wilson.joseph•1mo agoProlific Poster

Just realized packed cubes are a scam for short trips

Was in Chicago last month for a 3 night conference trip. I spent 20 minutes carefully rolling shirts into these little nylon cubes from a big box store, probably $30 total. Day two I needed a clean shirt and had to dig through three cubes to find it, total chaos. The bag I brought was small anyway, so the cubes just ate up space and added weight. I tossed them in the hotel trash and just packed everything loose in a backpack for the flight home. Felt way easier, honestly. Anyone else find them useless under 5 days or am I missing some trick?

3 comments

3 Comments

avery_flores171mo ago

Funny you mention this, I had almost the exact opposite thing happen on a two week trip to Portugal. I brought those packing cubes but I bought the wrong size, they were way too big for my carry on, so I ended up using one as a makeshift laundry bag and the other to hold my chargers and cables. By day six I was just shoving dirty socks in the zipper pocket and calling it organized. I swear I spent more time fighting with those things than I did actually sightseeing, and I came home with a broken zipper on one of them. Packing cubes are just fancy trash bags for people who pack way too much stuff.

spencer_coleman1mo ago

Wait, the zipper actually broke? That's the real plot twist here.

ruby_jones1mo ago

And here I thought I was the only one who treated packing cubes like overpriced zippered garbage bags. I mean, you spent 20 minutes rolling shirts like a zen master for a three night trip, and then you just tossed them in the trash? That seems a little dramatic, but I get it. I used them once for a four day weekend, and by the second morning I was pulling everything out to find a single pair of socks. The whole point is supposed to be organization, but it turns into this weird game of Tetris where you're just shifting mess around. Maybe the trick is to use them only for dirty laundry or cables, like that other commenter said, but honestly, if you're not checking a bag, they just add steps. It's a suitcase, not a filing cabinet.