Lay out everything intended for the trip before it goes anywhere near the case, then remove roughly a quarter of it — a genuinely effective, low-effort filter that most experienced travelers use, since the items removed first are almost always the ones that end up unused anyway.
Compression packing cubes help enforce a limit rather than just organize around it: pack cubes to their pre-compression capacity, then compress. If everything doesn’t fit once compressed, that’s a real, physical signal to remove items rather than force the case shut.
Planning a small number of interchangeable pieces — pieces that combine into several different outfits — does more to prevent overpacking than any folding technique, since it addresses the actual cause (too many single-use items) rather than just fitting more of them into less space.
Check with your airline and read the label before you follow anything here. Lithium battery watt-hour limits, liquids allowances and lock policies differ by carrier and by country, and change over time — the figures published by the airline or security authority you are actually traveling with take precedence over anything written on this site. A power bank or spare battery is carried exactly as its manufacturer and your airline specify, never estimated. We report what is published — a watt-hour rating, a size limit, a lock's official recognition — and this site describes the equipment only: nothing here is a guarantee about what a specific checkpoint will allow on a specific day.
Last reviewed 26 August 2026