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My Trick to Simple Packing: Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes

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Family adventures are awesome.

Packing for them…well, not so much.

Whether it’s a camping road trip or a trip around the globe, packing for a family is a PAIN!  Honestly, nearly every time I start packing, I completely understand why so many people never get out with their kids – it’s a ton of work.

And thus I’ve struggled for nearly 8 years.

Until now.

I found Eagle Creek’s Pack-It Specter system, and it’s completely changing the way that we travel.

Two international trips later and I’m pretty convinced that I will use these on Every. Single. Trip.

Here’s why they’re so great:

5 people. 7 changes of clothes each. 1 Bag.  Miraculous, I tell ya!
5 people. 7 changes of clothes each. 1 Bag. Miraculous, I tell ya!

They control how much you pack.

With a giant bag, it’s easy to take more than you need, but if you’re restricting what you take to the cubes, you will instantly pack a lot smarter (and less).

 

They keep things organized.

We give each person a different color so that we instantly know which things belong to which kid.  This means that we can now put everyone’s things in one or two big suitcases instead of six smaller ones.

 

They can hold A LOT.

On our last trip, we knew that we wouldn’t have access to a washing machine (and would be playing and hiking in the Jordanian desert each day) so we decided to take 7 changes of clothes for each of the kids.  For our three younger kids, they could fit all 7 changes of clothes in a cube and their extra shoes, socks, swimwear, in a half cube (our oldest needed 2 cubes to fit all his things).  Even as adults, we were able to fit all of our things in a cube and a medium garment holder.  Did we pack light?  Not so much – just smart!

 

They are super lightweight and packable.

The largest cube weights only 1 oz so weight is essentially a non-issue.

 

The smallest bag (the quarter cube) is tiny, yet perfect for kid things.

Each kid can fill it with toys and that’s all the toys they can take.  It’s been a fantastic way to let them be in charge of packing what they want, but they still have a strict limitation on size (which I love).  It also perfectly fits 3 diapers, some wipes and a spare onesie for the baby (so I pretty much use it every day).

So far my only challenge with them is keeping them packed.  I find that because I need to pack them pretty carefully, I need to be the one to divy out their clothes to each of them so that I don’t have to completely repack everything every day (we’ve found that it works well to roll the older kids clothes and fold them for the baby and toddler).  Also, I’m still struggling packing up our dirty laundry.  I’m thinking about getting a few extra cubes to help manage that, but I’m thinking there will be a bigger learning curve with tackling that side of things, so we’ll see how it goes 🙂

No matter what your adventure of choice, I really think that this system will help simplify tour travels.  Whether that’s flying to the other side of the world or heading up tot he mountains for a weekend camping trip, these bags will help you keep your things organized and together.

Get ’em.  Try ’em.  Love ’em!

 

About Jessica Averett

Hi, I’m Jessica, a mom of 5 kids and married to my favorite adventure partner. I love to bike, ski, camp and hike. We've visited over 40 countries with our kids, but are equally happy on the road as we are exploring our home state of Utah.

3 thoughts on “My Trick to Simple Packing: Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes”

  1. I’m thinking I really need to get a set of these! Especially after we welcome baby#2 into the world, I’m going to need a system to stay a little more organized in our large suitcase. Thanks!

    Reply
  2. I love this idea- I find it overwhelming packing for our family of 5, especially when we stay overnight in a hotel and need to pull out just an outfit, pajamas, and toiletries for everyone. Do you have any recommendations about which cube sizes are the most useful, do you use an EC toiletry kit, and have you ever used EC’s clean/dirty bags?

    Reply
    • We just use the regular set of three. For toiletries we just use the smaller bags since they don’t used as much. As far as dirty clothes go it kind of just depends on trip length. We have one set rule that only clean clothes stay in the cubes. Sometimes we take a mesh bag for dirty. Clothes and other times we just thrown the dirty in one suitcase and all the cubes with clean clothes etc.

      Reply

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