Prevue’s Top 10 Packing Tips of All Time

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packing tips

Who better to share their best packing tips than Prevue’s editors and meeting planner readers, who are always on the road?

Here are our top 10 packing tips of all time:

1. Purchase packing cubes to separate your clothing: underwear in one, workout clothing and PJs in another; pants, shirts and dresses folded and compressed in a flat garment folder. Then you can use the packing cubes for drawer organizers in the hotel.
2. Limit yourself to two pairs of shoes, and coordinate your entire wardrobe around those. Wear your workout gear and sneakers when you travel. Sneakers take up too much room!

3. Organize your tech. Rather than take various adapters for all your laptops, phones and chargers, buy yourself a 4- or 5-way socket board (also called trailing sockets). You then only need 1 adapter and instantly get the 4 or 5 sockets you’re used to.

4. Rolling your clothes helps maximize space and minimize wrinkles. Or pack everything on hangers with dry cleaning bags on each item and they’ll be smooth and ready to hang in the hotel room.

5. Sign up for monthly makeup samples (Ipsy) that you can bring when you travel. You can set your preferences for everything, from lipstick to skincare, as well as the brands you prefer, and you will receive products from small, independent makers, as well as the brands you’ll find at Sephora.

6. Look for clothing that never needs ironing. Chicos has a line of clothing called the Travelers Collection that is easy to care for and won’t wrinkle and for more casual clothing, REI and Orvis use fabrics for both shirts and pants that don’t wrinkle.

7. Pack shoes in drawstring bags and keep their shape with socks or other items rolled up inside them. It takes up less space.

8. Keep a lightweight pair of walking sneakers, workout leggings and a top in your suitcase so you always have something to exercise in or just walk around in if there are travel delays. You don’t want to end up with only dress clothes and heels.

9. Put some dried fruit and nuts in a small plastic container, which is then useful for bringing back the occasional chocolates you may get in a hotel without having them melt or break.

10. Soak one cotton ball per day in perfume, wrap them tightly in Saran wrap, then roll them in a Ziploc bag—instead of bringing the bottle. They are so small and fit anywhere, and it eliminates the liquid issue.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

How to Dress for a Meeting

Healthy Habits on the Road

Trade Shoe Kicks for Women

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Barbara Scofidio is Editor of Prevue and heads up the Visionary Summits, our exclusive conference series targeting senior-level meeting and incentive planners. In her 30 years in the industry, she has become known for her passion around greening meetings, growing awareness of human trafficking and promoting CSR activities as part of business events. She is currently a member of SITE's Women IN Leadership committee and the media liaison for FICP's Education Committee. She was the first member of the media ever to be invited to sit on a committee by GBTA, where she spent three years on the Groups and Meetings Committee. She has also been an active member of SITE for 30 years, chairing its Crystal Awards committee and acting as a judge. Before joining Prevue in 2014, she served as Editor of Corporate Meetings & Incentives (MeetingsNet) for more than 20 years. She has a BA in Literature/Rhetoric from Binghamton University. Barbara is based outside Boston, in Groton, Mass.