TB branded Garment Folders …?!?

[Bogiesan]

In the decades many of us have been traveling, we've come up with methods we like and maybe try to convince others to try. Unrelated to packing lists, here is a partial list of packing methods: rolling, bundling, folding, stuffing, sucking, squeezing, compression, and using folders or cubes. You've got to find your tolerance for fiddliness and to know how much time and patience are required to satisfy any obsessions for tidiness, organization, or wrinkle prevention.

You can research packing methods endlessly and watch countless yootoobs demonstrating them. Beware of expensive doodads that promise to get more stuff into a smaller space while defying physics to make it weigh less. Take time to try these different systems and to practice before you commit. If you have zero experience reducing or compressing your bulk, at least a few weeks before you climb on that plane, you want to arrive at a method or combination that works for you.

[Cooner]

Bogiesan Agreed! I've been doing several conventions per year for about 25 years now, and I've worked out a travel system with two carryon bags: A small underseat rollerbag with everything I need to set up and man my little table in the exhibition hall, and a carryon backpack (previously a small duffel) for my clothes and personals for the long weekend. When I'm not traveling to a convention I'll leave the rollerbag behind and MAYBE bring a smaller personal item, or else just one-bag it with the carryon backpack. I'm always on the lookout for new ways of packing, tho I've mostly settled into a combination of folding and rolling, and using a handful of packing cubes for organization (just simple ones -- none of those gimmicky vacuum or compression ones). I could never get into bundling, though I know it works for some people -- I think I just don't wear the right combination of clothes to make it worthwhile.

It's almost down to a science, although I'm always searching for that bag that will be just a little smaller, a little lighter, a little more efficient, and pack my stuff perfectly! Now that I have the A30 I'm really looking forward to taking it on its test runs as travel opens up again. So far it worked pretty well on my drive to visit Dad a couple weeks ago; I fly to California for a wedding at the end of July for a better stress test.

On garment folders, I think I got into using the one I have for my previous bag (a weirdly shaped eBags backpack) … I dress informally but I usually wear a short-sleeve overshirt over a tshirt, and the ones I travel with tend to be of thin quick-dry materials that are kind of floppy to try to fold. I liked that the plastic guide sheet allowed me to fold each overshirt to the exact size of the folder, so that a bundle of two or three or four shirts packed flat with relatively uniform thickness at the bottom of that bag. What I might do is just see if I can cut my own guide so i can fold the shirts to perfectly fit the bottom of a large packing cube (which are out of stock now … cry!!) and accomplish the same basic idea.

It comes down to: If Tom Bihn made a garment folder that perfectly fit the Aeronaut 30, I would totally get one; but if it doesn't exist I'll just use another way to pack more suitable for the space that's there.