Often when getting ready to travel, I have to pack my suitcase with a key point in mind — I will have more stuff when I come home than I will flying out. It always happens, right? You have souvenirs or purchases to bring home from your trip, but if you pack your suitcase full of clothes, you won’t have room for your new items. The common trick used to be to just pack an extra (empty) backpack or duffel in your suitcase, and use that to carry the overflow on the way home. However, with today’s per-bag pricing on most airlines, that becomes a costly solution.

So obviously, the answer is to use a bigger suitcase and just not fill it up. Unfortunately, having that empty space in your suitcase will give your clothes plenty of room to shift as the bag is loaded and unloaded from the plane during the trip. Get ready for wrinkled clothes and spilled shampoo! So how do you fill that space with something that you don’t have to bring back?

I took a cue from many shipping companies that have foregone packing peanuts in favor of those awesome “air pillow” inflatable packaging bags. I love the way they fill the space with no added weight, and I always save them when they come in packages I receive.

Now I just pack the empty space in my suitcase with these air pillows until it’s full. When it’s time to pack again for my return trip home, I just pop and toss any of them that I don’t need. So easy!