It is the night before. The case is open on the bed, empty, and your clothes are in loose piles on the duvet. This guide packs a carry-on in order, using the nine pieces of the set: three cubes with mesh tops, three zip pouches and three frosted bags you can see into.
Measure the case first
Open the case and run a tape along the inside: length, width, depth. Every piece in the set is listed in inches, so you can check the cubes against your own case before anything goes in.
- Large cube: 15.7 x 11.8 x 5.1 in
- Medium cube: 11.8 x 11.0 x 5.1 in
- Small cube: 7.9 x 8.3 x 5.1 in
Take the pieces this trip needs. A short trip may not need all nine, and the rest wait at home.
Lay it all out by kind
Before anything goes in a cube, put out everything you plan to wear and sort it into piles: trousers, tops, socks and underwear, sleepwear, the layer for the plane. Then count against the nights. For four nights, a working list is five tops, two pairs of trousers, five pairs of socks, five pairs of underwear, one sweater and one set of sleepwear.
Anything that does not belong to a pile goes back in the wardrobe. That is usually the third pair of shoes.
Fill the pieces in this order
- Large cube: trousers and the sweater. Fold them to the width of the cube and lay them flat, the heaviest at the bottom. Close the lid with the two-way zipper. It runs from either end, so you can start wherever the pull happens to be.
- Medium cube: tops. Roll the T-shirts and stand them on end in a row, so each one shows through the mesh top. Fold anything with a collar and lay it flat on top.
- Small cube: socks and underwear. Roll them and fill the cube in rows. Through the mesh you can see what is left as the trip goes on.
- Pouches: the small, loose things. Chargers, cables and the plug adapter go in the small pouch. Sleepwear goes in the large pouch, so it is the first thing you reach at night. Printed tickets and the booking confirmation go in the medium one.
- Frosted bags: the things you keep apart. Shoes go in the large bag, sole to sole. Fold the medium bag and lay it in the lid, empty. It becomes the laundry bag on the way home.
Your toiletries stay in your own toiletry bag, which goes in last.
Put the pieces in the case
With the case open on the bed, start heavy and end light. The bag of shoes goes in first, at the wheel end. The large cube lies flat along the bottom. The medium and small cubes go on top or alongside, mesh up, so the case opens onto rows you can read without unzipping anything.
Turn each cube so its webbing handle faces the side you reach first. At the other end you lift a cube out by that handle and set it in a drawer whole.
The pouches slide into the gaps down the sides or lie on top. The toiletry bag goes last, on top of everything, where you can lift it out in one move.
At the security line
When you reach the bins, the toiletry bag comes off the top and the rest stays zipped. If the case does get opened, it opens onto rows: the mesh tops and the frosted bags show what is in each piece. It goes back together the way it came apart.
Roll or fold?
Both work in a cube. Roll soft things, such as T-shirts, leggings and sleepwear, and stand them in a row. Fold shirts with collars, trousers with a crease and anything stiff. Keep to one method per cube. A row of rolls next to a folded stack leaves gaps, and things slide into them.
At the other end
The case opens the way you packed it. Lift the large cube into the bottom drawer by its handle, the medium cube into the one above, and put the chargers pouch by the bed. For the rest of the moves, read living out of a suitcase. For a cube-by-cube map, read what goes in which piece.
Want it drawn for your own trip or case? The pack planner lays the nine pieces out to scale and shows what goes where.
The set is three cubes and three pouches in Grey, Burgundy or Hot Pink, and three frosted bags. See the set.