You have booked that special trip away. You are getting everything ready and about to pack. When you look down and realise that you need to pack your shoes. How do you, and what is the best way to pack shoes for travel so they don't damage, crush, or squash your neatly Ironed, pressed and prepared clothes?
Packing shoes when you travel raises many questions. If you are like me, you will lay out all your prepared clothes, beside your case or travel bag, and stare long and hard, as you contemplate how to pack your shoes.
Should shoes go at the bottom or top of the suitcase?
Should shoes be placed together, separated, or placed heel to toe?
And then you start to think about the shoes themselves and…
How do you stop your shoes from being damaged?
How do you stop your shoes taking up so much space in your travel bag?
How do you stop shoes from dirtying or damaging clothing and accessories?
So, in this article I will share my tips with you for packing your shoes in your suitcase or travel bag to avoid the challenges above.
Most of your challenges can be sorted if you consider these three things when packing shoes.
1. Hygiene
2. Space Available
3. Damage Limitation
1. Hygiene
Before you even think about packing your shoes, clean them.
Worn shoes can smell and are unhygienic. Therefore clean your shoes before packing them. First, spray yours with an anti-bacterial shoe spray. Aside from your normal way of cleaning your particular shoe don’t forget the soles.
Remove dirt, grit and grime from the soles with a damp cloth. And let them dry. This is important if you are going to mix up your shoes amongst your clothes. You do not want to put a dirty shoe against a clean shirt or other item.
Now that your shoes are clean you can look at packing them.
2. Space Available
The space you have available to pack your shoes is important. If you are packing shoes in Checked in Luggage, your suitcase size will be larger and give you more options.
However, I am a great fan of carry-on luggage and the flexibility that it offers (see my article on Why We Love Carry On Luggage for Air Travel) and the hand held baggage creates, by its nature, a space challenge.
Your shoes, unlike your clothes, don't roll or fold. I am talking about your more structured shoes here and not canvas or flip flop style crushable shoes. Also, your shoes are bulky and take up space.
You can minimize the space loss by packing into each shoe small items such as socks, underwear, cloth, basically any item that will not be seen as outerwear. (It will be squeezed into your shoe.)
This has two benefits.
1. It keeps your shoes in shape
2. You gain back the lost space an empty shoe creates.
Then, place each shoe either individually, sole against the bottom and side edge, or both soles on the bottom edge of the case.
The other option is to place your shoes ‘heel to toe’ and put them in either a designated shoe bag, or at the very least a plastic bag.
You now place your shoes, in their bag, into the bottom of your case or hand held bag, and then you can start to pack around the shoes themselves.
Placing your shoes at the bottom of your bag also helps when you have to carry it. The weight distribution will be lower and the balance better. Heavy items to the bottom, lighter things as you move up.
3. Damage Limitation
I mentioned above that you should place your cleaned shoes in a designated shoe or plastic bag. If you wrap your shoes into a separate bag you add a further level of protection against your shoes dirtying your clean clothes.
Also, I tend to wrap my shoes in a cloth, or an older cotton T-shirt before I place them in their bag. This adds extra protection for the shoes especially if I need to take a more formal style of shoe because I am travelling to an event or on business.
You might want to use the space inside your shoes to hold sensitive electronic items or valuables. I have wrapped phone chargers, camera accessories, camera lenses, sunglasses, cuff-links, in socks and placed them inside the shoes. The shoe structure adds an extra layer of protection.
One thing though. Make sure, if you are flying, that any item you wrap here will not be something you need to show at airport security. There is nothing worse than being asked to empty the contents of your scanned bag, and having to unroll your socks to produce an item you packed.
Of course, there is a way that you can cut out all the hassle and issue of packing your shoes in amongst your clean and freshly pressed clothes. That is to use a bag that has a designated shoe compartment or pocket.
If you use luggage with this type of feature you stop the embarrassment of unpacking at your destination, and finding that your favourite shirt or top has a dirty shoe mark on it, or is crumpled into the shape of a brogue shoe.
For my short get away travels, or even for the gym, I recommend Our Leather Travel Bag with a Shoe Compartment. This has a separate shoe section, in which sometimes I have used to carry toiletries instead of shoes. You can check out the Leather Duffle bag with Shoe Compartment here.
I hope you found the above tips useful when solving the issue of finding the best way to pack shoes for travel. If you have any best tips for packing shoes then please share them in the comments below.
Thanks for reading