I find packing for holidays very stressful. Perhaps it’s because I’m always under time pressure, having spent so long packing for my kids that I’m throwing my own few items into the suitcase five minutes before we’re due to leave. Or maybe it’s the fear of leaving something important behind; I once accidentally removed my entire toiletry bag from my suitcase just before heading to the airport, and subsequently spent the first day of my holiday walking round various opticians in Tuscany trying to request a contact lens prescription in Italian.
As a result of my packing fear, I’m instantly drawn to any guidance that comes along promising to make the process easier. And the latest tip to be doing the rounds on social media? The Sudoku Packing Method – which is less of a brain-teaser than it sounds.
Although it’s not a brand new concept, the Sudoku Packing Method has been all the rage recently. I first became aware of it when fashion stylist and consultant Gemma Breger shared it on her account (@gemmarosebreger), which happened to coincide with packing for a week-long trip to Dorset and Devon with my family.
@gemmarosebreger
The beauty of the Sudoku Packing Method is that it involves packing only nine items of clothing, which should result in you having 27 possible outfit combinations. Magic eh? To achieve this, you lay the nine items of clothing out in a square grid on the floor. You need three tops, three bottoms, and three layering pieces, set up in the following arrangement:
· Top, bottom, layer
· Bottom, layer, top
· Layer, top, bottom
From this arrangement, you should in theory have a variety of mix and match outfits that you can style in different ways: for example three items horizontally across the grid, vertically down the grid, diagonally from top left to bottom right and round various corners. Take a photo once you have laid everything out so you can remember what you’ve got.
@gemmarosebreger
My own version of this was not very Instagrammable (see below), but it was very quick to do. In many ways, it follows the same mindset that I always give myself for packing, which is to ‘pack within a palette’ (i.e. I normally choose two neutral colours and one accent colour, and only pack items that fit within that). However, while this method involved a bit more consideration of how various layers would work together, it did ensure I wouldn’t make the same error I often commit: accidentally going away with eight tops and only one pair of trousers (then one of my children will inevitably be sick on them on day one).
My rather less aesthetic version of the method.
The great thing about the Sudoku Packing Method was it meant I knew I had enough outfits to last me a week (admittedly I packed a few extra plain tops because I can’t stand re-wearing a sweaty T-shirt). It does of course mean there is an element of samey-ness to a lot of your looks – that’s not a problem for me because I’ve given up on my holidays being the ultimate fashion show, but for others it might feel a bit too rigid. There’s also the matter of dresses, which for many people are a holiday favourite – I think you could swap these in for ‘bottom’ element of the outfit and it would still work, with the option to layer the other pieces on top.
In terms of accessories, I just packed a pair of sandals and trainers to go with all my looks, plus one bag and a small jewellery box of gold jewellery – again this was more than enough for me going to the south coast with kids; it might not cut it for a girls’ trip to Ibiza.
Would I recommend the Sudoku Packing Method? Yes, if you’re the type of person who finds packing a headache and doesn’t mind simple (rather than statement) outfits when they’re on holiday. It certainly served me well on my week away; I didn’t have any days where I ran out of clothes, and I wasn’t re-wearing the same outfit solidly for a week. My main tip is not to overthink it: when I was looking at the grid of clothes and trying to imagine every single of the 27 looks it started to make my brain-fry, but essentially all you need to think about is ‘do they work vertically and horizontally as outfits?’ – because if they do everything else will probably fall into place.
