6 Tips for Wrinkle Free Packing

Here's some tips for keeping clothes from getting wrinkled or ruined on your next holiday....

1. Keep your suitcase light. Jamming your case will leave your clothes looking as tired as you are after your long trip. Clothes become wrinkled almost as soon as you close the top of your bag. The easiest things to leave behind? Anything that most hotels and hostels always have such a hair dryers.  You honestly don't need to pack one.

2. Think plastic. If you remember only one word while you're packing, this is the one.  Friction causes wrinkles, plastic reduces friction. It's that easy. The best way to utilise this basic plastic physics is with dry-cleaner or garment bags. All hanger items should be packed in individual bags (one outfit per dry-cleaner bag). Clothes arrive in a perfectly preserved state. Really! Another great plastic tip: zip-top plastic bags. Use these for dirty shoes, shampoo bottles, or anything else you want to isolate from your good clothes.

3. Rolling, rolling and rolling. You have two options for items that you're not hanging: folding or rolling. Rolling is a great space-saving and wrinkle-reducing choice for jeans and T-shirts. Here's how you do it: take a pair of jeans and fold them lengthwise so that the legs are stacked on top of each other. Starting from the cuff, roll your way up. For T-shirts, place face down, fold arms back (you should now have a long rectangle), fold lengthwise, and roll up.

4. For your underwear, pick up inexpensive mesh laundry bags; they're made of nylon and are lightweight. Put your delicates in here. An added bonus: if your bag is inspected, no one need touch your underwear since an inspector will be able to see into the bag. Socks, by the way, should be rolled up and placed inside shoes or used to fill gaps in your bag (see below).

5. Fold it. For jumpers and other non-T tops, the square fold is the way to go. But remember, button all the buttons and lay shirts face down on a bed or flat surface. Smooth away wrinkles. Fold material in at the shoulders and lay arms flat along the body so that you create a roughly two-inch overlap of material on both sides. Now fold up a third of the material from the bottom and overlap a third from the top.

6. Pack it away. Take all your tidily arranged garments and put them outside your bag. Your goal is to place everything in the bag so that no empty spaces remain and items won't shift, remember your bag probably gets thrown around a lot in the planes. Lay your bag flat and put folded clothes in piles down the centre. Put your toiletries kit at the bottom of your bag when it's standing (this should now be the heaviest item in your bag; in this position it won't crush other items). Rolled clothes fit into the spaces around the stacked clothes. Single shoes should be tucked into remaining openings (remember, shoes aren't friends; they don't need to travel right up next to each other). Socks fill in remaining holes. Voila! You are now a wrinkle-free traveller!