Cramming holiday baggage to the limit? Packing techniques from a pro.

From cycling in Europe on two panniers a day and other experiences, Anne McAlpin brings travel tricks such as threading a necklace through a straw.

from the December 18, 2007 edition

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It all began on a bicycling tour of Europe when McAlpin was 16 and had to carry what she needed in panniers. The challenge of figuring out what to bring, getting it to fit, and how to wash it all hooked her for life, she recalls in an interview in her high-ceilinged Jacksonville, Ore., home (an antique suitcase collection decorates the tops of her kitchen cabinets). Then, she adds, "I said, 'OK, so how can I get a job that will pay me to travel?' "

After college she volunteered to baby-sit on a cruise ship when no one would pay her to work on one. "That was when 'Love Boat' was popular," McAlpin says. "I wanted [cruise director] Julie McCoy's job." It was on board a cruise that McAlpin discovered how hungry travelers were to learn to pack. When a cruise director told the staff to come up with a new activity, McAlpin teasingly suggested demonstrating how to pack bags.

"It was a pure joke," she says. But the cruise director thought it was a good idea. At 8 a.m. she dragged her suitcase into the lounge, and 100 people were waiting – and a career was born.Eight years and 67 countries later, McAlpin's interactive packing sessions were so successful she was doing them once a week.

Then, sailing through the Panama Canal, a grateful elderly lady became a muse of sorts. "You should write a book! If I had known all these things I would've saved space and saved money," she told McAlpin, who started compiling packing tips from her own travels and the experience of passengers. The book didn't get written. But the next year, on a cruise to Asia, the muse came up to her again. "I can just still see her," McAlpin recalls. "She said to me: 'You're still doing the same thing? Didn't I tell you to write a book?' "

Write a book she did: "Pack It Up: The Essential Guide to Organized Travel." Some people, she says, "thought it was a dumb idea." So she published it herself and sent a copy to Oprah Winfrey, who must have recognized the average traveler's angst and invited McAlpin on her TV show.

In her book and talks, which McAlpin gives at AAA offices and department stores, she unpacks all her travel knowledge – and, with only two weeks home a year, it's prodigious.

Her biggest innovation is what she calls a wrinkle-free packing method. Put all heavy, awkwardly shaped, or loose items, including shoes and a small vial of laundry detergent at the bottom of the bag. Over that, place a flat packing surface – you can make one yourself out of cardboard or, yes, for $17.99 to $19.99 you can buy a lightweight one from McAlpin. Then interlay slacks in your suitcase – but don't fold them over (leave the legs extending over the sides). Then roll shirts and knit items into the middle of the interlaid pants. After a row of shirts has been added, fold over the pants.

This technique, she says, utilizes every bit of space, keeps clothing wrinkle free, and makes accessing clothes easier (the board lifts out, making it simple to get underneath without disturbing the rest of the items).

Travelers' most common mistake, she says, is bringing too much stuff. McAlpin recommends, for example, packing no more than three pairs of shoes on any trip. Don't roll your eyes, she says she once had an audience member on a cruise admit she'd brought 47 pairs of shoes – and rented the cabin next door as a closet.

She recommends putting valuables (like cameras and laptop computers), medications, and an extra pair of socks and underwear in carry-on luggage – everything you need for the first 24 hours of your trip.

Socks with the zipper pocket to hide money look uncomfortable. But a McAlpin-designed solution suits me: A black silk bag just big enough to hold a passport, credit cards, and currency. It's small enough not to make you look pregnant when you wear it around your neck under clothes on the road and cute enough to sling over your shoulder as an "evening bag" once you arrive. I don't think I'm going to be needing an evening bag on my next trip.

But, on second thought, the purse would work for my travel-loving sister-in-law. Maybe this year my holiday gifts won't be last minute after all.

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