How to Pack a Suitcase

Step 7: Step Seven - Lay out what you will wear while traveling

What you wear the day of travel is your ace in the hole. As a general rule, don't pack your jacket - wear it. Jackets and sweaters take up tons of room in your bag, but make great pillows on a plane or a train ride. If you have lightweight clothes and one pair of jeans, wear the jeans - they take up more room as well. Don't try to wear four pairs of pants on the plane, but just wear the ones that you think are comfortable, yet a little bulky to pack compared to your others.

Always have a jacket or a shirt with good pockets - especially pockets that close, zip, velcro or whatever. You will be keeping a passport, a plane ticket, a wallet, etc. with you - despite being required to take off jackets going through security screening. Putting these things in a jacket, zipping the pockets shut, takes away the worry that they may fall out.

If you wear glasses, be sure to pack a glasses case on your person. Even if you don't plan on it, you probably will doze a little on the flight or the ride - you don't want to wake up with your glasses twisted like modern art. Keep them safe.

If you like to wear sandals like I do, but want to bring a pair of sneakers on the trip - wear the sneakers and pack the sandals. That will save you a lot of room when packing.

Comments

[Shades of Grey]

This is a great 'ible. I know its a couple of years old but who cares! One thing I see you left out is medication. If you have some sort of medication that you can't survive without, DON'T PACK IT!. Put it in your sealable pockets or whatever bag you are going to be carrying with you at all times(kinda goes with the glasses comment). No airline can ever 100% guarantee your bags will make it to your destination at the same time you do. I used to work for an airline and you would not believe the amount of people that insist they need their bags "right now" because of some medication. I can't teleport it here and then next flight won't come in for a while. Then it depends on if that fight has room for extra bags. Anyway, I digress..

[raquelha]

Having worked in the travel industry for 30 plus years and the last several at United Airlines having worked the "bag desk" and other positions I really wish to simply tell everyone to NEVER EVER pack your meds in anything always carry them in your purse or something you don't run the risk of having checked at the gate due to a lack of space on board the plane and yes it does happen. Your carry on is great unless that plane has every overhead bin jammed with bags, coats, whatever then the flight crew can and will and btw has every right to take your carry on and checking it though you planned only to have it as carry on. They won't charge you any of those ridiculous fees for checked bags but sometimes (seldom) it happens that there is absolutely no room left so PLEASE never put your meds and the same goes for your valuables as well in your main carry on if there's the slightest chance it could be checked at the gate. Obviously there's the risk of what everyone just assumes is always a "lost" bag when so many times it's a case of someone seeing what they just KNOW is there bag so they grab it and never look at the name tag or anything and I am not kidding when I tell you I spoke with one woman who had grabbed someone else's suitcase and had it for over 10 YEARS before she bothered to call about it! (What is wrong with people?) 
I'm not sure if people realize you are allowed to carry on certain items that do NOT count as carry on...a purse, camera bag, diaper bag...????? So get a huge purse and put your regular purse in it and your meds and valuables and toothbrushes for the trip if it's long or along those lines....FYI.
And please control your temper when you do have to call because your bag didn't arrive when you did just as on here with the 'be nice' policy. The person answering the phone shouldn't have to bear the brunt of your anger especially when that anger is verbal abuse of the innocent person who simply answered your call and is trying to help you. Like the picture here...do not be NEGATIVE! And you really do catch more flies with honey than with vinegar! I KNOW!

Thank you and hopefully even 1 person reads this and realizes they almost packed those important meds and stopped themselves. Plus the cargo holds are not climate controlled and can break down the components of your medicine making it ineffective or possibly worse. The same reason you never ever store those meds in the so-called "medicine chest" in your bathroom! The humidity alone will break down your medicine!

Thank you again.