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How Johnny and Iz Pack | Packing Cubes
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Mar 27, 2025
What is the best way to pack for traveling? Whether you're traveling alone or with kids, packing efficiently makes a huge difference on the quality of your trip. In our Packing Cubes 101 course Johnny and Iz talk through their methods and tips for organizing a suitcase using packing cubes. These simple tips and ideas can help you create your own packing system based on your own travel needs!
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Hey, this is David again, and I'm sure that in your travels, you ran into at least one
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of these packing scenarios. You either packed too much, you didn't pack enough, you didn't pack the things that you
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needed, or you did pack the things that you needed, but you just couldn't find them
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This is why packing cubes are a must. Whether it's across the country or across the world, packing efficiently is crucial
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for any successful adventure. Now these two know something about adventure. In our Packing Cubes 101 course, they share their approach that they've cultivated over the years
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One of the things that stuck with me after taking the course was the approach to having a packing cube system
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The idea is pretty simple. The more intentional and mindful that you are about your packing cube system, the better that system is going to work for you
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So you're going to know exactly what to pack, how much to pack, and where everything is at all times
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Is this making sense? I'll just let Johnny and his explain. Okay, I'm going to use a term here that may sound a little jargony to some of you
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but it helps me think about this in a useful way, which is cube system
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A cube system is basically just a set of rules that you predetermine
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You think of it first, and then those rules help inform where things go
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Where do your pants go? Where do your shirts go? Where do your socks go? It makes a world of difference if you predetermine the system
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and then stick to it when you're out living out of a suitcase. So let me tell you what my cube system looks like
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and then I'll ask Iz to share hers, and hopefully that would give you an idea of what yours might look like
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So the main things you have to work with in terms of your cube system
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is the size of your cube and the color of your cube
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So I've got this gray. I've got these reds here. There's blue
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Easypacking has tons of different colors, and so you can choose what color you prefer
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But you can also use colors as a way to categorize different cubes
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So perhaps red is dirty clothes. And you want to put all your dirty clothes in this red cube
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Every time you see the red cube, you know this is dirty clothes. That's one way you can use color to denote your cube system
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With these four cubes, I'm able to devise what I call my core system
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The basic thing for every single trip that I know I'm going to need. Here's what it looks like. So I always need pants
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That is a part of my core system. No matter where I go in the world unless I going to just languish on a beach for a week I need pants Pants are big they bulky And so I use the large packing cube for my pants Okay so large equals pants
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Next up, I've got shirts. I always have more shirts than I do pants
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but shirts tend to be smaller. So I'm able to use this medium size
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And when I roll these shirts, which we'll talk about in the next lesson
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they will fit nicely into this medium size cube. Next we've got these smaller cubes
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This small one here that's rectangular is really good for socks. I don't know what it is about this size and shape of cube
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but it just fits perfectly with socks. I think it's because the width of a rolled pair of socks
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just goes so nicely into this, which again we'll talk about in the next lesson
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but I've always seen these rectangular cubes as optimized for socks and underwear
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Maybe if I'm going on a really long vacation and need a lot of socks and underwear
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I will use two of these. But for the most part, when I see this small cube
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that's rectangular, I think socks and underwear. That is my system. Finally, we've got this small square cube
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It's an extra small technically on easy packing. This is a fantastic thing for accessories
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If I'm going on a hike in Southern Utah, I will pack like my cheesy looking bandana in here
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because I like wearing bandanas when I go on hikes. Okay? Don't judge me
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If I'm going to a cold place, maybe I'll throw mittens or a beanie in here
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Basic accessories that can be flexible to the type of trip I'm going on
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I will usually be able to pack in here. So this is my core packing cube system
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This seems simple and intuitive, but I gotta tell you, having this intentional set of rules
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makes packing so much easier. When it's time to pack, I pull out all my clothes
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and I pull out my cubes that I keep all bundled together in storage
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like inside my suitcase. And when it's time to pack, It's easy. I know where everything goes and it's a very simple process
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I want to reiterate that this is not the absolute best way to do a packing cube system
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This is my way. It fits my needs. I've used this tool to fit how I travel and the things that I need
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Your system is going to look different. Maybe you'll use colors more or maybe you'll use some of these alternative sizings or shapes
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Easy Packing has tons of different options to use here so that you can craft your perfect packing cube system
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In fact let hear what Iz has to say about her particular packing cube system which is similar to mine but different based on her own needs So my packing system is pretty similar to Johnny but since my clothing is inherently
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smaller, it differs just a little bit. So I would rarely use the large
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This is going to be a bit too big for most of my clothing. I, for the most part, will pack about two pairs of pants for a trip, and I would put
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those in this size, and then I would also put all of my shirts in this size
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Depending on the length of the trip and what I'm doing on that trip, this will vary a little bit
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For instance, if I happen to be planning to exercise or I'm going somewhere particularly
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active, I like to have all of my workout clothes in one cube
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This way, when I'm going out for a hike or I'm going out for my morning run, I can just
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grab that, get it out, get what I need, and go and leave for my exercise
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It also helps me take stock of when I need to do laundry, if I'm running low on tops or bottoms for exercise
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I like to have that separate. The other thing that I like to have separate is if I do happen to be traveling for work and it is a more dressy occasion
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then I like to keep that separate from my everyday clothes, both for cleanliness, creases, and just general management of all of my things and organizations
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organizations. If I happen to be going somewhere for business, I would likely use this one. Maybe
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this if I need to have like a suit jacket or something that's an extra layer, and I would
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pack it very carefully in there rolling to avoid creases and just to have it separately. I find it
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nice to keep it fresh, so if I happen to be going to an important meeting or an important event
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it hasn't been touched by everything else in the bag, it's there and ready for me when I arrive
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and for the day of the said event. Next, I think it's important to talk about how our cube systems vary
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depending on the weather of the place we're going to. When we go to a warm weather place
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a few of our necessities are things like chapstick and bug spray and sunscreen
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These are going to be things that we want to have with us when we're out and about, and we also want them separate from our clothing to avoid leaking
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So cubes are perfect for this. We'll use something about this size or this size
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And what we'll do is we pack our sunscreen, our chapstick, our bug spray, any other little necessities
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while we're out and about in the hot weather. And we can just grab that from our suitcase
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throw it into our backpack for the day, and we have it for our hike or our day at the beach or a day on a boat and it really easy to access and avoids any spilling or issues there In warm weather places we also love to use cubes for swimwear
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and cubes that are wipeable like this are particularly useful because you may be throwing in a wet swimsuit after a day of swimming and you're changing locations
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You can just wipe down the inside afterwards, and you don't have to worry about any mildew or issues there
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I love to have our swimsuits separate. A lot of times when we decide to go to the pool or go
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to the beach, we're in a rush or we decided last minute that we want to dip into the pool
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to be able to grab all of our swimsuits and just rush over to get the boys dressed and us dressed
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is so much nicer than digging through a suitcase and trying to find those things
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A third distinguishing factor about traveling to a tropical place is that your clothes are going to
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be lighter weight. You're going to be able to pack more into individual spaces than you would be if
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you're going to a snowy, cold location. So what I find when I go to a tropical location is that
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I'll pack categorized based off of each person on the trip. So I'll have one large cube for Johnny
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one large cube for me, and then likely I'd choose this size for the boys each. So when I'm getting
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Henry dressed in the morning, I grab his blue cube and I know everything's in there. And when
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I'm getting Oliver dressed in the morning, I would grab his red cube and I would know everything's
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in there for him. The point with cubes is that it's a flexible system, but it is a system. And
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as you get to know them, you're going to find ways that work best for you, your family, your trip
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your travel. The biggest value of these is that it keeps everything organized in the way that works
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for you once you get there. You spend less time worrying about finding things
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in your suitcase and digging through and more time experiencing your trip
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That is the beauty of cubes. That is the value. See, doesn't that just make things easier
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I'm sure you've thought about this before in one way or another, but when it's said out loud and you point to it
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it just makes it that much more powerful and useful. I actually got my own pair of cubes right here
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If you wanna check out the rest of the course, you can do it for free. yes, you heard me right. I said faux free. All you have to do is go to this link. I'll leave it in the
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description below. If you found this helpful, then please leave a like and subscribe if you
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haven't already. That's all. Thanks. Bye
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