The Genius Carry-On Packing Trick I Wish I’d Known Sooner

The Genius Carry-On Packing Trick I Wish I'd Known Sooner originally appeared on Parade .

One popular travel trend that has popped up all over TikTok is seeing people pack for one, two, even three week trips–all in a carry-on. As an avid traveler myself, I'm a huge fan of this trend. I'm a freelance travel writer and ex-cruise ship performer, and I've gotten used to packing as precisely and as minimalist as possible. When it comes to shorter trips, I always opt for using just a carry-on. It makes the process of traveling from city to city much more bearable, and it takes away the stress of possibly losing your luggage on a flight.

The main issue that many people have when it comes to using just a carry-on is the fact that it doesn't give them much room for many items. The process of packing clothing, especially, can be tricky. Many people feel that in order to use the carry-on, they must pair down their clothing options entirely. I recently learned, however, that it's not necessarily what you pack, but how you pack.

When I was facing a trip that included four different countries, multiple climates, and clothing for a wedding I was a bridesmaid in, I thought that the idea of using a carry-on was absolutely off the table. However, I knew that it would save me money on my flights since I wouldn't have to pay for a suitcase, and I knew it would make my travel place to place much easier. I took to TikTok for inspiration, and came across a packing hack that changed my entire trip.

Related: This Simple Packing Hack Saves Me Every Time

Follow This Special Folding Method To Pack Your Carry-on

I've always been a huge fan of packing cubes, but I didn't necessarily have a technique in filling them. In a TikTok video by Rilee Smith (@rileejsmith), she expertly showcases how packing cubes are the best way to pack a carry-on. She first starts her video by showing a popular method to pack clothing in a carry-on without cubes. In this method, she folds her clothes to fit the height of her suitcase, and she places them in like sardines, one next to the other. By using this method, her clothes took up one whole side of her suitcase.

In Rilee's next demonstration, she takes the same clothing pieces and begins to pack them in packing cubes. She first does this by rolling her clothing piece by piece, and places them into one packing cube. This packing cube, which was then filled with all of the items that took up one side of a suitcase, only takes up half a side of the suitcase. That's already a huge improvement–but then she takes it even further. In her last demonstration, she folds each clothing item to match the size of the packing cube perfectly. This way, they lay nice and flat inside the cube. With this method, her cube has a bit less bulk height-wise than it did with the rolling method.

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Make Sure You Get The Right Kind Of Packing Cubes

As a huge fan of using packing cubes, I now tend to follow the folding method like Rilee demonstrated. This method won't be successful, however, if you don't have the right kind of packing cubes. First and foremost, I recommend getting a set of packing cubes that gives you a large variety of sizes. This way, you can play a little game of Tetris to get all of the clothing to fit into your suitcase, and you can keep each type of clothing organized in its own cubes. For example, my underwear and socks usually need a smaller, longer shaped packing cube. My t-shirts tend to fit into a medium sized cube, and my dresses or pants need one of the larger cubes. By having different size variations, you're actually able to fit more inside the suitcase.

Another tip is to get packing cubes that have a compression zipper. This is an extra zipper that helps to squeeze the air out of the cube, therefore compressing it and making it less bulky. When doing this, you cut down a significant amount of room that the cubes take up. Many times, I'm able to place two packing cubes on top of each other in my carryon, where before the compression zipper, they were too bulky to do so. By following the folding method with compression packing cubes, you will be able to pack a large amount of clothes in a small amount of space, seamlessly. 

Related: I've Tested 20+ Pairs of Travel Pants—These Are the Ones I Trust on Every Flight

The Genius Carry-On Packing Trick I Wish I'd Known Sooner first appeared on Parade on Jun 6, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 6, 2025, where it first appeared.