​​I Tried Rolling My Clothes to Pack Them, and Now My Bag Is So Organized

Every time I pack for a trip, it feels like I’m playing a game of how much stuff can I possibly fit in my suitcase without breaking the zipper (or my back)? But the last time I prepped to go out of town, I tried a brilliant packing trick that changed everything. I learned from Apartment Therapy that rolling your clothes for packing is actually an expert-approved trick to keep your suitcase organized when traveling.

I’ve been rolling my clothes in my dresser for years to save on space (or, ahem, fit more stuff in the drawers) and keep things tidy (since you can see more of what you have at a glance compared with the top of a stack of clothes) — so why haven’t I tried rolling my clothes for packing my luggage, too? I wish I had thought about this sooner! 

For research purposes, I wanted to test just one side of my suitcase before fully committing. I folded and stacked a mix of clothes (dresses, shirts, pants, bathing suits, and socks) first then tried rolling my clothes for comparison — coupled with my favorite packing cubes.

You can see how bulky the clothes are and how much they stuck out of my suitcase when I just folded and stacked them. While I probably could’ve zipped it closed (thanks in part to the expanding zipper on my Quince carry-on), my clothes were still a jumbled mess. I risked catching fabric in the zipper and ripping my clothes — and aside from how hard it was going to be to close my suitcase, I had to consider what would happen when I got to my destination. I would have to pull basically everything out just to find a single shirt, and this would’ve happened my entire trip unless I had somewhere to unpack when I got there. No, thank you!

So, I got to rolling. Compared with stacking flat folded clothes, rolling seems to keep clothes in order much better without creasing them, and also saves space by making everything uniform, side by side. Plus, rolling is quick and easy, and doesn’t require a lot of rerolling when things are moved around. Most importantly, it makes it so you can see everything you have at once.

While rolling kept my clothes tidy and accessible, I had to add another organizing trick that once you try, you can never go back. Enter: My favorite Nomatic packing cubes. I have a small, medium, and large one, and I like to use them to organize different types of clothes when I travel. The best part? You can compress them with a second zipper to save even more space!

I designated one for dresses and sweaters; one for tops, bathing suits, and sports bras; and one for pajamas and bottoms. I love that with these, depending on the size of the clothes, I can usually stack a second layer in each cube without making it much harder to see everything in it. Luckily, I was able to compress the two smaller cubes, which pushed all of the air out, making them about half their original size. 

I appreciate that I can move the packing cubes around as much as I want to figure out the best configuration. Plus, I like to squeeze items in between the cubes that I want more readily accessible, like my sleep spray, travel jewelry case, eye mask, bagged bar soap (to keep things smelling fresh!), or sunglasses (rolled in socks, of course). 

The three packing cubes full of rolled clothes fit nicely into my suitcase, and I could see basically everything I brought at once. It took the same amount of time to fold as packing flat folded clothes, but saved so much space. Even without the packing cubes, rolling the clothes would’ve allowed me to see everything at once, and actually keep it organized throughout the trip. I’ll never go back!