DIY Life

If you travel for work, you've probably tried cramming everything into a backpack, in an attempt to keep things simple. This is no easy task. If you do manage to get everything into the bag, it probably comes out wrinkled.

To avoid this, you might be using a small suitcase or multiple bags, but that leaves wasted space and doesn't give you the flexibility of a single carry-on bag.

For your next trip, I'd suggest adopting a minimalist approach to packing for a short business trip. With this bundle method you will wrap all your clothes around a single item; typically, this item would be a small bag with socks and underwear. No folds, no creases, no wrinkles.

The best part is that they show you pictures of the unpacked bag, and you can see how crisp the clothes look as they come out. The full post also has pictures illustrating each packing step, so you can't go wrong.

Next time you're heading off on a short trip, avoid all the hassles that come along with checking baggage: try this packing method.

Spring is just around the corner, and many of you are probably planning your first hike of the season. If you're going for a short day hike, you don't need much more then water, snacks, and a first aid kit. If you're planning an overnight excursion, it will take more forethought.

Backpack designs vary, and some will have a designated space for your sleeping bag and larger items. Others will leave you to plan where things belong and decide the most effective packing method. You'll want to make sure you have easy access to everything you need. It can be hard to know where to start.

If you're hiking on regular terrain this basic rule should guide your packing: Pack light items at the bottom, and heavier ones on top, close to your body.

Check out this page for more helpful tips describing the most effective way to pack for a hike. Packing for safety, comfort, and convenience will go a long way toward an enjoyable hiking experience.

I have packed and moved 14 times in 17 years. In the early years after high school, I didn't own much, so packing wasn't a big deal. Most of the time, my things stayed in the boxes because I knew that I would be moving again soon. With all my packing experience, I've learned a few things about packing fragile items.

The Home Know-It-All tells us all about how to pack fragile items for safe transport. When packing your dishes, glasses, and fragile decorative vases and other items, wrap the item in bubble wrap. Along with bubble wrap, I wadded up newspaper, put it in the bottom of the box, and then used newspaper to wrap up the fragile dishes and glasses. I would load up the box with paper so that nothing would break. In all my moves, nothing has broken when I used newspaper!

Be sure to bookmark the article, since it has links that point to packing anything and everything you have in your home. I will definitely use the article for the next time we move. We have been in our current residence for 3 1/2 years, and I am getting antsy to move along.

Nowadays, it seems like it may be nearly impossible to travel with just a single bag that you carry onto the plane with you. Airline regulations have made it so that it's more convenient to check certain innocuous items, like toiletries, than to try to tote them with you. If you can manage it, though, it's great to travel with a single small bag: you're traveling light, you don't have to wait in baggage claim areas, your bags will never be lost somewhere in fair Slovenia.

If you're looking for tips on how to manage this, you don't need to look any further than the redoubtable One Bag website. It's full of travel tips, supply ideas, and packing lists. If you want a slightly different and more basic perspective, check out WikiHow's Travel With One Bag article.

The essence of the One Bag concept is that you make a packing list of only the things you can't do without (nothing you "might need" but aren't sure about). You purchase items that are well-suited for travel: lightweight clothing that doesn't wrinkle and that will dry overnight if washed in your hotel bathroom. You're careful with your money in terms of how you carry it, but you're willing to both buy and discard items when you reach your destination.

The concept is tailor-made for male travelers... and female travelers who are able to subvert or ignore cultural expectations. If you aren't one of those women, though, and you're wondering how single-bag travel can work for you, keep reading after the break!

The first key to efficient packing is reducing your load. Of course, it's always wise to check the weather reports for your destination so you won't bother hauling that bulky fleece if it's going to be 90 degrees. And, yeah, multi-purpose items are a great space-saver. Maybe you really don't mind using a shampoo that's also a shaving foam, or rockin' the pants with legs that zip off into shorts. We can even thank TSA for getting us all used to the idea of bite-sized toiletries with its nifty "3-1-1" decree.

But once you've done all you can to reduce the amount of stuff you have to fit into that suitcase, what else can you do to tame the heap of "essentials" mocking your lack of spatial intelligence?

Pack less air -- they have plenty wherever you're going
Not everything holds up well to rolling. Your dress shirts, for instance, might get a bit too wrinkly. Fold these as you normally would, then group them together in a large plastic bag, squeezing out as much air as possible before you seal it all the way. If you want to be fancy you can buy special compression bags designed for this purpose. They have one-way pressure valves that make it easy to chase out the excess air. But you can also just use one of those freaky big Ziplocs. Or better yet, reuse those zippered plastic bags that sheets sometimes come in. Either way, seal the bag almost completely then roll to eke out the last bits of air before you close it the rest of the way.

Join me after the jump for more packing tips.

Ask any bibliophile: we don't like moving. We lose the organizational schemes that we've developed for our personal libraries, and books are heavy, like chunks of wood. Even a small box of books can be difficult to lift; if not packed correctly, books are easily damaged. But a move is sometimes unavoidable.

A few years ago, I moved from one end of the country to the other, on very short notice. I knew that I'd be moving eventually, but had no exact timetable, so I began by packing books. I have a lot of books. I did hours of online research to find out what libraries and movers recommend as the ideal way to transport a collection.

When the time to move came suddenly, the movers we hired (who were not terribly professional) finished the packing. At the other end of the trip, all the boxes I'd packed came out in good shape; every single box they'd packed had at least one or two damaged items in it.

There is a "right way" to pack books, one which minimizes damage and the likelihood of back strain. I'll describe it after the break.

Just in case you haven't filled your quota this month for things you can do with packing peanuts, here's one more idea that just might do the trick.

My wife has discovered that when it's time to pedicure her toenails, placing packing peanuts in between her toes works better than using cotton balls as toe separators. She finds that while cotton balls tend to fluff out and get in the way of the project, the packing peanuts don't have that fuzz which can get in your way. She also says that the peanuts hold the toes farther apart and that they are easily adjustable, while cotton balls seem to always fall down on the job.

One other measurable advantage to using packing peanuts to wedge apart your toes is that cotton costs money and once you have stuffed it between your toes, you take it out and throw it in the trash. Packing peanuts on the other hand, generally come to us free of charge and in a pinch, you could always wash them after plucking them out from between your toes and reuse them as packing peanuts. I myself, wouldn't recommend that. Not to mention that many varieties of packing peanuts these days are in fact biodegradable.