Or how to make an “Outdoor Products Essential Carry-on” or any other carry on a better piece of luggage. It’s a cheap and simple solution. This may be a stretch but here goes. This bag needs a stiffener; you all know that cheap little piece of cardboard covered with vinyl on the bottoms of most cheap duffel or sports bags. My old racquetball bags have them. I’ll bet if any of you go in your closet and check other bags you have a couple in the house. You can make one with a little stiff cardboard, or any other lightweight material and make it any size you want.

Now I don’t like to use bundling for packing, it’s a pain and is not simple if you are moving from place to place. Packing cubes are okay and could be used in my solution. But I prefer not, since I have to pack and unpack them. I prefer to fold my clothes and place them in the carry on. I attempt to fold as little as possible. Pack that suit case up. Pack it high.

Now the solution: put the stiffener on top of your clothes and cinch it down with the cinch straps. You now have a more even compression on all your clothes at the same time. This kind of works like one of those vacuum bags or like the Eagle Creek Pack It Folder; essentially you are pressing the air out of the clothes and tightening them against the stiffener. The entire bag becomes stiff.

Put your shoes and other goodies where ever you deem it appropriate, you will have plenty of room. Play with the stiffener. Try bigger and smaller ones. The possibilities are endless…

You could put an additional stiffener on the bottom of the suitcase, beneath you clothes. The bag becomes stiffer. Maybe even better compression on your clothes. If you anal about it you can even add extra cinch straps under the lower and above the upper stiffener and cinch the daylight’s out of it.

What’s the problem with the solution? Added weight. But is there really? No packing cubes, no pack it folder, you really don’t need extra straps around the bag. We don’t have to worry about the zipper, the compression is internal. There is no extra cost, sowing straps on, or packing cubes needed.

Now I unpack my bag and hopefully it worked like a Pack It Folder.

The only problem is that if you go through a security manual bag search they can’t see through your stiffener and may undo your cinch straps, but so what…thirty second later you’re on your way.

Good luck!

Still there is no denying compression straps are helpful and they are one of the key features I like on my Rick Steves Convertible Classic.

To add them to the OPEC, buy some accessory straps from REI. You choose the buckle type, or the thread-through type. Either will work for this application.

Take your bag to the cheapest dry cleaners you can find – they almost always have a sewing machine and do alterations. I say cheapest because alterations pricing are often linked to their drycleaning pricing, if one is high, the other is likely to be high too.

Show them what you want to do – two straps, the mounting points – determine the strap length and decide whether to double the strap under the connection point, or to burn the edge. Burning the edge doesn’t look as nice but is much easier for them to sew through. Their machine should handle the thickness of the strap and bag, if they have a weaker machine try another cleaner or a shoe repair store that does bag repairs too.

I recommend attaching the end points just on the far side of the top and bottom seams, for maximum compression. If you attach AT the seam or a little IN from the seam, you won’t get as much compression.

Good luck! Keep in mind the repairs and straps will cost almost as much as the bag, but YMMV!

I agree with the need to keep the “appearance” of the personal item in the right “zone.”

My attempt at humor. It was not so long ago that we would have thought such a proposal insane.