<p>Ok, now stuff all those items (with much pushing, pulling & tugging, and a few choice words) into one jumbo Spacebag, seal it, and vacuum out the air, and voila! It is now the size of a twin set of sheets! No kidding.</p>
<p>D now has room for winter coat, boots, and multiple other items in the large suitcase being packed for school.</p>
<p>It's amazing. I thought these things only worked on TV!</p>
<p>Costco carries an assortment package. Son did not store the bags carefully. Air crept in the full bags and the empty ones drifted to the heater pipes and melted a bit. I agree they are great for packing.</p>
<p>Correction...I thought we used the jumbo size, it was actually the SMALLER "extra large" - the jumbo is enormous. I cannot imagine what we'd use it for. Probably will return it for another XL.</p>
<p>I saw the assortment at Costco, they just had some really small sizes that seemed impractical to me. So we only bought the 2 bags.</p>
<p>I've had mixed results with spacebags but when they work - awesome - but I seem to end up with them expanding for no good reason! Right now I got DD the new Space Bag Large Underbed Tote. It's a big space bag that shrinks down into a "box". The thing I liked about it is that you have to belts inside (like a suitcase) and it zips closed. That way if it expands, it can only expand in the box. It was $20 at Linens 'n Things then used a 20% off coupon. It has the quilt, 2 sets of sheets, 2 pillows, towels, the matress pad and some other stuff in it.</p>
<p>Spacebags are kind of a mixed bag- if you store one sealed for too long, and then unseal it, it won't hold the seal as well again the next time.</p>
<p>Still, they're great. I packed all my bedding for this year in one XL one.</p>
<p>For those who plan to fly, remember the 50 pound weight limit per bag, or you'll face some potential hefty additional charges. Space bags come in several variations, including some which require a vacuum & others that don't. There are also extra large ziplock bags at some grocery stores. Walmart also carries Space-Type Bags in less than Costco quantities.
Since my D & I flew up to his college at the same time as S, we were able to bring extra luggage for him at no additional charge (each of us only had one carry on & one checked piece so we could help him with an additional checked piece & "personal carry-on item,") but he bought a LOT more stuff once we reached our destination anyway.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom asks: So, when you are returning, can you find a vacumm to repack?</p>
<p>We hope so. Although she'll be storing things over the summer, so we're not "that" concerned.</p>
<p>All we needed was a vacuum hose. So if there are canister type vacuums at school, then it's "easy" if they have uprights hopefully they have attachments (as ours does).</p>
<p>We've been weighing the luggage as it's getting packed. Even this huge one comes in underweight.</p>
<p>a great place to weigh luggage is the vets office, they have those big walk on scales for dogs, and when we took our Ds obviouslly overweight bag and heaved it onto the scale, they were quite amused</p>
<p>noooooooo did u? did they actually allow u to do that?! Dang it! i went to a special adventure camp that goes until ur 18 this summer...and both my bags were exactly 25 pounds each and i could barely carry one roll one(1 w/ wheels one w/ not) them together so i cannot imagine carrying that same amount of weight in one bag plus another 50 pound bag rollin</p>
<p>If you put the contents in smoothly, they will be mostly unwrinkled when they come out. Quite servicable. </p>
<p>Last year, we used the large size space bags and they stacked perfectly into son's footlocker with wheels. It made carting stuff around SOOO much easier.</p>