How to Pack Light to Travel With Ease

These 10 tips will free your suitcase of excess bulk and help save money on baggage fees, too

a gif of items coming out of an open suitcase

As baggage fees and other travel costs rise, strategies for packing lighter help make it easier and less expensive to travel.

Liam Eisenberg

Berit Thorkelson,

AARP

Published June 11, 2026

Key takeaways

Airlines collected more than $7.4 billion in baggage fees in 2025, with additional hikes in early 2026.
Packing systems like mix-and-match wardrobes and early planning help flyers travel lighter.
Mid-trip laundering and odor-resistant fabrics let travelers re-wear clothes longer with fewer pieces.

It’s not just the cost of flights currently soaring — checked-bag fees, too, have hit record highs. U.S. airlines brought in more than $7.4 billion in passenger baggage fees in 2025, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, up 162 percent over five years. And that was before most major domestic carriers raised fees by an additional $10 in early 2026 to offset rising fuel costs.

Packing light can help travelers regain a little control, providing some financial relief to those 50 and older who named cost as the greatest barrier to travel in AARP’s 2026 Travel Trends survey. Jim Widder, a budget-travel blogger in his 60s, is motivated by saving $40 or more per checked bag, so he doesn’t check a bag.

“Plus, waiting in line to get your bag checked and picking up the bag after your flight is not the way I want to spend my time,” he says.

I’m with Widder on both counts. My dedication to packing light only increased in my fifth decade, and not just for time and money reasons. I find it’s easier to navigate airports and around cities when carrying less stuff.

Below, find tips and packing strategies from frequent travelers who’ve spent years perfecting the art of traveling light, including Widder and me. Adopting even one or two could make a difference on your next trip.

Roll and compress

Several of the travelers I connected with for this story swore by clothes-rolling (versus flat-packing) and by using vacuum-packing bags or compression packing cubes. Each tactic saves space on its own, but together, they’re doubly effective. Among the committed: Patti Morrow, who writes about boomer travel on the website Luggage and Lipstick and rarely checks a bag. “Once you zip [your clothes into] the compression cube, there’s another zipper that will compress your clothes, giving you more room in your suitcase for other things,” Morrow says. Keep an eye on bag weight, she says, since compression can increase density. Note: Overweight fees can top $100 per checked bag, per leg.

Pick the right under-seat bag

Take advantage of every square inch you’re offered — make sure your personal item bag maxes out the space under the seat in front of you. Widder typically considers his backpack as overflow wardrobe space, noting that he and his wife “easily fit two to four days’ worth of clothes in our personal items.” I take it one step further and skip the carry-on altogether during shorter trips on budget airlines.

Pack by the numbers

Perhaps you’ve heard of the 5-4-3-2-1 strategy, where you limit clothing items to five tops, four bottoms, three pairs of shoes, two dresses and one accessory. Or the 333, a.k.a. the Sudoku packing method, where you curate coordinated clothing items within a three-by-three, Sudoku-like grid. Both use parameters that force you into a space-saving capsule wardrobe for travel.

Joe Cronin, 58, president of International Citizens Insurance, a global insurance broker, developed his own numbers-based system while living and working around the world for more than two decades. “I stopped thinking in outfits and started thinking in pieces. Five tops, three bottoms, two shoes, everything mixes. This way, you can cover two weeks in a carry-on,” he says. “I leave the ‘just in case’ items at home … I’ve never once regretted leaving something behind as much as I’ve regretted lugging it through four airports.”

Start packing early

A last-minute packer for decades, I finally got better at building in more time after experiencing what a difference it makes in helping me pare down. I pull my suitcase out about a week before I travel and load it up with clothing possibilities. Throughout the week, I revisit them in small stretches to swap and subtract. On the eve of my trip, I feel confident that I’ve thoroughly considered my choices, which helps me resist panicky last-minute toss-ins.

Bring detergent sheets

Booking lodging with laundry facilities or near laundromats was another common tactic among the frequent travelers I surveyed. Many said they brought half as many clothes and then washed them mid-trip. Widder, who tucks a few detergent sheets into his luggage, says this tactic helped him and his wife travel for 17 days with only a carry-on and a backpack each. “It is a minor inconvenience to do laundry on vacation, but it is well worth it compared to having a checked bag,” he says.

Refresh to re-wear

Lisa Pittman, a 51-year-old certified travel coach known as the Travel Docta, brings a fabric-refreshing spray or a baggie of dryer sheets to fold into fabric after wearing. Since she’s prone to hot flashes, she also travels with body wipes and absorbent powder. Together, her method is equal parts “prevention (to minimize the smell in my clothes) and intervention (to freshen up after a series of hot flashes),” she says. With it, even just one black wrinkle-resistant dress can get her through a trip’s worth of evenings when styled with different scarves and outerwear.

Pare down shoes

Shoes are space hogs, yet it’s challenging to travel with fewer than three pairs. I often bring along sneakers I plan to scrap or donate, then leave them behind after their final hurrah, to make room for souvenirs.

Skip toiletries

Limit toiletries to the minimum, and keep them travel-sized, at most. Skip completely when you can, opting to use hotel freebies or purchase a set at your destination instead. “Unless your products are expensive, highly specialized or prescription, there’s no need to bring everything with you,” says Meredith Thomas, who writes about her travels on her blog, Two Packs and a Pup. “These products are easy to find in your destination and definitely cheaper than paying to check a bag.” She recommends streamlining makeup routines, too. “Try to embrace ‘vacation you’ and go easy on it,” she says, and consider limiting any glam-up to one fun lip color.

Fine-tune fabrics

Be selective about what you pack, especially for items you’ll wear next to your skin. Steven Vigor, 64, CEO of luxury travel concierge agency Revigorate, swears by merino wool shirts, even during warm-weather travel, for their sweat-wicking and bacteria-resistant properties. “It won’t smell, even on longer days of travel,” he says, adding that “one merino shirt alone can replace several shirts, if needed, saving space in your luggage.” And stick to quick-dry, breathable socks and undies, says Jacquie Whitt, 69, founder of Adios Adventure Travel, a specialized travel agency and tour operator. “Toss your dirties into the shower and stomp on them while you get clean,” she says. Dry overnight on faucet knobs or on top of a towel hung on the towel bar. If they’re still damp in the morning, Whitt finishes the process with a hair dryer.

Double-duty outerwear

Wear your bulkiest clothes on the plane, but consider ways to take this space-saving tactic one step further. Pittman recommends using jacket pockets to transport smaller items. There’s actually outerwear designed explicitly for this purpose. And Thomas rolls her jacket into a ball or stuffs it with other layers, to use as a pillow. “No neck pillow to carry around and more space in your suitcase — win-win!” she says.

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The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Berit Thorkelson is a travel writer and editor for aarp.org. She has also written for publications such as National Geographic Traveler, Better Homes & Gardens and The Minnesota Star Tribune’s travel section.