Hey Nomads! Welcome back to another exciting week of study abroad tips!
So you may be nearing the end of your adventure abroad and that’s okay! If this is the case, and if you’re anything like me, you’re wondering how you’re going to pack everything into your suitcase before your flight back home. I’m here to tell you that you’re going to fit it all and that it may seem stressful, but all your souvenirs will make it back home with you. If you’re nothing like me, packing for home will be a breeze!
As for managing all of your clothes, shoes, and souvenirs into your suitcases, this technique will vary based on what all you brought luggage-wise, but I want to share some stories of how my flatmates and I went about packing for home.
For starters, I brought one large suitcase, one carry-on suitcase, and a backpack to last me the entire trip. I will say, everything I bought while abroad, I struggled getting it all into my two suitcases and backpack without exceeding the 50-lb weight limit that British Airways—and most other airlines—have. More on my technique later in this post though! It’s important to research the limitations your airline has for suitcase weight, sizes, liquids, and other potential restrictions before going to the airport. I will say if you wait until you get to the airport and your bag is over 50-lbs (or you encounter one of the restrictions), it will be terrible having to scramble to fix it. Chances are good in those instances, you’ll either have to forfeit some of your belongings or find other places to store your stuff. For instance, my flatmates and I were going through security at an airport in London; my roommate and I made it through security first, with our other flatmate right behind. As we were sitting on the bench waiting for the last girl in our flat to roll through security, I found myself receiving a call from her. (Slight background information—she is obsessed with makeup; she’s great, and there’s nothing wrong with her love of makeup, but she decided to bring ALL OF IT for our short, weeklong excursion…) While on the phone, she frantically tells me that I need to bring my backpack over to her so she can transfer some of her makeup in there since she was well over the limit for liquids. Since I had checked my other bag full of makeup and toiletries, I agreed and we had spent the rest of the trip with her packing her makeup and such into my bag. I will say, we made sure she never brought that much makeup on short trips again. Another instance was when I was flying out of Dublin and had to forfeit some of my makeup/toiletries since I couldn’t fit them all into one small sealed ziplock bag. A big tip: if you’re someone who likes to travel with a good amount of makeup and/or liquids, make sure you pack them into your own ziplock bag before putting them into your bag. Doing this will help to avoid the frantic scramble through airport security and the potential loss of expensive products. Otherwise, an even easier route to take would be to just keep them in your suitcase, if you’re checking it.
Back to packing for your flight back home, though, as that’s probably what you’re most interested in! Well, I will say I lucked out in packing for home. Although I still struggled when it came to the final scramble to pack, I was thankful that my mom visited me in London earlier in the semester, so I was able to pack some of my clothes and souvenirs in her suitcases. Now I’m not saying make your parents fly over to the country you’re studying in to take some of your belongings back with them—although it was quite convenient…and great to see my mom and show her around—it just happened to work out perfectly that my mom wanted to visit me and she happened to bring an extra, empty suitcase 😉. If your family is not planning to visit you abroad (which is totally normal and okay!!), plan to have at least two suitcases with you for homeward packing. As mentioned earlier, I brought two suitcases with me, so I didn’t have to go out and buy an extra one for heading home. That said, I will say I came close to having to buy a third…But if you are having to buy an extra suitcase, as many of my friends did, I’d check out stores like Primark for an inexpensive, but durable suitcase.
Now when it comes to actually packing everything as ergonomically as you can, I highly suggest rolling your clothes. It may seem counterintuitive, but in reality, rolling my clothes added so much extra space to pack more! Also, if you didn’t bring one from home, invest in a luggage scale to make sure you’re not exceeding the typical 50-lb limit. One of our flatmates ending up packing her suitcase well over the limit and had to pay a hefty (see what I did there? 😂) fine at the airport. The scale was pretty inexpensive and small enough to pack in your bag if you wanted to bring it home. Also, if you don’t want to invest in one just for this short time of packing, see if any of your friends or flatmates want to split it with you so you can all equally share it.
Along with making sure you don’t exceed the luggage weight restrictions comes more tips for using your suitcase space as efficiently as possible. Rolling your clothes is a massive space saver. If you brought those vacuum sealable bags, those are great as well. I struggled with using mine when packing to head home, so I focused on rolling everything. Also, makes sure you take advantage of your shoes as well. Since those can end up taking a lot of space, start putting some of your souvenirs and smaller clothes in them to reduce unnecessary space. I also suggest that when you get to the airport, DON’T pay for the extra checked bag right at the start. We flew British Airways and once making it through security, we were able to check our carry-on bag for free. If you’re ever in Heathrow and you’re flying British Airways, once you pass security take the escalator downstairs to the British Airways counter and you can check your carry-on bag for free. I cannot tell you how excited I was when we discovered this! That said, make sure to also look into what your airline offers past check-in. Some people on our trip forfeited the money to check their carry-on when they checked-in, which ultimately seemed like a waste considering the rest of us managed to check ours for free. Make sure to research the different regulations along with freebies airlines offer! Safe travels on your next flight!
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