I recently moved to Singapore from San Francisco, a 17-hour direct flight—one of the longest flights in the world. I only started packing three hours before the flight departure. Nah, it was just a prank. Even though I’m a minimalist, there’s no way I could finish packing my entire home within three hours moving across continents.
That being said, I still pack quite efficiently. I know even moving home locally can be really frustrating, not to mention moving internationally. So today I’ll share how I pack and move so flexibly and quickly. If you have ever wondered how to carry 3 suitcases alone, this guide is for you.
Strategic Packing for Mobility
For this move, I’m using two big suitcases and one carry-on. I don’t have a lot of personal belongings but I have two concerns: one is all the YouTube equipment like lighting, microphone, tripods and things like that; second is all the souvenirs that I bought from my travel around the world.
I divide these two suitcases for their functions. This one is for the items that are used less often or almost never used and the other luggage is for the items that I need for daily use.
Because I need to be quarantined in the government designated hotel for 21 days, it’s hard for me to take out every single belonging. So I strategize this way so that I only need to use one luggage during my quarantine and the other one can be left unopened.
Packing Clothes as a Foundation
I’ll pack the clothes first because it’s the easiest and it provides kind of like a cushion for all my other items as the base at the bottom. Most of my clothes are small pieces because Singapore is tropical climate but should I bring some winter clothes too? Maybe I should. So I decided to bring along two winter coats just in case that I need to travel to cold places.
To strategize the storage space and convenience, I’ll first pack the clothes that I don’t need to wear like the winter jackets and even a gown that I only wear once every two years.
Protecting Fragile Items
After setting up the foundation, I’m tucking in the items that are more fragile, like my souvenirs. I have 50 pieces of them. Yeah, it’s a lot. After fitting in the majority of them, there are still five items that couldn’t fit in. I’ll just leave them in the other half of the luggage.
Then the second half I’ll lay down some documents and books as a foundation because I won’t be using them during quarantine. One more winter jacket I rolled it this way to minimize the space and place it at the corner. I laid out my belt this way to minimize the space also and some unopened perfume bottles.
If you are packing important documents, make sure you don’t have a moldy passport that could cause issues at immigration.
The Shoe Dilemma
The next is shoes. Shoes are giving me such a headache. I have winter shoes, one pair of long boots and a short boot, a pair of heels just in case any formal event, one pair of office shoes, one flat sandal. Then it’s my Latin dance shoes; I’m a Latin dancer so I have a pair of practice shoes and a pair of competitive shoes with heels. Flip flop is a must of course. I still need a pair of running shoes and a pair of walking shoes. Geez, even though I only have a pair of shoes in each occasion, I still accumulate a total of 10 occasions altogether.
Now I still got space in between the clothes in this luggage so I’ll tuck in the winter shoes and heels that I don’t wear. For the rest of the frequent worn shoes, I’ll leave them in the second luggage for now.
The “Daily Use” Suitcase
Now this suitcase is mainly for my frequent use items. Firstly I’ll put my books and some other documents that I may need to use in this layer of the suitcase. Then I’ll dump in the clothes that I often wear in Singapore. Because it’s tropical weather I really just need one piece dress, tank tops, shorts and flip flops. Some miscellaneous items like the skin care products, medication, my earrings.
Packing the Carry-On
So now I’m about to pack my carry-on and how I pack my carry-on it’s going to be the same as how I pack my international trip to Africa and South America. I always have a little foundation here where I put my backpack spray, insect spray, and put my nail clipper here.
Some daily clothes like pajamas, underwear. I use these storage bags and they’re really great. One bag is to carry my daily wear so I can still wear some normal clothes to present myself in the Zoom meeting and the other bag is for some gym clothes in case I really ended up doing gym.
And I also put some extra laundry bags to store my dirty clothes. Then I put my regular clothing here. You wrap up the daily items that I still need to use like my toothbrush, moisturizer, some scarf in case I get cold.
Throughout my travel experiences in 140 countries, there are a couple of times the airline lost my luggage leaving me no clothes to wear. So I learned to always bring a couple sets of my clothes with me. Then I can buy something else if needed.
If you ever find yourself in this situation, knowing how to handle a lost luggage claim ticket is essential.
Carry-On Packing Table
| Item | Purpose | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Pajamas/Underwear | Daily essentials | Storage bags |
| Gym Clothes | Fitness | Storage bags |
| Daily Wear | Zoom meetings | Main compartment |
| Toiletries | Hygiene | Easy access pouch |
| Scarf | Warmth | Top layer |
Transportation Logistics
We got this message from one of our viewers: “I’m moving to Germany with my wife and a three-year-old boy. We will be carrying five pieces of checked in luggage, three carry-on bags and two laptop bags. How do we move around with all that luggage and hire cheap taxis?”
Now if you’re in a similar situation where you’re moving your life abroad then most likely you will be packing a lot of things.
Option 1: Shipping Belongings
Option number one is to actually ship your belongings from your home country. For that option is best that you go to your local post office, DHL, FedEx, UPS, whichever kind of shipping service you have and simply inquire with the costs that they would charge for shipping let’s say a 23 kilo box. Why 23 kilos? Because that’s on average the amount of weight that a checked luggage is allowed from the most airlines.
Option 2: Train Travel with Luggage
Tip number two is actually traveling with all that luggage. Let’s start with the cheapest or most convenient option: to take the train. Now you don’t need to pay extra to take luggage on the train; you can take as much as you want as long as you can handle it alone.
So one person, if one person can handle four luggages alone then that is… I don’t think so. But I would say handling alone implies two bags that you need both hands with and a backpack, maybe a strap-on bag, maybe another bag. No more than two big luggages per person I would say.
When traveling with lots of gear, the experience can differ greatly depending on the airline. For instance, comparing Lufthansa vs Delta might reveal different baggage handling policies and cabin storage space.
Train Etiquette:
Additional to this there are certain etiquette that you need to follow in the train because it’s a public space. Number one is that do not leave luggages in the aisles like you know where people come and go. Very kind Germans will remind you that that’s not okay.
Option 3: Taxis and Shuttles
Number two is to take a taxi which again makes perfect sense if you live in the vicinity of the airport. To take a taxi in the airport is quite simple. Whenever you exit the airport building there will usually be taxi stands.
Option number three is to take a private shuttle. They exist and this option needs to be pre-booked of course before you travel. In our example from the beginning, this will be the best case scenario because from Frankfurt or Munich to Nuremberg is a long distance.
Finally is my backpack that I need to use on a 17 hour flight. The most important items like my Macbook, passport, and another camera for my YouTube world. That’s pretty much it. Hope you enjoyed this.
Here are a few more sections based on the subtitles that provide additional practical details for moving with lots of luggage:
Storage Solutions in Germany
Another topic we want to talk about now is storage units in Germany. Yes, and that might be interesting to you if let’s say you are carrying a lot of luggage and you are only renting a very small short-term rental unit to start off with. Or if you actually do have relocation from your company that ships let’s say your furniture from your hometown and let’s say your furniture arrives while you don’t live in your long-term apartment yet. What do you do in between? And that’s when storage could become quite handy.
Yes, and there is also super easy as well. Just Google storage units and the name of your city. There’s no one company we can recommend; it really highly depends on your needs and the location of the storage unit. There are some of course the closest to the city center there could be a little bit more expensive because they’re more accessible and the ones further away it could be a little bit cheaper.
To give you an example I did a research for storage unit Dusseldorf and I found one company that has storage units close to the city center. To give you an estimation of how much it costs for 4.5 square meters it’s around 150 Euros per month. And what is 4.5 square meters? How do I know? Don’t worry because a lot of these storage units companies or websites they have a picture that shows you 4.5 and how many things you can put there.
Booking Private Shuttles
So when I did some research to help this viewer I found two companies. I did a quick Google search and saying like shuttle service and the name of their airports, in this case Frankfurt. There’s actually one company called Frankfurt shuttle service and there a quote I got a quote and it was from Frankfurt to Nuremberg was around 450 euros with all the luggage. A big car for eight pieces of luggage and all the family to fit in.
Additional to that all these shuttle services you can also if you are traveling with children that need a car seat you can also book that extra. It costs around five euros per car seat I think so relatively okay. I also did the same research in airport shuttle service Munich that was the second airport that he would have landed in and there the shuttle service would cost around 300 Euros from Munich to Nuremberg.
Car Seats and Safety Laws
A quick side note on the car seat topic. Actually in Germany it is mandatory for children up to a certain age or height to not be traveling in a car without any support especially babies any dedicated car seats. So please be sure to inform yourself about that depending on how big or young your kids are.
That is a very good point because we traveled to Oman recently and there there are no baby seats so children are just actually traveling in the car freestyle. That is not allowed in Germany and most likely if you hire a shuttle service and there’s no car seat but there’s a baby it could be a possibility that they say sorry I cannot take you because it’s a liability for them.
One other thing to point out when booking such a shuttle service is count the amount of luggages that you have. In this website you can also choose how many pieces of luggages will fit. Again Germans are not very “let’s negotiate when we get there.” You have to be very honest and transparent and if you have eight put eight. As many as you have make sure to be clear when you book the service.