Vacation season is finally here, and with it comes the inevitable packing. If you're just throwing your shoes into a suitcase among your clothes and toiletries, you're doing it wrong. We asked intrepid traveler and expert Jess Field of @travelmomsquad to advise us on the right way to deal with shoes when we travel.
Why You Shouldn't Pack Shoes with Clothes
Even if they look fairly clean, shoes are dirty and germy, especially on the bottoms. You don't want them contaminating the rest of your suitcase, its contents, or its interior surfaces. "I feel very strongly that it is gross to pack shoes with clothes," says Field. "Think about everything you are walking on during a day—who knows what's on the bottom of your shoes, and then you're going to have your clothes and toiletries touching the bottom of your shoe? When you think about it that way, that's just gross."
How Should I Pack Shoes?
Shoes can and should still go in your suitcase, but you need to physically separate them from your clothes. The easiest way to do that is by putting them in a bag. Just about any lightweight, flexible bag that's the right size for your shoes will do—bonus points if the bag is reusable.
You can also buy special cloth shoe bags, though not essential. Another option is to save the fabric pouches that new sets of bed sheets often come in and use them for shoes. Field uses a fabric laundry bag that came with her set of packing cubes. Or you could designate one of your packing pouches to always use for shoes. In a pinch, you could even use a plastic grocery bag or, if you're already at your hotel, the plastic dirty-laundry bag that's usually hanging in the closet.
Regardless of what kind of bag you use, Field says it's OK to pack multiple pairs of shoes together in the same bag. You don't need a separate bag for each pair. To save even more space, she recommends stuffing your socks into your shoes before you pack them. "That way they're not taking up any space that wouldn't already be taken up," Field says.
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How to Pack Fewer Shoes
Shoes are often heavy and bulky, so the fewer you bring, the better, both to save space and cut down on cross-contamination with your clothes. Field recommends taking a minimalist approach to footwear. "I am a carry-on-only person, so I am usually only packing one, maybe two pairs of shoes," Field says. "Typically, I'm not going anywhere super fancy where I need a pair of heels. That would add a complicating layer."
Field always wears her heaviest, bulkiest shoes on the plane, no matter how weird it might look. "I'm going to Iceland soon, so I'll wear my hiking boots on the plane, even though it's going to look kind of silly," she says. "I just got back from Bora Bora, and it was the opposite. I wore my sneakers on the plane and then packed a couple pairs of sandals in my bag."
Consider Hard-Sided Luggage
Field swears by hard-sided luggage because, in addition to holding up to wear and tear better, it forces her not to overpack. Plus, since the sides don't expand like a regular suitcase, she knows her suitcase will always fit in the overhead bin.
Also, the design of a hard-sided suitcase, which typically opens flat with two equal sides, helps achieve even more separation between shoes and clothes. When packing her hard-sided suitcase, Field puts her shoes (in their bag, of course) along with toiletries and hair tools in one half and her clothes in the other half, further cutting down on the possibility of shoes mingling with clothing. "I find it easier to have all the soft stuff together on one side and then the harder things on the other," Field says.
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