Flight attendant shares how to fit '12 to 14 days of clothes' in carry-on bag

Flight attendants have all sorts of tips and tricks for those going high into the sky, but one that pretty much everyone would love to hear is how to dodge charges for lots of luggage.

If you're going away for a while you're going to need to pack an outfit for every day of the trip and that takes up lots of space, even more if you reserve the right to have a fashion emergency and give yourself some options.

The only problem is your airline will charge you extra if you've got too much luggage, but one attendant has shared a handy hack that means you could fit plenty of outfits into just your carry-on bag.

Willie B. Thomas/Getty

While your parents might have told you to fold your clothes neatly, the flight attendant suggested that you should try rolling them up instead to save even more space.

A passenger said they'd been taught the trick and now declared: "I can get between 12 to 14 days' worth of clothes in a carry-on rolling bag if I roll, slightly less in the winter."

That might result in quite a heavy bag, and the attendants probably aren't going to lift it up into the overhead locker for you, so make sure you can actually carry your carry-on.

However, to do this properly you've got to really roll your outfits up as tight as they can go, and apparently there's a good technique for doing that.

You lay the item of clothing out flat, turn the bottom two inches inside out and then if it's a shirt fold it horizontally by thirds and then roll it up as tight as you can from the top.

If it's trousers, then you turn the waist inside out a couple of inches then fold the legs over and roll it up tightly from the bottom.

Kathrin Ziegler/Getty

Apparently that allows you to compress your clothes into very tight tubes and even gets rid of a lot of the wrinkles so it's a win-win, though I'm still not convinced I could fit two weeks worth of clothes in a carry-on bag with it.

Flight attendants have all sorts of other tips for travellers, including a way for some to get a bit more space in your seat.

They also know the best way to hide valuables in a hotel room and that you really shouldn't be asking them for a hot drink because of where the water for it comes from.

Meanwhile, they've got their own secret language to communicate with each other on the plane without you knowing.

Topics: Travel, Life

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker