Whatever You Do, DON'T EVER Skip These Carry-on Packing Methods

Using just a carry-on bag is the elite way to travel, but I get it. It's hard. And even though I'm team carry-on, I am not a minimalist, and you don't have to be either. I'm going to show you how easy it is to find more space when packing your carry-on using some tips, tricks, and methods that I use for maximizing space and packing light. It's so easy it almost feels like cheating. My favorite method for choosing and packing clothes for any trip longer than five days is the 3x3 method. Here's how it works. Choose three tops, three bottoms, and three layering pieces. Then just create a grid like you see here, and essentially lay each piece onto the grid in this order, so that you're basically left with all these different outfit combinations by following the lines. And so as you can see, with nine articles of clothing, you're essentially left with 27 different combinations. Coupled with this, I use what I call the 3x3 plus method, because this always leaves me with a little extra room to bring a couple of what-if items. Because the part I hate the most about packing is feeling like I won't have enough or the right type of clothing, and this completely solves that issue. It also helps me feel like I'm definitely not forgetting something, but also not coming anywhere close to overpacking. So for example, I just got back from a 10-day trip in California, where I went to two different locations that had two different climates. Think 40 degree difference. So here is how all the outfits come together. Now, to pack it all up, packing cubes are absolutely the way to go when maximizing space in your carry-on. I'm using this set for my friends over at Tripped Travel Gear. They did send me these to try out and share with you if I liked them, and these worked out so well for my last trip. Now, I love these because not only are they compression packing cubes, they're also ultra thin, so they take up no extra space. And they're also very lightweight, so if you're dealing with weight limits, not to worry. Because I'm also going to show you how much my bag weighs once everything is all packed. For my clothing, I'm using the two large cubes, and within this set, you also get two smaller cubes, a tube cube, and a laundry sack. But packing cubes not only minimize the space your clothing takes up by at least a third, if not more, they also help keep you organized. Well, we had a great time here in San Francisco, but it's time to pack up and head into wine country. Now, when I'm switching hotels halfway through a trip, using packing cubes makes everything so much easier. Like for this recent trip I went on, I wasn't going to hotter weather until about five days later, so I just kept those clothes in their own separate cube. And it literally took me two minutes to pack up everything when I moved hotels. One of the next hardest parts about packing for carry-on is toiletries. I love a good toiletry bag, and on this trip I also tested this one that Tripped Travel Gear also sent me. It's a hanging bag, and for me this is a must-have because I feel like counter space is never a guarantee anymore. It's also compact, but has so many great compartments, and I really like this because I can separate all my products based on usage. It also comes with two different clear bags for liquids, so if you don't have too many you can use the detachable liquids bag here, or it also comes with a quart size clear bag. For this last trip, Chris used the larger TSA bag and he got through just fine, but you can also use the trusty old Ziploc route if your airport is pretty strict. I have an entire video dedicated to packing liquids, where I also teach you a few ways to minimize how many liquids you do actually need. But another thing I love about these folding hanging bags is that they're ultra versatile with how you can pack it in your carry-on. So you can either pack it all the way zipped up, or leave it open and lay it flat. And here's another pro tip, pack your toiletries a couple of days in advance, and only use those toiletries at home. This will help you realize whether or not you've forgotten something. And another way to save yourself some space, use these liquid travel pouches. Just decant your main liquids into these guys instead of the bulkier three ounce travel containers. Because these pouches only take up as much space as you fill them, but they also get smaller as you use them up. Next, let's talk about shoes. Everyone always struggles with which shoes to bring and how to pack them. So my rule of thumb is three pairs of shoes max. But if you're traveling light, you can get away with two pairs. And this is what I always try to do. Here's how. I bring an everyday walking shoe or city shoe, something that's comfortable that you can wear every day. I like a white sneaker for this. Since they're the bulkiest, I also wear these on the plane so they don't have to take up any space in my bag. Then I bring one pair of comfortable sandals or slides, something that can be dressed up or down depending on your outfit. Lately, these sandals have been my favorite. I wore them with a dress to wineries, out for dinner, and even down to the pool. They're also comfortable enough to walk around the city for hours. Again, this video is about packing light, which means you do have to make some decisions about footwear. If you need to bring seven pairs of shoes, good luck. However, if you are packing more of a shoe or sneaker in your bag, you can also minimize space by packing socks, undies, swimsuits, or other small items tucked inside each shoe since the space is basically already spoken for in your bag. And another thing you can do is you can also separate your shoes and sandals when you pack them. Start by finding a spot for each shoe to fit on the edges of your luggage. They don't have to be packed together. For example, sometimes I pack one wedge at the top of my bag and one at the bottom. If you're going somewhere where you're bringing a sun hat, something like this Panama style hat, you can get one of those little magnet clips to clip it to your carry-on. But I usually like to travel as stealth as possible and I like to have everything packed away. So what I do is I pack my hat upside down in my bag and then fill the middle with soft items so that it keeps its shape. And then also pack things underneath and around the rim. I have to use this old hat to show you because I lost my really nice sun hat on my last trip to Cancun, but you get the idea. Once I have most things packed, I'll take my belt and then wrap it around the perimeter because there's always space to tuck in around the edges. And then as far as saving a bit of space with your electronics, lately I'm using noise cancelling earbuds because this little case takes up less room than the snacks you're probably bringing. But it also comes with a built-in phone stand so you can actually watch your movies and you don't have to pack an extra bulky device. And also try to have all of your electrical items to charge through a USB-C so that you only need to take one single USB-C charger and a cable. Now with all those tips, let's pack it up and I'll show you how it all comes together. For this 10-day trip, I used my Travel Pro Maxlite 5. This is the 19-inch roller bag which I also featured in this recent video. I chose this bag because it's ultra light and compact and it will pretty much fit on any airline so if you wanted to, you could copy my exact way of doing things here. And also I'm going to try my best to keep everything around 7 kilograms or 15 pounds. So in addition to the clothes I showed earlier, I also packed pajamas, socks, undergarments, and a bathing suit in this tube cube packing cube, my hair blow dryer tool, my pharmacy kit, and my brush, my hotel slippers, my toiletry bag, my belt, and then I also brought my backpack purse which right now is kind of my favorite bag for travel. I can carry it around all day as it's big enough to fit cameras, lenses, microphones, even a light sweater, and I think it's cute enough that it also doubles as a purse. So in this bag, I'll pack the quick grab items that I need for being in the airport and in the cabin of the plane. So in here, I've got my little travel pouch where I put my earbuds, my phone charger, and my cord for my watch, as well as my plane snacks, and then I've also got my separate passport pouch. All right, now all packed up, this weighs 7.9 kilograms or 17 pounds. Now I know some of you have a 7 kilogram weight limit, so here are some options to get you down to that. Instead of wearing the extra bonus outfit on the plane, you could stick to the clothing that's in the grid pattern and then just pull out the heaviest clothes to wear on the plane. So if I do that, this leaves me at about 7.1 kilograms. My hair dryer itself is pretty bulky, so if you don't have that, you're probably within the limit. Another thing you could do is try a lighter bag. This Travel Pro is one of the lightest on the market, coming in at 2.5 kilograms. However, you could try something like this backpack, which is carry-on size and actually gives you a bit more room because of the lack of wheels, and it only weighs 1.2 kilograms. So if I transfer over everything to this backpack, including the heavier outfit that I took out previously, it only weighs 6.6 kilograms. I also packed eight pairs of socks because I didn't feel like doing laundry on this trip, and I didn't have a weight limit. But socks and undies are the easiest thing you can wash in the sink if you do need to cut some weight and some bulk. And if you're a guy watching this or want to know how to pack this backpack, check out this next video. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.