Who amongst us hasn’t gone on a shopping spree for a week-long holiday only to be faced with the overwhelming suitcase space conundrum?
The temptation to simply squeeze your clothes into the case may seem like an easy option, but no one wants to deal with a broken suitcase right before it’s time to fly.
Particularly when packing bulkier items like jeans. They’re perfect for those chillier holiday nights, but wearing them for your airport trip isn’t exactly convenient and the idea of leaving them at home isn’t necessarily appealing either. But, a clever traveller has shared an ingenious ‘sushi jeans’ packing method that could very well change the game.
Rolling up all your items of clothing, not just jeans, may actually offer up a surprising amount of additional suitcase space. Go With Jo, a TikTok user, showcased her jean-rolling technique to her viewers, cheekily calling it an “important life hack”.
In her clip she wrote: “How to roll a pair of jeans to pack in a suitcase or put on a shelf”. She started by folding the jeans lengthways so that one leg was resting neatly atop the other. Next, she tucked the folded crotch area towards the pockets to form an even shape. After another half fold, she tightly rolled the jeans creating what looks like a compact ‘sushi’ roll.
Kerra Masella also chimed in on the space-saving hack, encouraging others on TikTok to “roll” rather than “fold” their clothes, including jeans. Despite their larger size, rolling the garments can help fit significantly more pairs into your luggage as Kerra demonstrated by comparing seven stacked folded pairs with seven compactly rolled ones.
One travel expert recommends using “packing cubes” as a way to organise your suitcase. This means you can sort your belongings by type underwear in one cube, trousers in another, for example.
Even seasoned traveller Jane McDonald champions the method of rolling clothes for packing.