Packing Cubes - yes or no?

[FigmentSpark]

We usually drive down to WDW and I have unlimited space for things, but this year, we're flying. In addition, the ship limits what we can bring, both in allowable suitcases and storage for our suitcases. Yet, there are ample opportunities to wear items once, like formal wear, pirate costumes and in our case, SW costumes. So I'm looking for space saving techniques to get me through this cruise (and my pre and post cruise stays) with my sanity intact and my clothes reasonably wearable by the last day.

It seems one of the big tips on the web are these packing cubes. Do any of you use them and if so, what sizes do you use the most and for what types of items? Do they help?

 

[5Texans]

I loved packing cubes for our cruise and pre and post park stays. It was nice to pull the cubes out of the suitcase and toss them in the drawers (color coded of course) and then I could find everything I needed. I packed the princess dresses and halloween costumes in space saver bags and I still did not have to iron, and the glitter stayed off of everything. I also dedicated 1 to swimsuits and cover up for all the pool/beach trips.

 

[mab2012]

Will you be sharing suitcase space with other family members?

I'm not sure that packing cubes are much help in saving space, but my family has found them super helpful for separating out each individual's belongings within the same suitcase. So instead of fishing and hunting around through the whole suitcase for someone's socks, you can just pull out the right packing cube and hunt through that. This is more valuable while actually travelling and "living out of a suitcase", rather than unpacking at a destination, but even in the destination scenario it makes the unpacking easier. We also use the cubes for separating clean and dirty laundry.

We have a 4-piece Amazon Basics set, which are affordable, lightweight, functional, and have held up well in the year or so that we've been using them. We have the 2 medium and 2 large set; on shorter trips to warm-weather destinations our kids can (mostly) pack into one medium cube each, and the adults can (mostly) pack into one large cube each. It's usually not quite enough space though, depending on the trip. I'd been meaning to pick up another set in advance of our upcoming cruise. Thanks for the reminder. I will get a different colour this time to make it even easier to find each individual's items, and might look at some smaller sizes to allow for separation of certain items (eg. socks and undies), and to facilitate more efficient packing of cubes within the suitcase.

I was very skeptical of the value of packing cubes until I tried them, but I'm a total convert now.

 

[5Texans]

I put all of the items we would need for the first leg of the trip in 1 set of packing cubes, then what I wanted in the carry on and for everyone to wear for embarkation in another set. I also match my daughter's clothes so I packed dinner clothes for all the girls in one and then they each had their own for day clothes. I separated my undergarments, pj's/workout clothes, day outfits, dinner outfits into different cubes. My husband packed his own cubes

 

[tinkerone]

YES! Amazing things they are! I have a different color set for each of us and a black set to put dirty cloths in (dirty cloths take up less space when folded, much the same as clean cloths). We have three different sizes. I use the small for underwear/swimsuits/bras that sort of thing as well as I have a small one with travel items such as nail clippers, nail file, ginger tablets, tooth paste, toothbrush, pretty much any sundry stuff. I use the mediums for shorts and tees. I use the large for dress cloths and shoes. Everything stays organized and does not get all ruffled and wrinkled in your suitcase so it saves time. We don't actually 'unpack' we just unzip each packing cube, tuck the lid under and put the whole thing in the drawer. That way none of our clean cloths touches the drawers, you never know what could have been in the drawers before you.

The only thing I unpack would be our dress cloths, I hang that stuff up but the rest stays as it is. As I mentioned earlier I use a black set for dirty cloths and I can just toss it into the washer with the cloths when I get home (I don't think you could dry them though as the ones I have are a nylon material).
I will never pack without them again.

ETA-I am a person who feels they do save room when packing. I have tried it both ways and can put much more in when using the cubes.

 

[squirk]

I think I am the outlier here. We are currently packing up for our cruise as well (2 adults, 2 kids, 1 adult-sized teen), and are using packing cubes for the first time (a gift from my MIL).

Honestly, I think I am missing something, because I do not understand why folks love these things. Please understand, that's not a knock on people who love them. It's just that, for me, it feels like they're a solution in search of a problem. We've always stacked our clothes in "bundles" in our suitcases, and we've never found it challenging to find what we needed or to just pick up our respective bundles and move them from a suitcase to a dresser drawer.

Maybe I will sing a different tune once I've used the cubes "in the field"?

 

[clten]

I didn't use packing cubes until about 2 years ago. I got tired of having a big suitcase because it was too easy to go over the 50 lb allowable weight for flying. So to downsize my suitcase and still fit the clothes I wanted to bring, I also got some packing cubes. We choose Eagle Creek Specter Compression cubes (I got ours from Amazon). I like them very much. Definitely helps keep things organized. If we are only going to need a few things at a hotel stay before a cruise we pack it in a different color cube and it makes it easy to find and know we have everything we'll need without digging through the whole suitcase.

The ones we use may be a pricier than others but they are one of the only ones I've found with compression. I have found if you pack them neatly, even compressing them will keep them more wrinkle free than packing directly into the suitcase. When putting things into the packing cubes, I organize by what I will need for a couple of days. Then when I am on the ship, I only need to open one packing cube at a time and have my clothes for the next couple of days. When I've worn them, I can put them back into the packing cube and pack them back up. It has helped keep me organized coming and going so the last day isn't a frenzy of packing everything. I didn't think I would like them but I do.

 

[wcw57]

since you asked....
I vote no.
I've been packing suitcases for a lot of my life and I just haven't seen any burning need for them....or even a smouldering need. or any need.

but that's just me

 

[cheermom2four]

I just recently started using packing cubes. At first I had the same thought as squirk. But now that we are going overseas and really wanting to not take 1 large suitcase per person we are trying to condense it down to two suitcases and two carryons for 4 people by using these cubes. I tend to overpack so this has really helped me in only packing what I need as we only have a few color coded cubes per person and once they are filled, no more packing which means we must really think about what we must take vs what we "want" to take

 

[Dug720]

I used a gift card to get a small set a couple of years ago. The only time I have truly found them useful was for last year's Med cruise with 2 nights in Barcelona before embarkation. Then it was nice to have a "Barcelona cube" to pull out with my toiletries bag. But I also realize I could have done that with a 2 gallon ziplock bag.

 

[ludari]

As someone who has done multiple month long land/sea trips with just a carry-on back I find that using packing cubes is necessary. In fact I go one step further by using compression packing cubes which are even better IMHO. Packing cubes are great because in addition to saving space in my carry-on they also help organizing my clothes and I also use them to keep dirty clothes separate from clean clothes. I would definitely say "YES" to packing cubes.

 

[kittymamma]

After using them for a few years now , I could not imagine packing and traveling without them. Hubby has green , I have red and we both have three different sizes. Keeps everything organized in luggage and when you arrive at destination , take out cube and place it in a drawer. I purchased ours from EBag and they are holding up very well after many trips.

The Christmas before we took our four grandgirls and their parents on a Disney cruise ,we used packing cubes as a gift to announce the surprise that we were all going cruising. We had different sets of bright color bags for each girl and more subdues colors like ours for daughter and SIL. They were a big hit then and they are still using them when they travel, as are we.

So count me in the YES column for packing cubes. As an aside , I use a plain XL Hefty Zip Lock bag for dirty clothes so it can be compressed.

 

[mmouse37]

I started using them a few years ago and now never travel without them. There are two kinds...compression ones that squeeze clothes in to fit more and just regular packing cubes. I have and use the regular packing cubes...bought them at ebags and love them. We have a bunch of different colors. I just like the way they help me organize the stuff in my suitcase, not so much as a space saver.

I keep underwear/socks in one
Bathing suits, coverup, pool flip flops in one
Blouses/t-shirts in one
Nightwear/robe in one
Electronics in one
Scarves/accessories in one
Miscellaneous stuff in another

I just like how I can haul out the cubes and put them in drawers and they stay pretty neat.

I am excited for our next trip because I just bought two sets of the TAG Mickey ones at Disney Springs last month!! I love the whole TAG Mickey line of luggage tags and travel accessories.

http://www.disneycruisemomblog.com/disney-tag-travel-collection/

MJ

 

[chik1987]

We bought some in anticipation for our cruise in October. We have used them on a few short weekend type trips so far. I don't think they will really help you save space if that's your main concern. You will need a more specific compression or space saver bag for that. We use them mainly to stay organized. Most people will tell you to use one per person. We find it easier for the 4 of us to use it as a per day bag. Figure out what you all want to wear for each day and put everyone's clothes in one bag. That way when you go to get dressed in the morning pull one bag out - each person grabs their clothes out - put the dirty clothes from yesterday in the bag and throw it back in your suitcase.

 

[cgolf]

We have them and did like them for the convenience of keeping his and hers clothes separate. More importantly though we will be looking into waterproof ones now or putting the ones we have into ziplocs because our luggage has been soaked twice now, thankfully on the way home. Going down this year we did this, we just weren't as diligent on the trip home and had to wash the clean clothes we didn't rebag in the ziplocs.

 

[tinkerone]

I just like how I can haul out the cubes and put them in drawers and they stay pretty neat.

I am excited for our next trip because I just bought two sets of the TAG Mickey ones at Disney Springs last month!! I love the whole TAG Mickey line of luggage tags and travel accessories.

http://www.disneycruisemomblog.com/disney-tag-travel-collection/

MJ

This is good to know. When we were there last November they had the packing cubes on display in a window at the Market Place Co-Op. I looked for them and could not find them so I asked the sales person , who in turn asked someone, and was told they do not sell them. He said they were strictly for display and not something they sell. I'm heading back in a few months and I'll make sure to look again. So cute!

 

[Soontobegoodsell]

We actually use baggies as our packing cubes. This way, we can suck all the air out of the baggies and have more room for items. Just need to be wary of the wrinkles it can cause.

 

[jrabbit]

We use both the packing cubes, some other packing cube like thing (I put my polo shirts in it) and the Gallon sized ziplock bags for our underware - who wants the perves at homeland security pawing through my undies (DW really, really REALLY does NOT want anyone touching her's!!!)

Fill the bag, compress, then Roll the bag up from the bottom to the ziplock to get the extra air out. The Good: takes up a lot less space, bad news: can put a lot (suitcase gets heavy)

 

[wombat_5606]

We choose Eagle Creek Specter Compression cubes

I agree that compression cubes are the most beneficial cubes. Regular packing cubes only help with organization, but compression cubes help with space. We took an international trip where we were gone for a few months and I packed a suitcase with our items without using the compression cubes, then repacked the suitcase with them. The difference was dramatic.

Using compression cubes, you do have to be mindful of only packing those items that don't wrinkle, but they can make a significant difference.

 

[Quellman]

We usually drive down to WDW and I have unlimited space for things, but this year, we're flying. In addition, the ship limits what we can bring, both in allowable suitcases and storage for our suitcases. Yet, there are ample opportunities to wear items once, like formal wear, pirate costumes and in our case, SW costumes. So I'm looking for space saving techniques to get me through this cruise (and my pre and post cruise stays) with my sanity intact and my clothes reasonably wearable by the last day.

It seems one of the big tips on the web are these packing cubes. Do any of you use them and if so, what sizes do you use the most and for what types of items? Do they help?

Wait I'm confused, Disney Cruiseline limits the amount of luggage you can bring?