If you plan to go on a work trip or family vacation, it's important to pack strategically. Careful packing can ensure you have room to bring essential items, make bags easier to haul on planes and through hotels, and prevent you from paying additional airline fees for overweight luggage. Here's how to pack light and save space in your suitcase. 

4 Ways to Save Space While Packing

1. Wear Bulky Items

Jeans, sweaters, and blazers are often made from bulky fabrics such as denim, corduroy, and wool, which can quickly take up room in your luggage. Wearing as many of these items as comfortably possible while on your way to your travel destination can free up space in your bag. 

Additionally, while in transit, wearing a pair of shoes that matches other packed outfits may eliminate the need to use up space by packing additional pairs. If you must pack bulky items, such as a coat or warm blanket, you can vacuum-seal them to compress them and conserve space. 

2. Fill Hollow Items

Though hats, bike helmets, and purses are often large and take up space in bags, they have hollow centers that you can use for packing items. For instance, you might stuff extra pairs of socks, scarves, or wrinkle-free shirts into these hollow areas. This can give you more usable space in your suitcase for packing essentials such as medications and toiletries. 

3. Roll Clothing

Rolling clothes compresses them and makes them simpler to stack, which can create more room in your luggage. Additionally, rolling garments may make it easier to fit them into smaller bags. This can also prevent creases and wrinkles that might form as a result of folding clothes before packing them. 

Start from the bottom, and roll each garment into a neat, tightly-wrapped tube before adding it to your suitcase. 

4. Use Travel-Sized Bottles

Full-sized bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash can quickly take up space in travel bags. Purchase travel-size versions of your favorite toiletries, or buy empty travel bottles and fill them with the products you need for your trip. 

Rather than putting these bottles into toiletry bags, you can place them into plastic zipper bags and remove the air before packing them. In addition to conserving space, the plastic may prevent liquids from spilling out and damaging your clothes or suitcase. 

When you need lodging for your next business or leisure trip, contact Holiday Inn Express & Suites. Located in Clarksville, AR, this hotel offers clean and comfortable rooms, including free WiFi access and complimentary breakfast to guests passing through or visiting the Ozarks. Call (479) 705-7600 to make hotel reservations and visit them online to learn more about this hotel's in-room and onsite amenities.