How to Use Organizers and Packing Cubes Effectively inside Backpacks and Totes

Backpacks and totes are useful items to carry big luggage. But what about the inside of your bags? Can you pick out your essential easily? Or are there too much stuff that prevents you from discovering what you need?

Packing organizers and cubes would be useful to keep inside of your bag neat. What important for selecting an organizer is considering what you bring and what kinds of bags you carry.

Why do we make inside a bag messy?

Imagine that you go on vacation with your favorite backpack. You put your clothing, a tablet for reading, chargers, some skincare products in the backpack. Or imagine that you go for a short business trip that you need to bring a laptop and some papers for work.

For both situations, backpacks work perfectly to keep your stuff safely and easy to carry. When you look inside of a bag, mostly you find a main big space and some pockets for organizing small things.

You also find a backpack is shaped vertically, which means, you put your stuff from the top of the backpack. Then after you packed all items, you find you cannot recognize what you stored already, and try to find an item by mixing all your stuff.

The way of picking items out is a common cause that you make inside a bag messy. You change all the locations of your items inside a bag.

Making use of organizers and mini tote

Here are some tips to keep inside your bag tidy.

1：Using light, foldable organizers

First, select a cloth organizer that is light and flexible. The organizer is useful to keep many types of stuff, including your clothing, shoes, cosmetics, chargers, and other gadgets. Choose a simple design so that you can fold when not in use.

2：Use a mini tote

A small tote that can be packed in the main bag also works as an organizer. It would be useful for packing at first, and it works as the main bag while traveling.

3：Use packing cubes

Cubes function for packing as well. They have enough width and depth to store small things neatly. Perfect for cosmetics, chargers, batteries, and jewelry.

4：Use an eyeglass case

It might be surprising, but an eyeglass case works as an organizer too. The case is usually made tough outside but made soft inside. Also, you can close the cover tightly.

Let's organize inside a bag with the tools mentioned above. First, it is important to separate what items you should/should not place in organizers.

Not in an organizer: Laptop, tablet, wallet, and smartphone

The items you always use outside of a bag and the ones you can find clearly inside a bag do not need to place in an organizer.

Store in an organizer: Cosmetics, chargers, and earbuds

The items that are small, the ones that you bring just in case, should be placed in an organizer. The item that can be easily tangled like earbuds and lightning cables would be preferable to be put in an organizer as well.

Making use of an eyeglass case

An eyeglass case is convenient to store and protect your small stuff like jewelry, contact lenses, and medicines. The case with a wide-open lid is useful to store cables too.

It is easy to open/close a cover, but still firmly protect your stuff inside.

How to pack organizers effectively into a backpack

After you organized and stored your stuff in organizers, let's think about how to pack all of them into your backpack.

The tip is making your backpack lay down.

As mentioned already, vertically packing is a reason for messing inside of a backpack. By laying the bag down, you can quickly identify what you already stored and where the items are.

Additionally, consider the directions of your items. Lining up all the items against the back is not a good idea. Try to make layers against the back instead so that you can find which item is where easily.

How to organize a tote bag

Unlike backpacks, tote bags do not have a cover that can hide items inside. In other words, you should make full use of organizers.

Here is an example of using a mini tote as an organizer. Select a mini tote that sizes about half of the main bag. It would be useful to make your items steady inside the bag. The mini tote works for partitioning inside the main bag. Since it does not have a zipper, you can easily pick items out.

The tips to keep inside of your bags clean and neat is sorting out your items and place them clearly into spaces of bags or organizers. Consider which bags you want to carry and how you want to bring your items.

See more tote bags here