Who would have thought that all those hours playing Tetris while procrastinating on my homework would pay off?!

As it turns out, the key to solving my packing woes was pack my clothes flat (instead of rolling) and to only compress one of my compression bags…

All I’m missing for personal items in my suitcase are my French press and my toiletries bag. I am reasonably confident I will be able to fit those into my computer bag. I prefer to travel with my toiletries in the “personal item” anyway, in case I have to check my suitcase and also to hopefully avoid having to open the suitcase at security. Anything that I think is going to scan funny is better off all together in one bag.

So this is the final weight of my suitcase, 9.7KG!

The suitcase is definitely packed to its limit, but it zipped with ease.

First layer has a large packing cube, which I had to compress to get the suitcase to close with ease. Next to it are a pair of sandals and below the sandals are my travel purse.

Take off that layer and you get the other large packing cube, the two small ones, and another pair of shoes (which fit nicely in that groove between the packing cubes).

And now we get to the magical part… There are basically “ribs” at the bottom of the suitcase for the handle mechanism. Look what fit in the dead space between the ribs! Two spare pairs of glasses, one spare pair of prescription sunglasses, my jewelry box, and another pair of sandals!

I really don’t think I’ll be able to improve on this and hope that the toiletries bag will fit in the computer bag! Thankfully, I really don’t have much to bring on that end and I know I have a few items that would fit in the space I still have left between the ribs.

What I love about the packing cubes is how little work it is to get to the small items at the very bottom without making a giant mess!

Yes, I will be posting my packing list at some point. 🙂