I'll keep the origin story short because you're here for the packing advice. A few years ago I came home for a weekend and my sister was packing for a backpacking trip through South America. She had packing cubes. They were thin, the zips were already catching, and I could tell they wouldn't survive a month of hostels and bus stations. I went looking for better ones, couldn't find any at a fair price, found a manufacturer and bought 400. That was the start of ciúb. We've now sold over 120,000 sets.
So backpacking is where this brand comes from, and it's the use that asks the most of a cube.
What backpacking does to a packing cube
A suitcase is kind to cubes. A backpack isn't. Cubes get rammed in vertically, pulled out by the handle thirty times, sat on, strapped to the outside of a bag, left on hostel floors and stuffed back in wet. The failure points are always the same: the zip and the stitching where the zip meets the fabric. That's why ours use YKK zips, ripstop polyester and reinforced double stitching, and why the lifetime guarantee covers the fabric and stitching.
"I have just got back from a backpacking trip to the Highlands of Scotland. Many different locations, so I needed some order in my backpack. These packing cubes were a game changer. My clothes were easily rolled and stored in the bags and they zipped up and compacted down easily." – Tessa M.
How to pack a backpack with cubes
Backpacks load from the top (or a clamshell front panel) and they're deep, not wide. So:
- Stand cubes on their edge. Like books on a shelf, zips facing up. You can see every cube from the top and pull one out without disturbing the rest.
- Heavy and dense at the back, against your spine. That's usually the large cube with trousers and jeans.
- The extra large cube goes in last, flat across the top. Knitwear and your jacket, so they're the first thing out when the evening gets cold.
- Small cube in the lid or front pocket. Underwear, socks, chargers – the things you need at 6am without opening the main bag.
- Keep a cube for laundry. Dirty clothes zipped away from clean. Hostel laundry takes the whole cube.
How many for a 40L bag?
Four, the standard 4-pack. A 40L bag with the extra large, large, medium and small compressed takes about a week of clothes, leaving room for a wash bag, shoes and a towel. For 50–65L bags or trips over a month, the 8-pack, with the second set of cubes doing "cold weather" or "nicer clothes" duty.
"Extremely impressed by how much I can pack, and how much space it saves in my 30L backpack. In the large cube, I fit 6x t-shirts, 1x sweater, 1x dress shirt, and 2x sports shorts." – Lucas H.
The one-bag rule
If you're trying to travel with hand luggage only – a 40L bag, no checked luggage, no waiting at carousels – compression is what makes it possible. Rolled clothes in a compressed cube take roughly 40% less space than the same clothes folded loose. That's the difference between a 40L bag lasting four days and lasting ten.
"Have since used the packing cubes on more trips, enabling me to travel with a personal item only, even with bulky winter clothes." – Sophie O.
A few things we've learned from backpackers
- Dark colours hide hostel-floor grime. Navy, black and khaki are the backpacker favourites.
- The cubes are water-resistant, not waterproof. Fine in a bag in the rain; don't leave them in a puddle.
- They're machine washable. Wash them when you get home and they look new.
- The handle matters more than you'd think. Pulling a cube out of a deep bag by the handle is the thing you'll do most.
Get the set my sister should have had
The 4-pack for a 40L bag; the 8-pack for anything bigger or longer. Same-day dispatch, lifetime guarantee, 4.7/5 from over 4,900 reviews.