What do you do when you find your suitcase just wont close because of all the clothes?

Step 1: The Gather

You will need:
A vacume with a hose/ a hairdryer.
A garbage bag. *Full size or kitchen bin size, doesn't really matter.
Your luggage.
Optional * tie wraps

This is probably how Mcgyver would do it too.
Sorry about the pictures. But this is a last minute post, and I had to rush to get a vacume from a neighbor.

Step 2: The Miracle.

This is a cheat past those 'space saver' & 'compression' bags you see advertised so much.

1. Pack your clothes into the garbage bag.
Clear bags would be nice, in case security opens your luggage.
Using smaller kitchen bins lets your organize your clothes too.

2. Gather the 'neck' of the bag together, and then there are two methods.

Method A) With the vacume off, slide the hose attachment into the neck of the bag. Make sure it can't immediately reach and suck down any clothes (Mother forgot and it ate several underwear). Or than the plastic won't cover the opening.

Method B) With the hairdryer off. Turn the hairdryer around and place the intake valve into the neck of the bag, make sure the plastic won't cover it immediately.

Step 3: The Miracle Part 2

3. Turn on your appliance of choice. It will suck the air out of the bag.
The vacume works best, but a fairly crappy hairdryer can do the job in a pinch if your careful.
Tug at the plastic of the bag so that the appliance can suck the most air out., and make sure it doesn't immediately cover the business end of the appliance your using. You'll probably end up just making sure the vacume doesn't suck down the bag.

DO NOT RUN THE MOTOR MORE THAN 1-3 MINUTES! Especially the hair dryer. I take no responsibility if you ignore the heat and smell sign coming from either appliance if you run it to long and blow the motor.

4. Tie a knot or use a twist tie, to seal off the end of the bag.

Step 4: Finish Your Luggage.

5. Repeat the steps with the remainder of your clothes.

6. Pack your luggage bag with your new 'organizers' and don't open it again until you get there.

You'll find that this method, while probably not as good as an actual space saver bag, will in fact, reduce the volume of your clothes, if not by half, then just enough to get the zipper pulled around and your luggage bag shut.
When you get to your final destination, or if you have to open the bags again. You'll notice that the 'organizer' bags have lost their 'prune' look, but won't plump up to nearly the same size as before. So you can play with it for a little bit.

I went to the Philippines over Valentines this year. My mother originally packed my bags, without asking. She'd never even heard of this trick. And she needed three bags to pack it in. I did the garbage bag trick, and even then I had to do the sit on it and pray, and fit all my clothes into just -one- larger luggage bag. Her things went from four bags, down to 1 and a half, with enough room left over to pack gifts for our relatives in the Philippines.

Hey, with the new within North America luggage piece restrictions, everyone needs all the help they can get.