when we travel for extended periods we use those "space bags" basically a vaccuum sealed bag that reduces the size of the overall product by taking the air out of the article placed inside, by packing your clothes or bedding in to a couple of these bags and sucking the air out with a vacuum cleaner the overall space needed to store the items is reduced by 2/3rds, once opened everything comes back to normal size and then the unused clothing or bedding can be returned to the bag and once again vaccuum sealed using a handheld vaccuum cleaner, simple but very effective in reducing the ammount of storage needed when travelling, the clothes do wrinkle in these things but we have adopted the saying of "if it needs ironing then we dont need it", and it also keeps the dust out if travelling on bulldust

Buy the brand names the El cheapo's are not worth the effort they, won't hold their seal for very long

Good suggeston Dave. I use them when I'm travelling anywhere. Means you can take a smaller suitcase if you're flying and my motto for travel without my van is "If I can't carry it in my own two hands, don't take it."