76. Luxury Travel Packing Made Easier: How to Fit Everything You Need in a Carry-On!

Nothing screams 'vacation' quite like dragging a 50-pound suitcase across charming cobblestone streets, right? Ugh! Let’s be honest, we’d all love to pack lighter, but somehow, it always feels impossible. In this episode, photographer and packing pro Lynnsey Phillips shares her best tips for traveling light without sacrificing your style. Tune in to learn how to ditch the oversized luggage and fit everything you need into a single carry-on!

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Transcript

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Michele:
Hello, jetsetters, and welcome back to another episode of jetsetting with me. I am super excited. You already heard her voice. It's Lindsey Phillips is with us today. I'm gonna let her really introduce herself, but I'm just gonna say that she travels a lot. She lives out of her suitcase, and she only travels with a carry on. And that's all I need to say for you to understand why I have invited her on. Because if you've been here more than a minute or if you're new, let me just tell you, I need to learn how to pack in a carry on because I too live my life out of a suitcase.

Michele:
But right now, it's a checked suitcase. So we're gonna learn this together, listeners. And with no further me talking or squirreling, Lindsay, please introduce yourself and welcome.

Lynnsey Phillips:
Thank you. Thank you so much, Michelle, for having me. I'm excited to talk about something mundane, but that I am passionate about, which is traveling with a carry on. Yay.

Michele:
So tell us why is that you, like me, live out of a suitcase.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. So I am a wedding photographer, and the majority of my jobs are not where I live. So I am traveling almost every weekend during the summer. I move quickly. I don't want to waste time lugging my suitcase around. I wanna get in, do my job, and then go back to my family. So when I can carry as little as possible, that just makes my experience of traveling for work that much better.

Michele:
Cool. So I know that many of my listeners travel for 7 to 10 days at a time. And Samantha Brown of Samantha Brown Travels has great Instagrams, and I'll leave that in the show notes on how to pack for that long in a carry on. I still don't get it, but I want some of your tips. Even though I know you're traveling for a weekend, you're also bringing a lot of gear with you. So I still think this is gonna apply for everyone who travels for longer than just a long weekend, although that is what I'm getting ready to do. So I have to pack tonight for a long weekend. So lay it on me.

Michele:
What is your first big tip?

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. So I will say that even when I'm traveling for 7 to 10 days or like off to Europe or something, I am still packing in a carry on. So Oh,

Michele:
bless you. I want to be that person.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. And I think something to remember, like, before I dive into tips is your enjoyment of travel is inversely proportional to the size of your luggage. Oh. So you are going to enjoy being away from home so much more with the less shit that you have with you. I promise. But there are some practical things that you need to realize are just I like to know the steps. You know? How do I do a thing? One of my things that really helped me in the beginning was packing cubes. And for those who don't know what those are, they're basically just little fabric mesh bags, very similar to what you would put your delicates in in the laundry.

Lindsey Phillips:
They're just more structural.

Michele:
And I have those on my Amazon travel list, so we will put that link in the show notes too. But now I just have to ask because my friends at Once Upon A Wardrobe, they design people for vacations, like helping them dress, which makes packing a lot easier if you know what you're gonna take. But we have an ongoing controversy. I'm in favor of packing cubes, and she says use quarter ziplocks and pack each day. So give us your expert opinion on that.

Lindsey Phillips:
So I personally like packing cubes because you can roll your clothes up or do, like, the KonMari folding method. So all of your pieces are stacked like a book, So you can just open the cube and see everything inside. I guess in a ziplock bag, you could still see things. You wouldn't be able to see everything.

Michele:
Hashtag team packing cubes. Me too. Okay. But now you mentioned KonMari method. So I'm gonna let you backtrack and tell us your first step was to use packing cubes. But now you've mentioned 2 things, roll up method and KonMari. So go ahead.

Lindsey Phillips:
So the KonMari method is Marie Kondo. I'm sure everybody's heard of the life changing magic of tidying up. She's just the most darling woman ever. And you can find examples on YouTube. She has a method to folding every piece of clothing. And I don't do this for my house because that is so time consuming. But for packing, it just condenses things down really easily. And if I don't have time, then I literally just roll the clothes up as tightly as I can and shove them in there.

Michele:
I try and do the rolling method too. But what if I have which I always do because I'm always taking photos, a nice dress or a dinner outfit and multiple pairs of shoes. I feel like the rolling method doesn't necessarily always work for me.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. It doesn't always work. If I can't get away with bringing something nice that also doesn't wrinkle, then I will make room for a portable steamer. If I absolutely want to wear something that I know that rolling it up is going to wrinkle it and it's gonna look bad, then, yeah, I'll bring a steamer with me. And then in terms of shoes, I try and pack really if it's like a nice heel or something like that, shoes that are kinda slinky and you can kinda push down. But overall, I'm trying to bring one pair of shoes that are easy to walk in, that I can wear for my whole trip. If I need a second pair or third pair, the circumstance has to really call for it. So if I'm going on a trip and I know I'm gonna be going on a hike or something, yeah, I'm gonna need hiking boots.

Lindsey Phillips:
But I really hate putting them in there, but sometimes necessity calls for it.

Michele:
So I will say that I use my Allbirds as kind of an all like, it can be dressed up or dressed down. They're like a neutral color canvas Allbirds shoe. But I will also say that, like, if I'm going to the theme parks and I'm walking everywhere all at once all the time, I have to bring my Hokas. So sometimes, like, I'll wear my Hokas and pack my Allbirds because they're thinner just to help me with that. But, okay, tip number 2.

Lindsey Phillips:
Tip number 2 is all of your bags. Make sure that they have really strong zippers because we are putting a ton of stuff in our carry on, which like, sure, I travel with the carry on, but that doesn't mean it's not packed to the brim, and I'm not sitting on the bag to get it to zip. You need to make sure that you're investing in your bags because the zippers are what hold it together. And I bought a really cheap pair of packing cubes off Amazon, and the zippers broke within, like, one trip. And I'm like, what's the point of shoving all my clothes into this cube if the zipper is gonna break?

Michele:
Good tip. Very good tip. I have nothing to say about that other than that's so true because like, I actually bought some nice luggage and the zipper broke off. And that was what prompted me to buy my latest incantation of a carry on. Yeah. Okay, moving on. Yeah. Tip number 3.

Lindsey Phillips:
Tip number 3 is bags with 4 wheels. So I have made the mistake of buying a carry on with only 2 wheels. And that thing is gonna be heavy. If you are packing all your stuff in there, it hurts your arm and your elbow and your wrist to be dragging that along. So get a bag with 4 wheels because then you can just saunter through the airport with it rolling beside you. And then side note on that, get a backpack with a trolley sleeve.

Michele:
Yeah.

Lindsey Phillips:
So the sleeve on the back of the backpack. So you can just slip the backpack on top of the handle of that suitcase, and it's just all gliding with you on 4 wheels. It's amazing.

Michele:
I confirm all of that. Instead of a backpack, I got something that matches my luggage with the trolley slips because I'm Yeah. Bougie and extra AF as everyone listening here knows. But I know in your carry on, that's where you pack your gear. Correct?

Lindsey Phillips:
Yes.

Michele:
So let's say you're going on a 4 day trip. What clothing are you bringing versus wearing? And you basically don't put any of that in your carry on because you have all your gear.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah, so my carry on if I'm traveling for work is specifically used for gear. It's called Think Tank travel bag. And sometimes I might roll up a dress or something in there, but typically it's used for gear. So that means I'm having to pack everything that I want to wear or my toiletries, all of it into my backpack or trolley bag. I tend to wear a lot of dresses. So I love, like, Christy Dawn's kind of midi length flowy floral dress. And that's really easy because it's one garment that's the whole outfit, and it works great, and they roll up really nice. So linen is really lovely.

Lindsey Phillips:
And then in terms of toiletries, oh, that's something I wanna look up for you. They're like little hexagon magnetic toiletry things. Magnetic. Mhmm. And then the tops have little labels on them for what's inside, and those swap around too. Nice. They're wonderful. They're very cute, and that's what I use for all my toiletries.

Lindsey Phillips:
So, like, all my serums and my moisturizers and the things I need are in little travel things that don't leak.

Michele:
Okay. So I just said I'm X-ray AF, but, like, I cannot deal with hotel shampoo and conditioner. And sometimes it's the 2 for 1. They don't get it. Like that damages my hair color. Like this is why I get a blowout before I go on vacation every time so I cannot have to wash my hair for, like, as long as possible. So does that fit in those little magnetic things or do you have a travel size of that? Because Europe is starting effective immediately to do the whole 211 bag. And because they don't honor TSA pre check, like that means pulling out shit from your carry on.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. And I've been there at the London airport for a connection and having to fit fit all your toiletries into that tiny little plastic bag they give you

Michele:
Mhmm.

Lindsey Phillips:
And having to give away certain things because they won't let you. So I've been there. I've done it. It is not great, and I get nervous every time I go through you guys

Michele:
security. Well, any European security. On the one hand, I'm always like, we should have security like this, and I would feel safer on my plane. But on the other hand, I'm like, it is kind of a PS. So there's that. Yeah.

Lindsey Phillips:
I'm like you and that I try and do, like, a really good wash and blow dry and style of my hair before I go so that I'm not having to wash my hair while I'm gone.

Michele:
I cannot tell you how good that makes me feel.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. And, like, I have pretty curly hair, so I really don't wash it more than twice a week anyway. And sometimes when I'm working though, I get so sweaty after a job and all I want is just to do a nice wash of my hair. So if that's the case, then I'll just go to the store that's there and buy some shampoo.

Michele:
Okay. And you can get a travel size so you don't feel like you're wasting the whole thing.

Lindsey Phillips:
Sometimes I'll especially go to, like, the travel size area of the store and get something. European beauty products are usually much higher quality anyway, so I can trust those a little bit more.

Michele:
That is true. I have once forgot all my makeup, and I was in Copenhagen. And while I went to Tivoli Gardens, my husband and son went across to, like, what we would call CVS and bought makeup, and it was, like, you know, department store quality.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. No. It's amazing. Like, same if, like, I'm in France. I'm going to hit up their pharmacies like no other. I need an extra carry on to bring home the things that I buy at Paris drugstores.

Michele:
Okay. So that actually brings up a good point. So you only have a carry on and it's already filled to the brim. Mhmm. And your backpack slash personal item, other carry on item, we we all know we're limited to 2, has all your gear. Where are we putting the chocolate that we bring home from Switzerland? I mean, where's our souvenirs? Where are they going?

Lindsey Phillips:
I typically put those in my trolley bag and just make sure that that has a little bit of extra room. But bigger things like one time I bought like a beautiful plate from Italy, and I just had them ship it.

Michele:
I've had to ship stuff home too, which is still cheaper than paying, especially on an international flight for a checked bag or an extra bag.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. But, typically, the things I'm buying on trips are usually small enough, you know, like chocolate or, like, some jewelry, maybe, like, a few postcards or something that can slip in with my laptop.

Michele:
Cool. Anything else that we should know about this whole packing thing?

Lindsey Phillips:
I have one story, and then one little tidbit is as you're packing, try and bring a bag that's smaller than you would normally bring and practice trying to fit everything inside that small bag. Because the bigger the bag you have, you will fill it. You will absolutely fill it.

Michele:
Yes. That is

Lindsey Phillips:
So as you're doing that and you're like, oh, crap. I can't fit everything in this bag. If you're in doubt of whether you need an item, you probably don't need it. So ask yourself, if I didn't have this item, what would happen? Like, what would be the consequence?

Michele:
And it's probably not bad. That fetish heart is hurting right now.

Lindsey Phillips:
I know. I'm so sorry.

Michele:
I am that girl who prints like 3 different purses for her trip to Disney. Like, I have to have a lounge a different lounge vibe for every day. But in my defense, I can pack a pair of shorts and a t shirt in each purse that I bring. Totally. But but still.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. And then the story I have is like, because I just don't think that sometimes people realize how bringing so much stuff can affect your trip. And I have the story that I already told you on a previous call, but my mom, who loves her big luggage that she can check because she thinks she needs her blow dryer and all of her things and her full size bottles. We got off the train in Zurich, and she was rolling that huge heavy checked bag across all the cobblestones, having to lift it upstairs because it's Europe. It's not like the US where there's sidewalks that are flat and wheelchair accessible ramps that you can pull your luggage up. So she was disappointed because we were moving around a lot that trip and her bag was pretty burdensome.

Michele:
So I will add on to that story and that one of the reasons that I so desperately need to learn how to do this is I was in Costa Rica on an escorted tour and you are moving hotels every 2 days.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah.

Michele:
On a bus. And this particular tour did not include them putting the luggage into the van or taking it out of the van. So I was crying by the end of it. I was like, I cannot do this anymore. And I was like, I've got to figure this whole situation out. But I will say to everyone, it is not because I will not check my luggage if I absolutely have to. They say the average is that 1 in 10 times you travel. Something could occur with your luggage being delayed or lost.

Michele:
And I will say my odds have been so much better than that. When I do check my luggage, it is really what you said from the very beginning about the ease. I hate waiting for my luggage because airlines are so understaffed right now that it can take 20 to 30 minutes to get your luggage. Then you have to take a shuttle to the car rental. Or if you're in Europe, like you said, they don't always have elevators to your hotel room. So I want to be better at this and perfect the system more for ease of travel than that I don't trust checking it back because I know a lot of people don't trust it because they're afraid something will get lost. I actually had one of the best trips I ever had when my luggage got lost because I got money to go buy new stuff and that was pretty cool. And then they found it a day later.

Michele:
So, I mean, it wasn't lost to the world.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. I think I read a statistic that, like, 1% or something of lost bags are actually lost. They're usually just delayed Yeah. Or briefly not located. And most of the time, like, if you're flying direct, it is so not likely that you're gonna lose your bag.

Michele:
Right.

Lindsey Phillips:
A lot of times, like I am one of the first people in line at the gate when they're like, we need people to check their bags. I'm like, okay, take it. I don't wanna like throw this over my head into the overhead bins. Just take it for me. And I gate check all the time.

Michele:
And then you save that money too. So that's another good one. If you are boarding in a later group, which again, this extra AF person never is because I'm always upgrading my seat assignments, you can almost guarantee that they're gonna ask for gate checks because the gate agents, their job and they are rated on their performance and they are paid bonuses based on how many flights they get out on time. And so waiting until the end to find out that there's not enough bin space and then checking them makes them delayed. Whereas flight attendants are there for our comfort. Well, they would say safety first and comfort. So they don't mind if they have to shuffle around and put bags somewhere where they are. So just to hint that if you have a late boarding group, they're gonna ask you to gate check and save you that money.

Michele:
And they're always gonna say, this is a one time only offer. Yeah. That happens every flight. And then if you get on, you're gonna see all this empty bin space. You'd be like, I didn't have to check it. So, you have to weigh the pros and cons of what you're doing on the other side. But I will say airlines are also starting to make connections faster and quicker. Like in Dallas, Fort Worth for an international flight, I saw one time to transfer was just 45 minutes.

Michele:
And I was like, oh, hell no. That will not work. Even if I make it, there's no way any tucked bags would make it in that time. So that's something else as travelers to be careful of and to be mindful of.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. And half the time it's you need to make it to a completely different terminal Right. For your connecting flight. And that is nerve wracking for sure.

Michele:
Yeah. This is a tip that has nothing to do with packing carry on. But when you're looking at those connecting times, check the airport maps and find out how far away different gates are and different terminals are. And if your particular gate isn't loaded, you can always look at the history of that flight. It's gonna be pretty close. So another tip that has nothing to do with packing, but is a good travel tip if you're traveling with your luggage or even if you're not.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. No. That's a great tip. I don't think I've ever looked up the history of the flights that I'm on. So that's excellent. Mhmm.

Michele:
Any other great packing tips or I mean, you live out of a suitcase. Any good travel tips, your favorite airline food, anything else you wanna share with us?

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah, I mean, I'm always just trying to pack clothes that all go together that I can re wear. And things that dry overnight are wonderful. You can just hang dry if you do end up having to wash something. That is super helpful. But other than that, it's just practice, and you'll get better every trip.

Michele:
Very good. Thank you. So, Lindsay, I know that you are outside of the travel industry, so yay fun for all of my listeners. They won't find you on any other travel podcasts. This is an exclusive, but where will my people find you if they're ever in need of a great photographer? And I think you told me you also have a podcast. Right?

Lindsey Phillips:
I do have a podcast.

Michele:
So tell us all about that.

Lindsey Phillips:
So I have a podcast. It's called The Secret Life Of, and it is me and my co host, Liz Zuluaga. We talk about friendship, creativity, entrepreneurship, and just like the simple joys in life. We just cover a lot of different topics and have different guests. We just launched season 2 this week. So that was wonderful.

Michele:
Thank you. I'm definitely gonna have to add that to my follow list.

Lindsey Phillips:
Yeah. Definitely. We would love the extra support. And then in terms of my own personal brand, I am a wedding photographer. You can find me on Instagram, lynn phillips.co. And then the website is the same, lynn phillips.co.

Michele:
Awesome. Thank you so much for your time and your tips. I'm gonna hang up with you and I'm going to go pack for my long weekend and I'm going to do this. So listeners, watch out for my Instagram. When I achieve said goal, I will be sure to post that in my stories. And, of course, all the links are as always in the show notes. So until next time, jetsetters. Travel safe.