How To Pack a Personal Item | Organizing Your Under Seat Bag & Travel Essentials

Has anyone tried using any of the Blogilates backpacks as a personal item? Do they work well for travel?

Use a neck pillow to stuff in your tshirts.. remove the pillow and put your tshirts in the neck cover!

Just a quick tip: the measurements on the RyanAir, WizzAir etc websites are only a rough estimate. I have always carried 48cm tall backpacks (instead of 40) as under seat ones and sometimes even deeper than the maximum. Although this can be easily fixed by not packing the backpack fully to the brim. I was never required to measure my backpack by the airline personell. At the moment I'll be using my new TNF Recon for such cases. In the past I used several Osprey packs (ie. Daylite Plus 48 cm tall, Syncro 20 48cm tall 27 deep instead of 20 and was fully packed) without any issues at all.

In addition to a personal item bag, pack a sling on your person underneath a baggy shirt. If you look pregnant or chubby, you can’t be harassed for that.

5S method everywhere you go. Love it!

My favorite under the seat bag is my Tumi Medium Travel Tote. It holds both my iPads and all my incidentals. Everything I need during the flight fits in there with plenty of room left over. I don't even have to expand it.

Nice video. However, when it comes to shapes of three-dimensional objects, like backpacks, using the word "rectangular" is inappropriate as this typically refers to the two-dimensional shape. Equally inappropriate it is to talk about using "every inch" of your allowance, as it should be using every "cubic inch". After all, I want to make use of volume, not distance.

No one should be packing their switch without a case…

In your experience, what is the average range of capacity you are allowed to take as a Personal Bag? 20L? Not the smallest, but average of more standard airlines

I travel across Europe once per month and I use the North Face Surge from 2021, it is my only carry on as I travel between homes...I only ever carry clothes if they are new bought in the UK to wear in Slovenia...It carries my laptop and ipad very well plus headphones and a headrest (Memoryfoam wedge from Jzsk) and anything else I bring back with me...never had a problem putting it under the seat and I never get asked to check it.

My interest is in having underseat carry on only for personal travel. Up to a month travelling with limit of around 7kg maximum.

I highly recommend downloading books, audiobooks, music, and/or movies orto your phone before traveling. Not all airlines have inflight entertainment and the ones that do can’t guarantee that it’ll be working during the flight. Also, your phone is something that you will be bringing anyway so it’s not an additional item. Make sure to bring a portable charger also. I’m a flight attendant and it happens rarely on my airline but it does happen that our inflight entertainment doesn’t work or the charger at your seat may be down for that flight.

FYI - The expression is "A place for everything and everything in its place."

I will say having a quick note on your phone can be brilliant to note the things you want to remember for next trip and actually be able to find the note next time you take a trip

Thanks for your advice! I really appreciate it since the next time I travel, I want it to be light! I always had trouble with packing more than I needed for a single trip, which isn't helpful with flying!

I use a small sling as a pouch that has all my important documents, money/ credit/debit cards, earbud headphones, and the small things I'll need while navigating the airport so when I get through the security checkpoint, I can take the sling out and use it while on the airport and it'll fit back in my day pack when boarding the flight.

I’ve flown etihad for the last few years and had no idea that some of the things we take for granted are not considered common in some airlines (inflight entertainment, our carryons have never been measured or paid for at checkin, etc). Thanks for all your helpful videos, have learned a ton, I overpacked way too much last year for a winter vacay but was able to pack all my clothes in a carryon last time I flew.

Why do so many bags not actually fit the size description posted by airlines.

Not me taking that same exact bag haha woah

One time my back pack didn’t pass the fit test , nurse cratchet got me ,,, it had swollen too large for the trip home with Purchases.
I took stuff out right there at the gate during boarding ,and started layering it in my body . Lol
Got on the flight sat down and started peeling them back off and stuffing into the sack .

Aye fascinating way to give aye commentary to aye video.

On long haul flights, I keep my socks (or down booties) in my down sweater pockets in my personal bag. 🙂

I always only travel with my big ol' dakine backpack (33L) and budget european airlines have never stopped me or charged me more money, maybe I've just gotten lucky or maybe yhey don't pay employees enough to care!

thank you

I fit a 42l Allpa pack as a personal item under the seat one time 😂

Can I take 2 bags one small for personal n one carryon back bag.?

Thanks for sharing ❤ 🥀 👍

You have great skin

is there any peak design personal item bags?

Some airlines like TAP Portugal allow two items of cabin baggage but the personal item bag can only have a max weight of 2 kg. which is not a lot really.
Sometimes passengers with larger type personal items bags as show here are often told to put them in the overhead bins.

This may sound weird but I have a 26L Tortuga Setout as an EDC (Every Day Carry) and sometimes when I can’t take my backpack with me (like inside of a supermarket) I just undo the weight straps, I cross them together and I make a sling so that I can leave my backpack at costumer service.

Does this add to the conversion? No, but its something funny that I do, lol.

After managing to snag the seat WITHOUT a working entertainment system on two separate very long flights, please do NOT rely on the monitors to work for your flight! Bring entertainment!
Also, great video. I've learned a lot from these even after extensive travel over the years.

still confused what is allowed. I thought a small backpack like this one counts as carry on. But you can have this AND a Osprey Farpoint 40 for example?

as a minimalist traveller, I steer clear from top loading packs. these include cinched, drawpulled, roll-down, flapped designs. they make accessing items a hassle, and also packing without having full directional access to the space can be very frustrating and challenging. look for packs that zip and open up fully like a luggage.

Awesome video. Really helpful! What color is the Konken backpack from the video?

thank you

I ended up taking my Kanken on a trip to Ohio in February. I had it stuffed to the gills with my essential items, including an extra pair of boots since I was wearing light shoes and it was blizzarding there. Boyfriend thought I was being paranoid and only brought his wallet and a book so I put some of his stuff in there too. The airline ended up losing our luggage. Moral of the story, buy a Kanken and ignore your boyfriend.

Is the kanken 15'' laptop bag a good personal item for ryanair flights? I know dimension wise it exceeds 3cm the width of their limits. But maybe it could do.

I recommend a drawstring bag as your personal item and only luggade if You travel on Ryanair. I have packed the small bag for a two week holiday, no problem!

No matter how many times I pack a personal bag, I always love watching videos to see if anyone does the same as I do, or if there's any new tricks of the trade I can pick up. Another great video from you guys. Cheers.

my first ever trip to europe i did it with a 25 liter bag for 1 month and a half, you and chase reeves made me realize i can do it around 4 years ago and i always do one bag travel now

I use variously coloured and sized transparent zip-lock bags. The contents of each bag can be quickly viewed, and the different colours can also be used to identify contents. Need tech items, grab the green bag. Toiletries, the blue bag, etc.

Actually I tried your tips and it really works. But the sling/shoulder bag it counts as personal bag so I had to squeeze into my backpack. Its unusual because they don't care my shoulder bag but you were right to mention different airlines has different rules. The airlines is cheap but they are strict with the luggage or bags item. Good thing my shoulder bag holds only passport, cash, cards - small so it can squeeze in. I rather go back to AirCanada even its expensive at least I'm comfortable and no luggage issues.

what is the watch he wear in every video ? is it a smartwatch ?

I switch between the Nordace sienna and the Osprey Questa for short 3 day
trips

Made a big mistake on my first internation flight. My personal item bag was way too big and I had no room for my feet for the long very uncomfortable 10 hour flight to Iceland. Couldn't put it in the overhead bin because of the things I needed during the flight. I tried to make it do dual duty and brought things that should have been in my no-fee checked luggage.

For my super efficient folks out there who can pack for an endless trip in your underseat personal item bag, extreme kudos to you! I'm getting there