Veken Packing Cubes Review: Packing a Whole Family's Clothes for Months

Every fall, I stand in our bedroom in Spokane and try to fit clothes for four people into one suitcase. Dave says I am the only person he knows who packs for a family of four like she is defusing a bomb. He is not wrong. For the Boise trips alone, that is my mom and dad's house, six hours down the road, and I have learned the hard way that if I do not have a system, we arrive with three bags of wrinkled laundry and one kid wearing someone else's socks. The Veken packing cube set has been my system for about 18 months now, through the Boise drives, a flight to Orlando, and more youth football weekends than I can count. This is the long-term review I wish someone had written for me before I bought them.

How I've Used It

I bought the Veken set about a year before our Orlando trip, and that trip was the first time we flew anywhere as a family of four. I remember standing in the airport with two kids, a car seat, and a rolling suitcase, and thinking that if the cubes did not work, I was going to be that person repacking her suitcase in the middle of the terminal. They worked. We checked one big suitcase and carried a small backpack each, and for the first time in my life I did not have to sit on the suitcase to get it closed.

Since then, the cubes have been on the Boise drive at least six times, on camping weekends at Lake Coeur d'Alene, and in the back of our 2018 Honda Odyssey for Caleb's football away games most fall Saturdays. My system is simple: one large cube per person, labeled with masking tape, and the smaller cubes for socks and underwear. Ivy, who is 5, gets her own cube with her name on it, and she has learned to find her own clothes in the morning. That alone has been worth the price.

The set includes a shoe bag and a toiletry bag, and I will be honest, I use the shoe bag more than I expected. It keeps Dave's cleats from touching everything else, which is a real problem when you are packing for a kid who plays football and a husband who packs like he is still in college. On the Orlando trip, the shoe bag also held both kids' sneakers on the way home, and it was the only reason we did not have to wipe sand out of the bottom of the suitcase for a week.

The real test was the Orlando trip. Four people, a week of warm-weather clothes, swimsuits, and the layers we needed for the flight home into a cold Spokane night. I gave each of us one cube, wrote our names on masking tape, and used the smaller cubes for socks and underwear. When we got to the hotel, everyone grabbed their own cube and unpacked in about two minutes. Nobody dumped the suitcase on the floor looking for a swimsuit, which in our family is a first.

We also use them for the Boise drives several times a year. All four of us share one big suitcase, and before the Veken Packing Cubes that suitcase was a jumble by the second morning. Now it stays sorted the whole visit, because each person only opens their own cube.

What the Set Actually Includes

The Veken set comes with several zippered cubes in different sizes, plus a shoe bag and a toiletry bag. The cubes have mesh tops, which is the feature I did not know I needed. You can see what is inside without unzipping anything. When you are digging through a shared suitcase at 6 a.m. in a hotel room, trying to find Ivy's leggings without waking everyone up, that mesh top is the difference between a quiet grab and a full suitcase dump.

The zippers are the part I was most worried about, because cheap zippers are the first thing to go on budget packing gear. After 18 months, every zipper on every cube still works. None of them have snagged, none of them have split, and none of the pulls have come off. I have washed the cubes a few times when a leaky sunscreen bottle got into the suitcase, and they came out fine.

The seams have held up too. I checked them before writing this, because that is the kind of thing you only notice when it fails. The corners are still intact, the mesh is still attached to the zipper track, and the fabric has not pilled or thinned anywhere I can see. For the price, that is better than I expected.

The shoe bag and toiletry bag ended up being as useful as the cubes. Shoes go in the shoe bag so dirt never touches clean clothes, and the toiletry bag holds the whole family's toothbrushes and the kids' detangler spray in one spot. On a road trip, I can pull the toiletry bag out at the hotel without opening anything else.

I also keep a spare cube for dirty laundry. On the drive home everything worn goes into that one cube, so when we walk in the door the dirty clothes go straight to the washing machine and the rest of the suitcase is still clean, sorted and ready to put away. Caleb's football practice clothes from a Saturday away game have their own spot in there too, which keeps the smell contained.

It is a tiny habit, but after a long drive home it saves me a whole evening of sorting laundry.

How the Cubes Hold Up Over Time

The honest answer is: better than I expected, with one caveat. The cubes are not compression cubes. I see people complain about this in reviews, and I get it, because the product photos can make it look like you are going to vacuum-seal your whole wardrobe. You are not. What the Veken cubes do is organize, not compress. You will still need to roll your clothes or fold them well, and you will still need to be realistic about how much fits in a suitcase.

What the cubes do, and do well, is make the suitcase make sense. Instead of one giant pile of clothes, you have four labeled cubes. You can pull out Caleb's cube without disturbing Ivy's. You can find the socks without unfolding everything. And when you get to your destination, you can lift the whole cube out and put it in a drawer, which means you are not living out of a suitcase for a week.

The fabric has held up to being stuffed, squished, and occasionally sat on. The mesh has not torn. The zippers have not bent. After 18 months of regular use, including a flight where the suitcase was definitely thrown around by someone in an airport, the set looks almost new. That is the kind of durability I did not expect at this price point.

After about eighteen months, every zipper on our set still runs smoothly, the mesh tops have not torn, and the handles on the larger cubes are holding up even though the kids grab them to pull cubes out of the suitcase. One cube has a little pilling where it rubs against the suitcase frame, and that is the only wear I can find.

After 18 months, every zipper on every cube still works. That is the kind of durability I did not expect at this price point.

The Downsides Nobody Mentions

I want to be fair here, because every review has cons, and this one has a few. First, the cubes are not magic. If you overpack, they will not save you. I have had to repack a suitcase more than once because I tried to fit too much into one cube and the zipper would not close. The zipper will close if you are reasonable. It will not close if you are me on a bad day.

Second, the mesh tops mean the cubes are not completely opaque. If you are packing something you do not want visible, like a gift or something personal, you will want to put it in the middle of the cube or in the toiletry bag. It has never been a problem for us, but it is worth knowing.

Third, the set is big. When the cubes are empty, they take up space in the suitcase. If you are the kind of traveler who packs light and uses a small carry-on, you might find that the cubes themselves eat into your space. For us, the tradeoff is worth it, because we are a family of four and we are never packing light anyway. But if you are a solo traveler with a 20-liter backpack, this set is probably more than you need.

One more thing worth knowing: these are not compression cubes. They organize, they do not squeeze clothes smaller, so if your suitcase is already bursting, the Veken cubes will not magically make room. What they do is keep everything sorted so you can pack more neatly, which in practice usually means a little more fits.

The other honest downside is color. Our set is all one color, so without the masking tape labels everyone's cube looks the same. Labeling them takes two minutes and solves it, but a multi-color set would be handy for a family.

Who This Is For

This set is for families like mine. If you are packing for multiple people, if you are tired of digging through a shared suitcase, if you have ever arrived at a hotel and realized you cannot find your own toothbrush, the Veken packing cube set will make your life easier. It is also great for college students moving into a dorm, for road trips where you want to grab one bag instead of unpacking everything, and for anyone who likes the idea of a drawer in a suitcase.

It is especially good for kids. Ivy learned to pack her own cube, and Caleb can find his own gear without asking me where everything is. When you are trying to get out the door for a football game on a Saturday morning, that independence is worth a lot.

They are also a great fit for parents of little kids. Ivy's clothes are small, so her cube holds a full week of outfits plus pajamas, and I can hand her the cube and let her pick her own outfit each morning without tearing through the whole suitcase.

Who Should Skip It

Skip this set if you are a minimalist packer who uses a small carry-on and wants to pack lighter, not more organized. The cubes add structure, but they also add weight and bulk. Skip it if you are looking for compression, because these are not compression cubes and you will be disappointed. And skip it if you are the kind of person who already has a system that works, because this is a tool for people who feel like packing is a fight, not a hobby.

I will also say: if you travel alone and you only pack a few days of clothes, you probably do not need a ten-piece set. A couple of small cubes would do the same job. The value of this set is in the variety of sizes and the fact that you can use it for a whole family.