Living out of a suitcase is kind of a bummer.
I want to be traveling, yes, but for certain things—say, sleeping or getting dressed—I also kind of want to be home. Which is to say, I would like to bring my whole bedroom with me—or at least my closet.
Enter packing shelves, which come in a hanging unit and double as a compression system. According to the ads, you simply pack the shelves, squish the system down into a little bundle, and put it in your suitcase—it’s essentially a hanging closet organizer you can pack down and take with you. At your destination, un-squish, hang, and voilà! Your closet away from home, no unpacking needed.
In hindsight, the whole thing seems too good to be true. But, as a product reviewer and seasoned overpacker, I try to maintain a sense of curiosity and hope.
Also, I fell for the marketing.
I’d seen packing shelves before and didn’t think much of them. Amazon sells several for $30 or less, and L.L.Bean has one (usually around $70) that reviewers seem to either love or hate. And then there is the entire suitcase-integrated Solgaard Carry-On Closet. If I’m being honest, I think I might’ve rejected them for their slightly dorky aura. But when I saw the sleek minimalism of July’s Compression Packing Shelves, they suddenly seemed kind of cool.
July’s packing shelves also looked legit. That is, they looked durable and thoughtfully designed enough to potentially warrant the $65 splurge (and shipping adds another $15). Plus, we’ve been impressed with some of July’s other items, like the Carry All Backpack, which is a Wirecutter pick, and a promising set of Packing Cells. Had July perfected the art of packing shelves? I decided to find out on a trip to see family over the holidays.
I was hesitantly impressed when I first opened July’s version of packing shelves. The unit had three open shelves and one zippered pocket (at the bottom), which ingeniously flips inside out to become a storage compartment for the shelves when they’re not in use.
From the sturdy straps to the smooth zippers, the construction seemed solid. I liked the magnetic buckle on the compression strap and how the S-hooks tucked away into top slip pockets when not in use.
But the problems started early.
The S-hooks didn’t fit over any of the closet rods in my Philly row home. They also barely fit over the rod in the closet at my destination, a house in Virginia. (I was eventually able to force the hooks on, losing the plastic nubs on the tips in the process.) July’s product copy suggests the hanging shelves also fit over “shower rails,” but none of the bathrooms I was using had these, and a similarly positioned towel rod was too close to the wall for the packing shelves to hang properly.
The S-hooks weren’t the only issue. Only certain items—like larger sweaters—take up the full width and length of a shelf. If you want to use the packing shelves as intended (just uncompress and hang!), then you lose a lot of usable packing space. The other option is to pack the shelves more like they’re packing cubes, and then adjust everything when you arrive at your destination, which defeats the purported purpose.
To make matters worse, when you compress the packing shelves, they turn into a very large and awkward lump, about the size of two large packing cubes glued together. While the shelves compressed quite a bit, they would have compressed more evenly if July’s packing shelves had had two straps instead of one. But I don’t think this would have solved the problem of fitting them into my suitcase.
As a reviewer of travel products, I have many suitcases on hand, but I couldn’t seem to find a single one that fit my lump. With growing frustration and suitcases strewn across my room, I returned to July’s product page and found a few pertinent details under the “specs” tab.
Apparently, when fully packed, the shelves are not designed to fit in carry-ons or medium-size checked bags, but rather into large checked luggage, trunk luggage, and some weekender bags. However, the copy also said that, when they’re lightly packed, the shelves could fit into medium-size checked bags or carry-ons.
Upon repacking the shelves lightly, I found that it was still difficult to fit the slightly smaller lump into any of the shallow compartments of my hard-sided suitcases (carry-ons and medium-size checked bags). They fit least awkwardly into my large duffle, and they kind of fit into my Briggs & Riley Baseline Carry-on, a soft-sided suitcase (and Wirecutter pick) with one larger compartment. This was the suitcase I eventually used when I repacked the shelves in earnest for my trip, but I had to travel with the suitcase fully expanded (that is, no longer carry-on size).
Caveat after caveat aside, the moment of unfurling the shelves at my destination was a little impressive. I had carried my own little closet with me! And it was pleasant enough to live out of hanging shelves—even if they weren’t worth the ordeal of getting them to my destination.
Once I’d managed to jam the S-hooks over the closet rod, the weight hung pretty evenly. Hanging shelves have a propensity to tilt forward, but with these shelves it wasn’t much of an issue. Mostly, they did what shelves do: I could see all of my stuff and easily pull out what I needed. In addition to storing sweaters and shirts on the shelves, I stored a bra and two small packing cubes of underwear and socks in the bottom zippered compartment.
Still, I can’t think of a single scenario where I would actually use these shelves as they’re intended to be used. They don’t fit that well in a carry-on, and if I’m going to bring a massive suitcase, I would want to take more clothes than would fit in a single set of packing shelves. I also don’t want the added stress of trying to figure out if my hanging shelves will be compatible with my destination closet.
Wirecutter’s luggage expert Kit Dillon, who has tested luggage with an integrated packing-shelf system, also finds packing shelves impractical. “I can’t find a single good reason why you would try to fit, with all its additional complexity, a tower of shelves within the already limited space of a personal luggage shell,” Kit said. “Upon testing and using this novelty, I understand it even less.”
I can imagine a few scenarios in which packing shelves might be useful. If you regularly pack light, the bulkiness may not be such an issue. The packing shelves could also be useful if you frequently travel by car and can just place the lump in the backseat. However, there’s still the issue of whether or not it will fit in the destination closet.
You could also bring the packing shelves on a trip, unpacked. Stuffed into their own little container, the shelves don’t take up much space in larger luggage or in a car, and the 1.5-pound weight would be negligible. This might be particularly alluring for a longer trip to a single destination where you’re aware of the closest situation in advance. For example, if you’re going on an extended cruise where there’s limited storage space, or for kids going away for the summer who need help staying organized.
But if you don’t need the compression feature, you might be able to achieve a similar setup using a standard hanging organizer—for $10 or $20. (We like this one from The Container Store because of its stable, triangular hooks, which are also large enough to fit over a variety of rod sizes.)
For most people, packing cubes are probably a more practical solution. They have few requirements, they compress clothes well, and they come in a variety of sizes, so they’re versatile across situations and suitcases. No, they’re not perfect, but sometimes, to get what you want, you have to do something annoying, like take a red-eye or unzip a few packing cubes to hunt down a shirt.
If packing cubes are the pinnacle of suitcase organization, I’m okay with that. I am traveling! I have arrived, perhaps, by catapulting 4,000 miles through the clouds! I am living out of a fancy box on wheels! Isn’t that miracle enough?
This article was edited by Hannah Rimm and Maxine Builder.
