11-08-2026
5 min
Travel Tips
There are two types of people before a holiday: those who start packing three days in advance and those who, twenty minutes before leaving, discover that perhaps seven pairs of shoes were too many.
But learning how to pack a suitcase is not just about getting it to close.
A suitcase can be perfectly organised and still become a disaster the moment you try to fit it into the car boot alongside three others, a pushchair, a backpack and that last-minute bag that mysteriously appears on every trip.
That is why this guide is not going to stop at the classic advice to “roll your clothes to save space”.
We are going to talk about something much more useful: how to decide what to take, how to organise it, which tricks actually work and how to pack with the car you will be travelling in in mind too.
Because you probably do not need a bigger suitcase.
You need a better strategy.
When we think about how to pack for a trip, we usually start by making a list of things.
Try doing it the other way round.
Write down the days of your trip first and what you think will happen on each one:
Day 1: arrival + dinner. Day 2: beach. Day 3: city + restaurant. Day 4: day trip. Day 5: beach.
You will suddenly notice something quite obvious: many of those “just in case” items do not actually have any real moment when you are likely to use them.
It is much easier to leave out a third smart shirt when you realise you only have one special dinner planned.
You will also discover clothes that can do double duty.
A pair of trousers worn to dinner can work for a walk the next day. An open shirt can become a light layer over a T-shirt. The same trainers can work for almost every day of the trip.
Packing a suitcase around situations rather than individual garments dramatically reduces unnecessary luggage.
The question stops being “what do I want to take?” and becomes:
“when am I actually going to use this?”
If you cannot find a clear answer, you already have a candidate for staying at home.
The internet is full of universal packing formulas.
Five T-shirts. Three pairs of trousers. Two pairs of shoes.
The problem is that a week in Alicante in August does not require the same clothes as a week travelling around northern Spain in October.
The best formula is the one that fits your trip.
You can create your own rule, for example:
Or:
The real key is not the number.
It is making sure the clothes can be mixed and matched.
If a shirt only works with one particular pair of trousers, it takes up a lot of space for a single combination.
If it works with three, it starts earning its place.
When you are packing for a trip, think of your clothes as a small system of compatible pieces.
The more combinations you can create with fewer garments, the better the system works.
This is where one of the most common mistakes appears.
Seven days on holiday do not necessarily mean seven completely different outfits.
If you are wondering how to pack for a week, start by checking three things:
Will you have access to a washing machine?
Could you wash a few items by hand?
Are there clothes you can wear more than once?
In an apartment with a washing machine, for example, clothes for four or five days can easily be enough for a seven-day stay.
There is also another small mindset shift that works surprisingly well:
do not pack for seven days; pack for four and then add the exceptions.
It is much harder to remove things from a mountain of clothes than to start with a small base and add only what is genuinely missing.
This method becomes even more useful when you are looking at how to pack for 10 days.
Ten days do not necessarily require twice as many clothes as five.
They require you to know what you can repeat, combine or wash along the way.
Some clothes take up space.
And then there are shoes.
A pair of trainers can easily take up as much room as several T-shirts, especially if you do not use the space inside them.
That is why, when packing for a trip, it makes sense to choose your footwear before much of your clothing.
A sensible formula for many trips might be:
And use the space inside them.
Socks, belts, small accessories or folded garments can travel inside your shoes.
Not because the aim is to fill absolutely every available centimetre.
But because transporting air inside a suitcase is not particularly efficient.
Another trick: travel wearing your bulkiest shoes.
It sounds far too simple to count as a packing technique.
That is precisely why it works.
“Roll all your clothes.”
It is probably one of the most repeated pieces of advice on how to pack a suitcase on the internet.
And it works.
Sometimes.
T-shirts, sportswear, pyjamas and other soft garments usually make very good use of space when rolled.
But a structured shirt, a blazer or some delicate garments may arrive in much better condition when folded.
The most efficient strategy is usually a hybrid one:
Roll: T-shirts, underwear, swimwear and sportswear.
Fold: shirts, structured trousers and garments that crease easily.
Compress: soft jackets, outdoor clothing or bulky garments when you genuinely need to reclaim space.
There is also an interesting issue with compression bags.
They save volume.
They do not save weight.
A suitcase that suddenly looks miraculously small can become an extraordinarily heavy block.
This is especially important if you are flying before collecting a hire car: saving ten centimetres is not much use if you end up exceeding the airline’s baggage allowance.
Yes.
After giving you tricks for making the most of the available space, our recommendation is not to use all of it.
There is a reason.
The suitcase that leaves home perfectly closed rarely comes back exactly the same.
Things appear:
a bottle.
a souvenir.
a jumper bought during the trip.
a bag.
gifts.
clothes that no longer fold with the same mathematical precision as they did on day one.
If you begin your holiday using 100% of the capacity, every new item becomes a small logistical problem.
When packing a suitcase, try to leave a small strip of free space.
You do not need to measure it.
Just check that you can close your luggage comfortably without having to sit on it.
Your last-day-of-the-holiday self will thank you.
We have reached the point that is often forgotten when people talk about how to pack for a trip.
Packing does not end when you manage to close the zip.
The luggage has to fit somewhere.
And if you are travelling by car, hard-shell suitcases have one major disadvantage: they always keep exactly the same shape.
A flexible bag can mould itself around a wheel arch.
A backpack can fit down one side.
A small bag can fill the gap left above another one.
A hard-shell suitcase says:
“This is my rectangle. Good luck.”
That does not mean you should abandon hard-shell cases. They protect their contents very well and are extremely convenient on many trips.
But when four or five people are travelling in the same car, a combination usually works better:
main suitcases + a few soft bags or backpacks.
Luggage almost becomes a small game of Tetris.
And flexible pieces always have an advantage.
This is probably one of the most curious facts in the whole guide.
Manufacturers usually express boot capacity in litres.
400 litres.
500 litres.
600 litres.
You might assume that a car with a 500-litre boot simply has far more usable space than one with 420 litres.
But not necessarily for your suitcases.
Capacity is usually calculated using standardised methods that place small blocks inside the available space.
The problem is that you are not going to travel with hundreds of perfectly stackable little blocks.
You are going to travel with suitcases.
And suitcases are large, rigid and have wheels.
That is why two cars can have similar capacities on paper but produce very different results when you actually try to load the luggage.
Other things matter too:
This leads to a very useful idea if you are hiring a car:
do not think only in litres; think in people + pieces of luggage.
Four passengers with four cabin cases may need a different vehicle from four passengers with two large suitcases.
If you have questions about categories and sizes, you can check our guide to types of hire car before choosing.
There is a strange kind of satisfaction when we manage to squeeze one final bag into a space that looked impossible.
We push.
We turn it.
We close the tailgate slowly.
Perfect.
Except when opening it again causes an avalanche.
When loading a car, filling absolutely every available centimetre should not be the goal.
The load should remain stable, and the heaviest items should be placed low down and as far forward in the boot as possible, while avoiding loose objects in the passenger compartment.
So there is one simple rule:
If you need to use the parcel shelf as extra storage so everything fits, it probably does not fit.
The same applies to backpacks, bottles or cameras left unsecured on the seats.
The problem is no longer just about organisation.
It is about safety.
If you realise before the trip that you need a lot of space, choosing a different vehicle category may make more sense. Our guide on which car to hire for your trip can help you compare which type best suits your plans.
This trick does not save space.
It saves something that may be even more valuable after six hours of travelling: patience.
Imagine arriving at your accommodation at eleven at night.
You need:
the charger.
your pyjamas.
your toothbrush.
your medication.
And naturally, everything is spread across three suitcases.
Solution: make a small bag for the first few hours.
It could include:
If you are travelling by car, this bag should also be one of the last things to go into the boot.
That way, it will be one of the first things to come out.
It sounds trivial.
Until you arrive tired at your destination and realise you do not need to unpack everything just to find a USB cable.
It is not for Instagram.
It is for your memory.
When you finish packing a suitcase, take a quick photo of the contents before closing it.
Why?
First, because you will have a visual reference of what you packed.
Second, because it can help you remember what belongs in each suitcase if several people are travelling together.
And third, because you will have a kind of template for the return journey.
There is a strange holiday effect: the same clothes that fitted perfectly on departure day seem to double in volume when it is time to come home.
The photo can remind you how everything was arranged.
You can do something similar with the car boot.
If you find the perfect arrangement for four suitcases, two backpacks and a bag, take a photo.
A week later, you will not have to solve the puzzle from scratch.
Before leaving home, gather all your luggage together.
All of it.
Suitcases, backpacks, bags, handbag, camera, pushchair, cool box...
And ask yourself this question:
could two people reasonably move all of this?
If the answer is no, you are probably still taking too much.
It is a surprisingly effective test because it forces us to stop thinking about each suitcase individually.
Four suitcases may sound reasonable.
Four suitcases + three backpacks + two bags + a cool box + a pushchair tell a different story.
In the end, the problem is rarely one suitcase.
It is the sum of all those small items we do not count as luggage.
There is no exact formula, but this guide can help you get started.
A large backpack or small cabin case should normally be enough.
Prioritise clothes you can mix and match, and avoid doubling up on footwear.
A cabin case is usually enough for many people if the weather is stable.
This is where planning outfits rather than individual garments becomes especially useful.
Think in terms of roughly four or five days of combinations, then add the trip-specific essentials.
If you have the option to wash clothes, you can reduce things even further.
Do not try to create ten completely different outfits.
Build a small capsule wardrobe, allow for some washing and leave room for the things you may bring home.
Interestingly, a fourteen-day stay should not require twice as much luggage as a seven-day one.
Once a trip reaches a certain length, washing clothes during the holiday is usually far more efficient than continuing to increase the size of your suitcase.
If you still do not know how to pack for a trip, try this system before putting absolutely anything away.
Make five piles on the bed:
1. Essential Travel documents, medication, basic clothing.
2. I will definitely use it Clothes linked to specific plans.
3. Probably Useful but non-essential things.
4. Just in case This is where the danger begins.
5. I do not even know why I took this out of the wardrobe We have all had this pile.
Pack piles 1 and 2 first.
Then see how much space is left.
Add some of pile 3.
Pile 4 has to pass a fairly demanding test.
And pile 5 can go straight back into the wardrobe.
You have just packed your suitcase without having to painfully remove things once it was already full.
A well-packed suitcase badly positioned can turn into a bad journey.
When loading the vehicle:
And remember that a fully loaded car does not behave exactly the same as an empty one.
Carrying more weight can affect stability and increase braking distance, so it is important to adapt your driving.
Before leaving, check:
Then close the suitcase.
If it closes easily, great.
If you have to sit on it while someone else pulls the zip, go back to pile number four.
Learning how to pack a suitcase is not about becoming an expert at folding T-shirts into perfect rectangles.
It is about taking enough without carrying half your home with you.
It is about discovering that one item that works with three others is worth more than three separate items.
It is about understanding that a flexible bag can be far more useful than another hard-shell suitcase.
It is about knowing that a 500-litre boot is not much use if the luggage you chose does not fit its shape.
And above all, it is about stopping yourself from planning a holiday around every imaginary problem that might happen.
Because almost the same thing happens every time.
We fill our suitcases with “just in case” items.
And we finish the holiday having used the same things again and again.
So the next time you are packing for a trip, ask yourself one final question before closing it:
“Am I taking this because I am going to need it, or because there is still space?”
The answer could save you a few kilos.
And considerably more space than you might imagine.
Author: Wiber Rent A Car
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