I travel with a mini rechargeable air pump that I use in combination with my vacuum sealed bag.
I got it from Amazon.
Vaccum bags are amazing. You can fit a hell of a lot of stuff.
I exclusively use hand-rolled vacuum bags to put inside my r/onebag backpack. They are phenomenal. No problem packing a week’s worth of clothes in a normal 27-liter backpack that way.
I’m in Europe. The ones I use come from a store common in at least the Nordic countries: Clas Ohlssons.
Vacuum bags are great if weight isn’t an issue, as long as you have access to a vacuum. You can get basic ones at most dollar/pound stores. I used it moving UK to US and got all my winter coats and hoodies in a single suitcase.
I used roll up and packing cubes last time and they worked well. Got a lot of stuff into a smaller space. The cubes I got could be compressed with an extra zipper and made smaller. I gave up on the vacuum ones because if the seal breaks, you need a vacuum to suck the air out again and you might not have one.
For large objects like coats, vacuum seal bags are fantastic for saving space. For lightweight clothing, rolling performs nicely but compresses less. Vacuum bags could be well worth the expense if you are carrying a lot!
Vacuum sealing clothes: unless you have a vacuum sealer at your destination, you’ll have problems bringing it all back.
Vacuum bags are great if you don’t care about wrinkled clothes.
Tobin said:
Vacuum bags are great if you don’t care about wrinkled clothes.
Yep! I can always iron or rewash things later so I’m not worried about wrinkles. I figured rolling my clothes would wrinkle them anyway!