A veteran of over 80 trips both short and long, my 2 wheel roll-aboard soft-side suitcase had to be retired. The retractable handle had been finicky recently and on the way home from my last trip, became stuck in the down position. Once home, I got it to work again, but it jammed up easily. It is 20 yo. So, I went shopping.


The new case is a hard shell ‘spinner’ with 4 rubberized wheels. It opens like a book - with two compartments, unlike my old case that had one compartment. I used packing cubes to keep things organized in my old case. The new case has a zippered ‘screen’ that holds the contents of one side in place, whilst the other side has compression straps.

I did a rough pack of the new case, and it feels like it might hold more than my previous case. (The height and width are identical, but the depth of the new one is 8.5 inches vs the old one’s 7.5.). Rough packed it weighed about 16lbs!

The zip side is so contained, I don’t think I will need the large packing cube. I’m also thinking that instead of rolling clothes (like I did for the soft sided packing cubes) I would use konmari folding techniques.

Has anyone had experience with packing a hard shell suitcase? Or applied konmari methods to packing? How do you pack your suitcase?


I’m always open to packing tips and tricks.