger or neatly folded. If you don't wear it, then it's ready to be packed neatly for your next trip.
If you have to choose a hanger, I find large hangers take up space. Plastic hangers sometimes break. The safest is a thin wire hanger, the sort you get free from dry cleaners. If you want to look neat, packs of hangers are sold by department stores, on line, or from bargain shops.
Free Hangers
I have also asked stores such as Marks and Spencer if I can keep the hanger. Often they say yes. If you are short of hangers, ask every time. Even if you get rebuffed half the time, you still get one or two new, handy hangers.
Double Duty Hangers
If you have a hanger with a dry cleaned item and a plastic cover on top, you can hang another blouse on top. Ideally you want to do this without too much creasing nor hiding of what is underneath.
On one occasion, I could not find any hangers. I asked a shop assistant if I could keep the hangers if I bought items. I bought a bra, matching pants (Americans call trousers pants and would say underpants) and a couple of cheapest t-shirt. I then had three hangers and I added my own clothes on top of the bought item for packing.
You can usually use a hanger for two items. If you add a third or fourth or something heavy you risk breaking the hanger.
Unpacking
Unpacking is easy. You lift each item out and hang it up on the rail in the wardrobe. (Americans say closet. In Britain we occasionally have a walk-in closet, but usually only in a hotel suite or mansion.)
For a five day conference I have five or ten outfits. I hang item for day one on the right, for evening one outfit on the left. Matching bra, slip or underwear is on the same hanger.
(An alternative method is to hide glamorous outfits under boring buttoned up coats. The idea is so no staff are tempted to try on the outfit or take it.)
You keep adding outfits right to left. I might be wearing one outfit more than once. If so it goes back at the left so I wear something different every day.
When an outfit has been worn, and you won't wear it again, it can go back in the suitcase. Then on the last day you have only that day's clothes to pack.
If you find an outfit is wrong for the climate, or too small, you know you are not going to wear it, or you adore one outfit which you wear every day, anything not needed can go back int the suitcase. This speeds up packing, and decision making when getting dressed.
Another system: Black skirt or jeans which I wear with everything, every day, goes on the right. White blouses or tee-shirts go on the left. Each tee-shirt after use goes inside a laundry bag, either sent off to the hotel for washing, washed and hung up in the bathroom to dry before packing to go home.
If you are short of time and need to pack dirty clothes, your night clothes on the last day, or your clothes from all week, pack dirty items in a laundry bag so they don't infect clean clothes. They are ready to be pulled straight out of the case and carried to the washing machine when you unpack at home.
We used to talk about German efficiency. Now we think of Japanese and oriental efficiency and Chinese business sklil. My biggest regret is not insisting that a three year old pick up his own clothes and toys and put them away each hour and each evening before bed time. What they learn at 3 they do at 30. If you pick up a child's clothes and toys they will still be throwing things on the floor later in life, as chaotic students, or singles who can't commit to marrying or can't find anybody to put up with their untidy habits. If you teach your toddler to do this, they can come round and tidy up for you when you are sick and tired or old. You won't need to ask. It will be a compulsion, an obsession. You know those people who insist on straightening your pictures, tidying your house as they walk around it, making tea, playing mother, instead of letting you be hostess. (In Asia often the eldest daughter. The same happened in large families in the UK in my maternal grandmother's day when by the time the oldest girl was twenty she had ten younger siblings to look after to help her mother who was pregnant or widowed or both.)
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on packing. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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