eBags Medium Packing Cubes (3pc Set)

After 25 years of international business travel, I only recently discovered packing cubes. Honestly, I thought they were a gimmick until I tried them. If you take trips where you're moving to a different city/hotel every couple of days, packing cubes are terrific, as they let you "unpack without unpacking" -i.e., you can remove the cubes to get at your stuff, but still repack your suitcase in under a minute the next morning just by popping all the cubes back in place. They also keep items (especially business shirts) neater, and they're very handy when a security screener needs to go through your bag. My packing cubes paid for themselves the first time I had to go through a secondary security screening at the airport.

In terms of specific brands and models of packing cubes, I prefer the eBags medium-sized cubes over the Rick Steves cubes. Two of the eBags medium cubes fit perfectly side-by-side in a typical 21" carry-on roller-style suitcase (e.g., the eBags TLS mini or the Rick Steves 21" carry-on roller, both of which I use), whereas the Rick Steves smaller cubes leave a lot of extra space on the sides. Also, the eBags cubes are shorter (about 3" vs. 5" for the Rick Steves cubes). Personally, I prefer to use more of the shorter cubes, with different types of items in each cube (e.g., shirts in one cube, underwear in another, etc.), rather than stuffing a lot of different stuff into a larger cube.

Having said that, packing style is a matter of personal preference, and others may prefer the deeper and smaller Rick Steves cubes, so the real question is quality and durability. Both the eBags and the Rick Steves cubes are well made, and the zippers on both work well. I think the eBags cubes will be more durable over time, though. The Rick Steves cubes are mesh on all sides. The eBags cubes use a very light, solid fabric (like parachute clothe) on the sides and bottom, with mesh on the top so you can see what's in the cube. I think the parachute cloth (which is reinforced with mesh) will last much better than pure mesh, and it doesn't get snagged on things as easily. The fabric doesn't add any discernible weight relative to all mesh, as far as I can tell. I also like the handles on the eBags cubes -nice feature.

Whichever brand you get, it's worth the investment. Packing cubes really do make travel easier. My only wish is that they weren't so expensive.

UPDATE 4 July 2012: When I wrote the above review, I speculated that the eBags cubes would be more durable. Sure enough, the mesh of the Rick Steves packing cube has torn around one of the seams, but the eBags cubes (which I've used more heavily) are still going strong with no signs of wear.

I bought these packing cubes for our trip to Switzerland. In the past, my huband would rummage through the suitcase to find something and I'd end up re-folding and re-packing everything. I packed 2 cubes for him and he liked that he had his own 2 packages with his clothes. Also, I found that I could squeeze more into the cubes that just packing loose. These are great-I'm glad I bought them!

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I really found these packing cubes useful. I'd also purchased packing folders Eagle Creek Travel Gear Pack-It Folder 15 and I liked them even more. More clothing fits in the folder and it keeps your clothes wrinkle-free. These cubes were great for pajamas, underwear, etc that weren't effected by wrinkles. Both of these gadgets kept my travel clothes easy accessible. Just take them out of the luggage and put them in hotel drawer for a clean way to unpack and repack.

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It really makes a difference to get the right size to fit your bag. If you have the largest Carry-on roller bag (22x14x9 typical)then these fit great!you can get two across use the 3rd to stack, or give it to your partner/friend. I travel a lot and clothes stay much fresher and you can get quite a bit more in, even the best packers can do better I still use the space between rails for socks, underwear or small items to make it level, then these on top. I also have a couple of the bags 1/2 this size so one big & two small fit the same (toilet & misc items in one, underware and misc small stuff in th other) these particular items are sturdier than many on the market and less risk of the mesh tearing.... Highly recommend written by the other half! (aka, bag packer)

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These are fantastic! We had to pack 2 suitcases for a 14 day Land excursion and Cruise. We had to pack one for the land portion and one for the cruise portion. These really helped organize our clothes into His and Hers cubes. No more digging for what we needed. I was able to pack 10 shirts, 3 pants, 5 underwear, and 5 socks all into one large cube. Of course it did not look anything like a cube after we were done with it. It was very stuffed. I had red she had green. When we got to our destination (Alaskan cruise) we had to send our stuff out to be pressed because we had to roll everything but It worked out great. Very Pleased! We had to laugh when we came back to this listing on amazon and saw the picture of the cube as a perfect rectangle. Trust me after your done stuffing it, it will look more like a dome than a rectangle. We also used the Travelon Set of 7 Packing Envelopes, Assorted Sizes also available here at amazon and they also were a big help.