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Shoving everything loose into a suitcase was my signature move until I couldn't find my socks in Rome and wore sandals to a nice dinner. These changed how I think about fitting things in a bag.













After my shampoo exploded inside my backpack on a bus in Thailand, I became extremely particular about what holds my liquids. Never again.













Patting my pockets seventeen times before boarding is a personality trait at this point. Having one spot for everything passport-related cut that down to maybe three pats.













My brain at midnight before a trip: did I pack a charger? Socks? My actual passport? Writing it down beforehand turned out to be embarrassingly simple and wildly effective.













Untangling three chargers from a knot at the bottom of my bag while my phone was at 4% in an airport — that happened exactly once before I fixed this permanently.












Found my favorite necklace tangled into a knot so tight I needed tweezers to fix it after one weekend trip. Spent maybe ten dollars to make sure that never happens again.













Watched my plain black suitcase go around the carousel three times while two other people grabbed identical bags first. A little personalization goes a long way at baggage claim.













Putting dirty shoes directly on clean clothes was a choice I made for way too long. Separating the dirty from the clean turned out to be the missing piece of my packing sanity.










