Several months ago I asked you all for your opinions on packing cubes and if you had any favorites (you can read that post here). I read all of the feedback and decided to purchase these TravelWise Packing Cubes. Now it it time to let you hear my feedback and let you know what I think of them. I have used them twice now – last month on a trip to Las Vegas (which I forgot to photograph) and last week on my cruise on the Disney Dream. Truthfully, I am surprised at how much I love them. Before I tried them, I read all sorts of great reviews from people who swear by them, and I’ll be honest and say that I was skeptical and didn’t really see what the big deal was. Well, now I do. And this is only after using them for just myself. I have 3 young daughters that I still pack for and I can’t wait to try them out in their suitcases as well. I have no doubt that these will make it much easier for us to stay organized while traveling, especially in the close quarters of a cruise stateroom. My husband was looking over my shoulder while I was packing and he even mentioned that he really wants some. They really did make a huge difference!
Now, onto the details. The set I bought came with a large (17.5″ x 12.75″ x 4″), medium (13.75″ x 9.75″ x 3.75″), and small (11.5″ x 6.75″ x 3.75″) bag. The bags are zippered on 3 sides and have a mesh top, which makes it easy to see the contents:
I decided to use the large bag for my clothes, the medium bag for my swim suits and cover ups, and the small bag for my underwear and pajamas. I also found myself wishing that I had more bags for things like shoes and toiletries. One thing that surprised me was how much these bags can actually hold. Here you can see how deep they are:
None of the bags were as full as they could have been, and I had quite a bit of stuff in there. For example, in the large bag, I had 3 long knit dresses, 8 blouses/shirts, 2 tank tops, one pair of capri pants and one pair of shorts. I rolled most of them but had a couple folded flat on the top, and could have fit in several more items without any trouble. In the medium bag, I had 3 swim suits and 2 cover ups, and it really was only about 2/3 full. Once I put them in my suitcase, it looked like this:
I had several pairs of shoes underneath the packing cubes, and ended up placing my toiletry and make up bags on top of them. Once we arrived in our stateroom on the ship, I placed my suitcase under the bed and just slid it out whenever I needed to get to something. I could have easily pulled the cubes out and placed them in drawers for even easier access, which I would have done had we been on the ship longer than 3 nights. I can also see myself switching bags around during longer vacations and keeping dirty clothes separate from clean ones. There really are a lot of possibilities. This was, by far, the most organized packing/traveling experience I have ever had. I will be ordering more cubes for the whole family and plan to use them on our upcoming November cruise (trip report here). Once again, you can purchase the ones I use by clicking here.
If you would like more packing tips, you can read my other packing related posts here:
How I Stay Organized While Traveling
10 Things I Always Pack for a Disney Cruise
How I Pack Our Princess Dresses
My Top 10 Disney Cruise Packing Tips
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Glad to hear that you liked using your cubes. Now you just need to check out packing folders…especially if your husband will potentially be packing with them for business trips. You could use one as well, for all of your dresses and pants. The closer you can get your clothing to fit snugly in the cubes, the more efficient your packing will be, as the bags are designed to compress your clothing so you aren’t packing fluff and air.
After trying a few standard cubes, you can now start sampling some of the specialty cubes as well. I use a very small red one for a first aid/minor emergency kit, a tube cube for my curling iron and hair straightener and some of the packing pouches for keeping our travel activities separated out and easy to grab on the plane.
The packing folders are definitely next on my list to try!
I love these packing cubes! I’m a flight attendant and have been using them for a couple of years. I can’t imagine not using them now and wondered how I packed for 18 years without them. I don’t use the largest one very often though. Everything stays contained and compact and great to categorize, like socks and underwear, swim suits and cover ups, shirts, pants, and so on. I’m always raving about the cubes to my coworkers. I found the sharper Image brand at TJ Maxx for $14.99 for three. I may get another pack for my son’s things on our upcoming cruise!
I know Kris! I don’t know how I used to pack without them either! I also plan on buying a set for each of my kids. And what a great deal at TJ Maxx!
Thank you for this post! I am always looking for better ways to pack. What was your experience with wrinkling? I’m concerned a lot of items would need to be ironed before being worn.
Thanks!
Hi Michelle! I try to roll stuff as much as possible to minimize wrinkling, but I also bring along a travel size bottle of Downy wrinkle spray which really does work well. Not as good as an iron, but much better than I expected! If you really do end up needing an iron, they have them in the laundry rooms on the ship.