How to pack a suitcase for a week

Capsule wardrobe: fewer clothes, more combinations

Thinking in terms of outfits instead of individual days is the principle behind the so-called capsule wardrobe: two or three coordinating base colors are enough to generate dozens of different combinations. If your destination allows laundry partway through your stay, even just by hand with some soap, the necessary quantity shrinks further without any sacrifice to comfort.

Packing cubes and checking weight before departure

Packing cubes, sorted by category (clothes, underwear, accessories), make your suitcase instantly readable instead of a jumbled pile. Weigh your suitcase with a hanging scale before leaving home: discovering you've exceeded the limit right at the counter, with the line behind you, is far more stressful than fixing it calmly the evening before. Always leave a 10-15% margin of your suitcase capacity for souvenirs and purchases made during your stay.

Carry-on as a safety net

A change of essentials and medications always belong in your carry-on, regardless of how well you've organized your checked baggage, so you don't depend on its prompt arrival in your first days away. In a couple or family, spreading each person's clothes across different suitcases minimizes the damage if one should delay or go missing—for details on how to prevent exactly this risk, see checked baggage: tricks to prevent loss. For a dinner or a more formal occasion, a single designated outfit chosen before departure saves you from improvising on location.

Details that save time at your destination

A universal power adapter for electrical outlets deserves a permanent place in your suitcase, often forgotten until the first evening with a dead phone. It also pays to save a scanned copy of your documents (passport, ID) on your phone or via email: it doesn't replace the original, but it speeds up procedures in case of loss during a long stay. One final practical distinction: the 100 milliliter limit applies only to carry-on, while in checked baggage bottles of any size are allowed, letting you bring your usual products from home instead of travel-sized versions.

Leave 10-15% of your suitcase empty when you close it before departure: that's the space you'll need on the return for souvenirs and purchases, and it's much easier to free up now than to discover overweight at the return flight check-in.