If you’ve ever spent several minutes digging around your backpack, looking for an item you’re sure you packed—your headphones for example—only to later find them buried at the bottom of your bag, you know that organizing a backpack can be a major hassle.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Here at Able Carry, we’ve developed durable, convenient, and effective packing cubes to help you take your packing strategy to the next level. If you’re new to backpack accessories and wondering how to use packing cubes, this is the guide for you.
What Are Packing Cubes?
If you’ve ever used a soft laptop bag, then you already have a good idea of what a packing cube is. At its most basic, a packing cube is an independent compartment used to enhance your backpack’s storage space while providing some extra protection. They can be used to organize certain items together, but they also help you take advantage of every bit of your backpack’s available volume1.
Able Carry Cubes also function as compression bags. When packed properly, they can keep soft items, like clothes, more compact when you’re trying to travel light.
Who Can Benefit From Packing Cubes?
Simply put, anyone who travels with a backpack will travel better with packing cubes. Whether you’re a light packer wanting to improve your organizational strategy or a heavy packer who needs help squeezing one last outfit, gadget, or book into your backpack, packing cubes can help2.
How to Use Packing Cubes
Improve Your Organization
One of the benefits of packing cubes: They’re an excellent organizational tool. You’ll notice immediately how much easier they make planning a trip and packing the right items. The best strategy is to pack similar items inside their own cube, reducing clutter and making it easier to find whatever you’re looking for1.
You can pack all your shirts inside one packing cube, all your electronics in another, and all your shoes in a third. In doing so, you protect your electronics from getting tangled with everything else and keep your shoes from touching the rest of your clothes, potentially leaving marks or causing damage.
Roll Clothes to Reduce Wasted Space
Clothes tend to take up a lot of space in a backpack. Many people learn to roll their clothes instead of folding them for maximum efficiency. This is effective, but loose clothes in a bag will inevitably unroll and spread out, taking up extra space and making a mess2.
Placing your rolled clothes into packing cubes helps them stay together and neatly rolled while saving space and increasing the amount of clothes you can fit in your luggage.
Take Advantage of Compression
Many packing cubes are compressible. Once packed, they can be closed and cinched to keep them compressed. This increases the amount of available space in a bag and keeps items firmly in place during travel, minimizing the risk of damage and disarray once it comes time to unpack3.
Arrange Your Bag to Your Liking
Once everything is packed away, you can easily and efficiently organize your bag. People typically prefer storing the heaviest items at the bottom of their bag so smaller, lighter items don’t get lost or squished1.
You can also keep your most-needed items—like phone chargers and medications—at the top so they’re readily available. Using cubes means there won’t be any loose items in your bag, so you don’t have to worry about digging for something that fell to the bottom. Even if you need to unpack your entire bag to retrieve an item, putting everything back is quick and easy since you only need to open one cube.
Add Able Carry Cubes to Your Travel Kit
Our new Able Carry Cubes are lightweight, heavy-duty compression cubes for those who are serious about traveling efficiently and in style. Made of durable ripstop fabric, Cubes are designed for frequent use. They can expand and compress with ease to fit exactly what you want to pack, and they come in three different sizes for maximum versatility.
These convenient organizational aids can be used for day trips, weeks away from home, or even a quick jaunt to the gym. All Able Carry Cubs are fitted with hand loops to make them easy to carry around individually or to hook up to an external attachment.
Sources:
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(19 April 2024). How to Pack Using Travel Cubes. Travel Sentry. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://www.travelsentry.org/accessories/how-to-pack-using-travel-cubes/
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Chang, R. (19 September 2022). The Most Effective Way to Organize Your Suitcase Using Packing Cubes. Condé Nast Traveler. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-to-use-packing-cubes
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Krogh, R. (5 March 2025). The Ultimate Guide to Packing Cubes for Adventure Travelers. Outside Magazine. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/advice/the-ultimate-guide-to-packing-cubes/
