Conference Tip # 373

Jul 3, 2007 | Adventures & Travel, Writing

Pack light. Why, you ask? Free books. Tons of free books. And goodies. And other tokens. Make sure you have either a large tote bag you can fold flat and tuck in your suitcase, or do my trick: the suitcase inside the suitcase. Yes, you see that correctly. I pack the smaller suitcase with my clothes, tuck it inside another suitcase and then when I come home, voila, I have two suitcases. If that seems to be too much trouble or you aren’t a fan of lugging some really heavy bags through DFW, then consider taking a USPS Priority Mail box, the kind that have a preset postage, already stamped and ready to mail home. Fold it flat in your suitcase, then when you get to conference, fill ‘er up. The hotel’s business office will take it off your hands and see that it gets to the mailman. Oh, the tricks of conference! What are your favorite packing light, coming home loaded tricks?

8 Comments

  1. Haven Rich

    I work magic in packing! I typically can bring everything (including kitchen sink) in one suit case! I roll the smaller items and pack them last. And long items, don’t get folded as much. So pants, single fold (as if put on a hanger). T-shirts/dress shirts, they get folded in half.

    This way, they take up less layers. Then after you have everything in there neatly…you take the rolled up items and tuck them into empty spots. Also, use the shoes! Roll stuff up and stick it inside your shoes!

    I’ll be driving in with a friend, so I can bring as much as I want…within reason of course hehe. I’m going to be doing a great deal of trading out though. I have promotional items and gifts that I won’t be taking home with me. They are going into the suit case I’m going to use for books.

    Yay, I’m so excited! I only have 7 days til I leave.

  2. Gillian

    I’m flying, but the business office at the hotel assured me they could ship anything I wanted home. However, the preset postage box is a great idea, and I am also starting to narrow down my clothing–pretty easy because I’m trying to coordinate around my most comfortable pair of shoes.

  3. Kelli Estes

    I tried the Flat Rate box idea last year in Atlanta and it didn’t work. Not to say it won’t in Dallas, but before counting on it, you might want to double-check with the hotel. In Atlanta I was told that the hotel could not mail it for me (even though it had postage on it) because they could not verify to the postmaster that what was inside wasn’t dangerous (or perishable, or flammable – whatever the list of questions they ask). I offered to let them see inside the box before I closed it up, but they wouldn’t do it. They suggested that I take the box myself to the nearest post office, which wasn’t near at all.

    Long story short, I ended up using the shipping desk the hotel set up for the conference to mail my books home.

    I love your suitcase inside another suitcase idea. I just might do that this year!

  4. Janelle

    Is anyone else finding difficulty in seeing the new excerpt from Love Letter from a Duke?

  5. Elizabeth

    Janelle, it hasn’t posted yet and probably won’t until the end of the month. My website is getting a redesign so instead of paying the money to have them build the Duke page in my old site and the new site, I’m holding off posting anything Duke until the end of the month! Sorry about the confusion.

  6. Keira Soleore

    Ahhhh… I’ve heard many people mention taking an empty suitcase, but other than packing light in both, and ending up with severely wrinkled clothes, so that I can return with both full, I couldn’t figure out how to do it. You’ve now shown me how. I’ll be sure to di this next year. Next week, I’ll just ship books home.

  7. Mad

    So which suitcase came back packed with books? I’m hoping the larger one so I can be green with jealousy. 🙂

  8. Maude A

    Love the flat rate box. What a wonderful idea and so easy. If it fits, it ships.

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