Travel Tips: How to Pack Like A Pro

At Meadow, we’re more than just luxury sleepwear, sustainable candles, and stationery. Yes, our brand is centered around a product line with the best women’s sleepwear and other luxury items, but our foundation is rooted in instilling a stress-free, holistic self-care and wellness approach into our customers’ lives through luxury sleepwear and other items.

A core component of this foundation is inspiring you to explore the world around you. Whether you’re jet-setting overseas or simply taking a walk down the road to a new place you’ve never visited before, we believe there is immense inspiration to be found through travel. True to our Meadow mission, we want to help make your travel experience as seamless as possible by sharing our tried and true travel tips!

Let’s face it, sometimes checking luggage when traveling via plane is unavoidable. Especially on long trips and during the winter months when your wardrobe becomes bulkier, checked luggage is sometimes a necessity. But, other times, it is possible to travel with just a carry-on bag and personal item, if you pack your belongings correctly.

Forgoing the need to check a large suitcase has several benefits, including:

Shorter wait times before your departing flight.
No waiting around for your bag at baggage claim once you land.
Lessening the risk of airlines losing your suitcase in transit.
Allowing you to leave the airport and enjoy your vacation even sooner!

Whatever your reasoning is for wanting to decrease your luggage situation on your next trip, consider our top travel tips for packing before you go!

Choose The Right Size Carry-On

When packing a carry-on luggage, there is a common misconception that your bags need to be as small as possible. We disagree. In order to get the most out of your carry-on suitcase, make sure you’re choosing a size that can comfortably fit all of your necessities while still being able to fit in the overhead compartment of the plane. Personally, we use the Away Bigger Carry-On, but other suitcase brands like Beis and Samsonite have different carry-on variations as well.

On a recent trip to Panama, here’s what we were able to fit in one carry-on suitcase:

7 swimsuits
3 hats
3 pairs of shoes
A curling iron
7 dresses
7 coverups
4 toiletries bags
A workout outfit
A Meadow pink silk robe
A Meadow pink silk eye mask

(We can’t go anywhere without our silk robe and eye mask set!)

Now, you may be thinking: all of this in one suitcase? Our answer is yes! It may seem impossible, but it is very doable to fit all of these items into one suitcase. Here are a few tips for maximizing your carry-on space:

Use Packing Cubes

Using packing cubes or another form of bag to store small items like swimsuits and lingerie will help compress the fabric so that you can tuck it neatly into the corners of your suitcase. (Pro tip: if you place your swimsuits in individual plastic bags before placing them in a packing cube, you’ll condense the size even further and save even more space!)

Roll Dress

Instead of folding your dresses and other bulkier clothing items, roll the fabric tightly around itself and place each piece in a single-layer row across the bottom or top of your other items. This will not only help maximize space but will also help to avoid creases into your clothing from folding it!

Lay Hats Flat

Some hats, especially floppy sun hats, tend to be unwieldy and take up a lot of space in your suitcase. So, if you’re working with a few different hats that you really want to bring on vacation, we recommend laying each hat flat in order to get the most out of the room inside your luggage!

Utilizing these tips will help ensure you can pack all of your necessities in your rolling bag while leaving the space in your personal item (like a backpack or oversized purse) to hold personal items like your wallet, laptop, and more. These few tips may seem mundane, but it really is the smallest changes that can make all the difference in creating a more seamless, stress-free life for yourself!