The Packing Hack To Level Up Your Winter Travel With Kids

Travel packing hack alert! Vacuum storage bags can save massive space when packing winter gear for ski trips and cold destinations like Iceland.

Host Melissa shares how her family packed carry-on only for Iceland in July using vacuum compression bags for puffy jackets, rain gear, and cold weather essentials. Learn the difference between roll-up bags and electric pump versions, plus a genius bonus tip for using them as laundry bags on any trip to make room for souvenirs.

Episode Highlights:

• How to pack winter gear in carry-ons using vacuum bags
• Electric pump vs. roll-up compression bags comparison
• What items work best (and worst) in vacuum bags
• Bonus tip: Using vacuum bags for dirty laundry and souvenirs
• Critical weight warning for discount airlines

Perfect companion to our family ski trip planning episode. Pick up your vacuum bags and digital scale to get started!

00:00 Welcome to Family Travel Unpacked
00:20 The Challenge of Winter Travel
00:36 Introducing Vacuum Storage Bags
00:51 Real-Life Examples and Tips
01:42 Types of Vacuum Bags
02:28 Bonus Uses for Vacuum Bags
03:16 Important Warnings and Final Tips
04:17 Conclusion and Next Steps

Learn to Ski Resources

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Packing for Alaska

Don't miss this inspiring, practical travel with kids podcast hosted by family travel expert Melissa Conn, founder of The Family Voyage, certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, and mom of two who proves family travel is achievable for everyone.

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Transcript

0:02

Hey there and welcome back to Family Travel Unpacked. I'm Melissa and you're listening to Quick Tip Tuesday. In case you're new here, you can always find tons of detailed destination guides, travel tips, hacks, and more on my website, thefamilyvoyage.com. Be sure to hit follow wherever you're listening so you don't miss another episode. If you caught last week's episode about planning family ski trips- and if you haven't, definitely go back and check that out- you know that winter travel comes with one major challenge: all that bulky gear, puffy jackets, snow pants, gloves, hats, ski gear. It takes up so much space in your luggage. Today I wanna share a game changing packing hack that we've used on multiple cold weather trips, vacuum storage bags. Now I know what you might be thinking. Vacuum bags sound kind of gimmicky, right? I was skeptical too, but these have genuinely made travel so much easier for us. Let me tell you about how we used them for our Iceland trip, we were trying to fly to Iceland with only carry-on suitcases, which is a challenge even in July. We're talking serious gear, puffers, waterproof, rain jackets, and pants, gloves, hats, hoodies... and all that for four people. There's no way that's fitting in standard carry-ons, right. Well with vacuum bags, it totally did. We packed all of our outer layers into those bags, vacuumed out the air, and suddenly our suitcases had room for everything. We fit everyone's outerwear in a single carry-on suitcase. I also brought along a lightweight packable bag, and once we landed in Iceland, I unpacked all the outerwear from the vacuum bags and put it into that extra bag for easy access during our trip. That way we weren't digging through suitcases every time we needed our jackets or some other layer. I used the same strategy when I went to Alaska last year, and it worked perfectly. Now I've tried a couple of different types of vacuum bags. The cheaper ones work by rolling them to push the air out after they're fully loaded. And they work okay. But I found that the clear winner is getting a set that comes with a tiny electric pump. I'll put a link in the show notes to the ones that I use. I got this set for around$40 and it came with multiple size bags and the pump you could also get a set that comes without the pump and then buy A USB rechargeable pump separately. Those electric pumps are so fast. We're talking maybe 30 seconds to completely compress a bag full of puffers. With the roll-up kind, you're there forever rolling and re-rolling, trying to get all the air out. The pump just makes the whole process super painless. What I don't recommend putting in them is your regular everyday clothing. That stuff will get wrinkled and nobody wants to spend their vacation ironing. But here are two bonus uses I love for those bags because it keeps'em useful all year long. First, we also bring them on trips to Europe or other destinations when we're not even packing winter gear. Why? Laundry bags. Hear me out. When you're traveling, especially with kids, you accumulate so much dirty laundry. Instead of stuffing it loose into your suitcase, just put it straight in the vacuum bag. Then when you're packing to come home or move onto your next destination and you've brought souvenirs or picked things up along the way, use the vacuum to compress all that dirty laundry to make room for your new stuff. It's brilliant. I also used the bags when my son went to sleep away camp last summer. We were shipping his huge duffle since he flew to camp on his own, and he had to bring a few sets of sheets, a blanket, towels, and a pillow. Thanks to the vacuum bags. We had plenty of room to spare, which saved me from paying to ship a second bag for him. Now I do need to give you one important warning. These bags make it really easy to overpack and make your luggage incredibly heavy. When you're compressing everything down, you can fit so much more in your bag, but that doesn't change the weight. If you're flying an airline that actually weighs your carryon bags, you need to be really careful. And if you're checking bags on a discount carrier like Spirit or Frontier that has low weight limits- I think Frontiers is only 40 pounds for a checked bag- you can easily blow past that without even realizing it when you're vacuum packing everything. So my advice is to pack everything in vacuum bags, compress them, put'em in your suitcase, and then actually weigh your suitcase before you leave for the airport. I have a great little digital luggage scale that I always use. It's really cheap, but it's been so handy to check the weight before we show at the airport and have to start shifting things around. But honestly, for winter trips especially vacuum bags have been a total lifesaver for our family. They let us pack carry on only for trips we never could have done before, and they give us flexibility to bring back souvenirs without worrying about space. I'll drop that link to the vacuum bag set with the electric pump in the show notes. And while you're down there, be sure to follow along and leave a five star rating. If you missed our last episode all about planning a family ski trip, go give it a listen and let me know what you think. Safe travels and I'll see you back here next time on Family Travel Unpacked.