Roll or fold in handbag?

With the appearance of low cost airlines nowadays many travelers decide for the easy way of traveling taking only one handbag. To pack a bag for 7 - 10 days is not an easy task, because usually only one hand luggage of limited amount is allowed. There are many different thoughts about what to take and how to organize these items, for example here or here. However there are different ways of thinking about if the clothes should be folded or rolled see for example here. And this is where The Daily Theory comes in. So roll or fold?


The rolling fans argue that if you roll, you gain more space and your clothes will have less wrinkles. While the folding party says that rolling makes the clothes occupy more space and it is not the usual way to keep things organized. I would say the answer is not that simple that it could be answered with one word, as it depends on some other factors as well.

First of all the type of bag we are using is very important. If the bag is hard from the outside (like most cabin luggage) then rolling really can save some space because the pressure from the cover will leave less space to the air to come in. We should not forget however that if the bag we have (a backpack for example) is from soft material, this pressure might make the bag not fit into the cabin size, so we will end up paying extra fees on the low cost, so folding can be a better way to pack.

The third way that in my personal experience works best is a mixed approach: fold the bigger things and the ones you don't want to roll. Place them towards the middle of your bag using the least space you can. Then take the small items like T-shirts, underwear and socks and place them rolled around the big items. Finally if you have some hard items to place like deodorant or hair-drier, just push them among the rolled clothes, this allows  an optimal space usage in almost all types of bags.