Monday
Oct152007
October 15, 2007 Packing and luggage thread
Here’s an interesting thread on the askandyaboutclothes.com forum - mostly for men. This is a nice site for the snappy dresser. Andy has pages about packing amd luggage.
October 15, 2007 
Reader Comments (8)
Great to see the link to Ask Andy. I'm the one who linked OBOW in that thread. I've been obsessing over your site lately. I'm about to pull the trigger on an Air Boss. Any thoughts on good sizes for packing cubes and envelopes?
The three-compartment design of the Air Boss, with two of those having hold-downs, means cubes are less important than with some other bags. A folder/envelope type thing might make the middle compartment - which lacks hold downs - more useful. I strongly recommend the Red Oxx/Doug Dyment packing diagram, which is available from the Red Oxx site (or this one - see the links at right) as a downloadable PDF. Good luck!
Those people on Andy's forum worrying about "shoe trees" made me laugh so hard I blew Diet Coke out of my nose. Why the HECK are they taking shoe trees on a 4 to 5 day trip?
And, I LOVE this gem:
Luggage care and storage:
Once you are home safe with your memories, and working on the photo album, give some thought to keeping your luggage mildew free, smelling great, and always ready to go.
-Open up the bags and place them outside on a sunny day to air them out.
-Keep a fabric softener sheet in the stored bag.
-Stuffing with crumpled newspapers absorbs odors.
-- Andy Gilchrist
Air out? Mildew? What the heck is he packing in his bag?
Alan - I agree with Brad that with the Air Boss you don't need cubes because of the tie downs. The folding technique illustrated does appear to work pretty well.
GaryS - I can answer that smell question ... for me it's running shoes. I jog on most my trips and my shoes always smell. I typically wrap them in a bag first but they still leak into the luggage. Now mildew I can't explain unless it's for swim trunks. I do like the idea of the fabric softener though.
Just in quick response to Gary's amusement over the shoe tree debate at AAAC, many of those guys are taking shoes that retail for $500-$1000 (or more). If the shoes aren't on their feet they have shoe trees in them.
Matt & Brad, thanks for the thoughts on cubes. My Air Boss is now on order (as of tonight), and I can't wait to get it.
GaryS: I lived for five years in Tallahassee. Very humid and very hot. Mildew could develop overnight, it seemed. So this is good advice for those in humid regions of the country.
JPJ gives good advice - which first-time tropical travelers would do well to heed too. Febreze Anti-microbial is one ingredient of my laundry formula. A shot of it does wonders in the suitcase.
Hmmm, when your shoes cost more than my plane ticket we're really in a different league...