I’m in love with a suitcase; ‘Readymade’ Suitcase Project (Part 1)

My job affords me the opportunity to travel all over the country and observe teachers putting their best feet forward. Problem is, I’ve never been much of a traveller. I’m terrible at packing. Therefore, I could really use something like this:

This is a project suggested by Readymade magazine. I don’t want to gush too much, but I absolutely love this suitcase. Seriously, I would marry this suitcase like that girl did the Eiffel Tower if it were legal. I want one. Unfortunately, the whole point of Readymade is to get you to make your own stuff. So it looks like I’ll be tackling this project.

I don’t have a cool, classic hard cased suitcase like this, so I’m going to have to buy one at a thrift store or something. How big of a suitcase will I need?

For this post, Part 1, let’s figure out my travel needs and then we’ll figure out size and dimensions. I usually travel for 3-4 days at a time. So that requires the following, with the smallest volume I can squeeze the items down to:

4 pairs of socks
4 T-shirts
4 pairs of boxer shorts – no briefs here (TMI?)
1 dress shirt
1 Toiletry Bag
2 pairs of pants
1 pair of workout/sleeping pants/shorts

1 Phone charger
1 set of keys
1 book, which I probably won’t read
1 winter hat & 1 pair of gloves for colder seasons/locales
or,
1 swimsuit for warmer seasons/locales

Also, the suitcase needs to be small enough such that I don’t have to check it at the airport. Because checking bags is for suckers, especially with airlines charging you for it these days (except for the airlines actually making money, but that’s neither here nor there).

According to the United Airlines website, my airline of choice, the maximum dimensions for carry-on luggage is 9″ x 14″ x 22″. However, according to this website, the maximum size for carry-on luggage for United Airlines is 24″ x 14″ x 9″. Both sets of dimensions seem a little small to me. My uneducated guess is that you have a few inches of wiggle room either way. After all, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen travelers trying to stuff a small rhinoceros through the security scanner.

So the first thing I’ll need to do is figure out the dimensions and volume required by the above list of items. That is coming in Part 2 of the Readymade Suitcase Project.