Packing cubes are great if you need some help keeping your belongings organized on a trip away, all of Kathmandu's cubes are created to be as versatile as possible. Created with soft sides and mesh windows the packing cubes are designed to fit in with any luggage, whether it's hard, wheeled luggage, or a day pack. They're easy to fit into any packing style, compress your clothing and come in a few bold designs. But what size should you choose, how many do you need and what even is the difference between sleeves, tubes and cells? We've taken a look at all the options and are ready to share all the deets with you!
Packing Cells, Tubes or Sleeves?
The packing sleeve
Sleeves are a great addition to any packing cube collection to keep small items and belongings organized. Sleeves can be used to pop your sunnies into a secure cover, collate travel documents in one handy pack or arrange charging cords and other small items to safe you from searching through all your luggage when the batteries start flashing. Packing sleeves feature the handy front mesh panel to easily spot the treasures stored inside and are available in a three pack of all three sizes.
Tube master
Kathmandu packing tubes come in two great sizes a small (L 33 cm x D 8 cm x W 16.5 cm) and a large option (L 38 cm x D 10 cm x W 16.5 cm). Both options feature the popular mesh front panel making it super easy to find your gear. The large tube is a great option to pack larger clothing items like pants or sweaters and shirts while the small tube can be used for smaller clothing items like undies, socks, tees or togs.
Packing tubes are a great size to easily fit into most carry-on suitcases and weighting only 50-60g they can easily be added in and still staying well within any airline's restrictions. They are as their name suggests more of a tube form and generally comparable in length to the medium or large packing cells while keeping the width of a small classic cell.
Packing cells
Clear cells, footwear cells, double cells and expander cells are all available next to the classic small (L 26 cm x D 8 cm x W 16.5 cm), medium (L 33 cm x D 10 cm x W 26 cm) and large (L 38 cm x D 12 cm x W 33 cm) cubes.
While the clear cells aren't as deep as the classic mesh cubes (only 5cm deep), they are ideal to take items through airport security, store medication or organise electronics as they sport a clear TPU front panel. The 3 Pack of clear cubes includes a small (H 16.5 cm x L 13 cm x D 5 cm), medium (H 21 cm x L 14.5 cm x D 5 cm) and large (H 26 cm x L 16.5 cm x D 5cm) cube.
Double cells
You might have already guessed - are a compact 2-1 option that gives you two compartments withing the one cell - kind of like the split level trolley of packing cubes. The cube features two zippers and two mesh panel sides so you can see what is packed in each of the compartments with ease. With 125g it's slightly heavier than our single cubes and the size (L 33 cm x D 16 cm x W 26 cm) is comparable to two of the medium sized single cells. These double cells come in super handy if you hope to keep your tops and bottoms separate yet still close enough to only grab one cube out of your pack or you hope to separate wet/dry or clean/dirty items.
Expander cells
Give you great flexibility as you can simply modify its size depending on your packing needs and simply unzip the bottom to double the depth. This can be super useful if you did a bit of shopping while travelling or you just need more space to store your dirty and unfolded clothing.
Zipped up size:
Small/ medium cell (L 26 cm x D 10 cm x W 16.5 cm)
Medium/ large cell (L 33 cm x D 8 cm x W 26 cm)
So, there we have it, the mysteries of packing cubes all unpacked.
We would recommend using at least 2-3 different cubes to keep your pack looking its best but depending how much you pack and how long you plan to travel for you might need more/ less cubes to keep everything in its place. If you grab a few different sized cubes and a couple of different designs/ colors, you are at a good starting point and the mix up of designs can help you quickly remember which cube hosts your essentials.
Hot tips:
1. Roll your clothes and place them next to each other within the packing cell instead of folded in a stack it's easy to see all the options at a glance!
2. Try the 54321 Packing Rule and pack 6 undies, 5 pairs of socks, 4 tops, 3 bottoms, 2 pairs of shoes and 1 hat or pair of togs (depending on where you are heading off to). This is a rough guideline to travel for a week and still keep your pack as light as possible.