We packed our first three suitcases for our trip to Finland.  We are allowed nine more plus carry-ons.  This is a good start as far as I’m concerned.  And we have a good system down.  My wife determines what all is going in to the suitcase and I figure out how to get it all in.  So far we have only worked on suitcases for three of the kids.  There’s more for each one, but I was thrilled by how much we were able to get into a suitcase.

The big surprise was the weight.  The limit is 50 lbs.  I think the closest we came to that was 40.5 lbs.  This was a bit surprising.

We also found something that we love – the Ziploc travel bags.  You stick some clothing in, shut the bag and push the air out.  We used this for our oldest’s winter coat.  It worked wonderful.  We ended up with a coat that was 1/3 the size it normally is, if not smaller.  We’re searching out more of these bags.