The Travel Edit, Part 2 -- How to Pack it All In!
A few weeks ago, Kim and Sylvie tackled one of the biggest travel dilemmas: what to pack. We settled on palette of black and white, utilizing the 5-4-3-2-1 packing method as a guide: 5 tops, 4 bottoms, 3 pairs of shoes, 2 dresses, and 1 statement accessory.
But what we heard back from you, dear EL fans, were requests to see HOW Sylvie packed for a five-day trip with all those components, only using one side of the suitcase!
This technique is often called bundle packing or interlock packing. The idea is that instead of folding each garment individually, you use the garments themselves as wrapping layers around a central core. The process roughly goes:
- Lay your longest, most wrinkle-prone items (trousers, dresses, skirts) flat in the suitcase, hanging over the edges.
- Layer progressively shorter items on top — shirts, lighter layers.
- Place a solid "core" in the center — shoes, a toiletry bag, a packing cube — something firm.
- Fold each layer back over the core in reverse order, wrapping everything tightly like an onion
The big selling point is wrinkle reduction: because nothing is folded at a hard crease. The drawback? It's best suited for trips where you can fully unpack, and be digging into your suitcase mid-trip.