I finally fit 9 days in Tokyo into one bag by rolling socks inside my shoes

Luna Wilson · 2026-09-23T14:55:04.533668+00:00

I used to be the person hauling a 50 liter bag plus a "personal item" that was really just a second backpack, and I was sick of it. For my trip to Tokyo last month I gave myself one rule: everything goes in my 38 liter carry-on, no exceptions. The thing that actually worked was stuffing my socks and underwear inside my two pairs of shoes, then packing the shoes heel to toe at the bottom. That alone gave me back a whole corner of the bag that used to sit empty. I also laid out all 9 days of clothes on the bed and cut it down to 4 shirts and 2 pairs of pants, since I knew I could do laundry at the hotel for about 500 yen. My toiletry bag went from a fat pouch to a quart ziplock with just deodorant, a toothbrush, and one small bottle of shampoo. I weighed the bag at the airport and it came in at 7.2 kg, way under the limit. Weirdly the hardest part was leaving my second pair of sneakers behind, but my feet survived fine. Has anyone else tried the shoes-as-storage trick, and did you run into any problems with crushed socks?

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I finally fit 9 days in Tokyo into one bag by rolling socks inside my shoes | Carry-On Only Packing - Librear