Here’s a little trick that I have learned throughout my traveling. Buy the travel sized space saver bags. Depending on how long you will be gone, get 3 of these great bags and you won’t regret. Use one for all your under wears and socks. One for your shirts and one for dresses.

Fold your clothes normally and put them in the bag and vacuum seal it. It’ll compress the space by 75% less. Although they will weigh the same, you have more room. My experiences with them are: a full suitcase can become half full. Don’t put jeans, hats, and such in the space savers as they don’t compress as much. Usually it’s the soft and bulky items like sweaters compress the most.

Rolling your clothes rather then folding them always makes more room in your suitcase. If there is any room left, I then add the things from my “want” to bring pile. Make sure that you put any liquid items in a zip lock bag so that if it does open up during your trip you won’t have toothpaste or shampoo all over your clothes.

Also, don’t forget to save room in your suitcase for souvenirs that you will want to bring home!