I lived out of two suitcases for two years when I traveled with the international, nonprofit organization Up With People. I learned very quickly from my European friends the joys of traveling light, how to pack a suitcase so your clothes don’t get wrinkled, and how to keep everything organized with zero to minimal damage to the contents.
Let’s face it. Pageants are high maintenance. There is a lot of stuff we need to take with us when we compete. Your packing strategy will vary depending on how long the pageant is, the type of pageant you’re competing in, and whether you are driving or flying to your location.
Now that airlines are charging for each checked bag, and there are weight limits placed on each bag, you may want to consider shipping certain things ahead of time via Fed Ex or UPS to the hotel. Whether you ship, or bring it with you, certain packing principles can be applied.
Today, I’m going to share tips on packing everything BUT your formal gowns and dressy clothing.
Here are the key secrets:
- Roll your clothes. This will take some practice but it’s not hard. If you don’t truly roll them (so they look like a roll of toilet paper) you will be folding in wrinkles. By rolling your clothes, you’ll be able to fit more clothes into your suitcase, they won’t be wrinkled and you can see what you’re looking for at a glance without disturbing everything else in your suitcase.
- Have a large variety of different bags in many colors and sizes. I love the Eagle Creek Pack-it bags because I can color code my things and everything is organized. You can use zipper lock bags just as well. When our girls were very young and we traveled out of state, I would put each day’s clothes in a separate zipper lock bag and label them. All they would have to do was grab a bag that had their name on it. It contained their underwear, socks and clothes for the day without disturbing the contents of the entire suitcase. You can either group like items together, or pack complete outfits per bag. It’s your choice.
- Pack items to create layers, or shelves, within your suitcase.
- Pack like items together. I group all my hair care things in one bag, my makeup in another, and toiletries in a third. I put all liquid toiletries first into a zip lock bag before I place it in my luggage. This will eliminate any unpleasant surprises caused by a leaking shampoo bottle.
- Fill ALL the spaces within your bags and suitcases. Holes allow things to move around and get broken. Put smaller bags inside bigger bags if you need to. The goal is to secure things so they can’t freely move around in your luggage. If you’re packing up boxes to ship, use bubble wrap to fill the air pockets so there isn’t any movement inside the box.
Bottom Layer: I line the bottom of my suitcase with an empty backpack (great for packing snacks, rehearsal clothes and carrying things around during the day) , a suit-sized garment bag (to carry a quick change of clothes between events if necessary), a rolled up full length dry cleaner bag and an empty sack to hold dirty clothes. This will provide a soft cushion to put your layer of shoes on.
Layer #2: Next, put your shoes together with toe to heel and line them around the edges of the suitcase. Sometimes I put the shoes in tube socks to prevent them from getting scratched. You can make this whole layer just shoes or put in your hot rollers. In the holes around your shoes, fill in with your clips and Velcro rollers, which are in zipper lock bags to prevent the rollers and clips from getting lost and snagging your clothes. The key is to fill in the holes with little items (which I put in smaller bags) so your shoes can’t move.
Layer #3: Next, put your clothing bags on top of the shoe layer. This layer will cushion your shoes. Socks and pantyhose are in the green rectangle bag, underwear and bras in blue. T-shirts, pants and shorts are rolled to fit in larger bags like the green and red ones. All of the chargers for my cell phone, cameras and batteries are in the teal bag along with any other small miscellaneous items that I don’t want to have lost in the shuffle
Layer #4: On top of your clothes shelf, put your rolled up jewelry bag and another sack. In my picture, it is my hair care bag.
Layer #5: To pad my jewelry sack, I put a jacket on top of it (because I am always freezing in those ballrooms) and one more empty bag that I can use to collect and organize the pageant materials I’ll receive at check in time. Zip the bag shut and move on to the next suitcase.
Organizing Your Beauty Items
I bought this makeup bag at Walgreens and love it. It has a number of sturdy clear zippered bags that can quickly and easily be removed providing flexibility for different situations. I have a separate bag for each of the following to save time, keep everything organized, and to keep things from “walking away” in the dressing room:
- Face- foundation, cover up, bronzer, powder and blush.
- Eyes- shadows, liners, mascara, eyelashes and glue
- Lips- liners, lipstick, sealer, gloss
- Sharp stuff- tweezers, small pair of scissors, small sewing kit, safety pins, nail file
- Applicators- sponges, brushes, Q-tips
- Write out your list so nothing falls through the cracks
- Take only what you need.
- Start packing a week before you leave.
Pageant Season Is Here!
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Rhonda Shappert is an expert pageant coach, an iPEC Certified Professional Coach, an Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner, and a member of the International Coach Federation. She created Winning Through Pageantry® to partner with pageant contestants and their support people to provide complete pageant preparation, achieve winning results in life through pageantry, and to Succeed From The Inside Out®. She has over 30 years experience in the pageantry world as a contestant, judge, emcee, staff member, mother of daughters who compete, Mrs. Ohio America 2005, and has held multiple titles at the local, state and national levels.
Rhonda graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors degree in Musical Theater from The Ohio State University and has performed on stage in 15 countries on the Asian, European and American continents. This mother of three home educates their children and has been married 22 years to her husband Stephen, is the former mayor of her community, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Virtual Academy. She and her husband perform original contemporary Christian music. For more information on Rhonda, visit www.WinningThroughPageantry.com .
