You watched the video. Pack a bag like you are solving a sudoku, find the perfect spot for every item, optimize for fit.
It looked great on screen.
You tried it.
Your bag still does not close.
Sudoku packing is a placement puzzle for items already chosen. It does not stop you from over-choosing in the first place.
I’ve been using the same Eagle Creek packing cubes for 7 years now, the bags I pack do not need a sudoku because they were trimmed to the right contents two steps earlier.
Why sudoku packing fails on its own.
The puzzle assumes the items are correct. It optimizes the slots, not the inputs.
If you brought 12 days of clothes for a 7-day trip, no clever placement saves you. The optimization is happening at the wrong layer of the problem.
What to fix first.
Decide outfits by activity, not by day.
Confirm rotation works (5 tops + 3 bottoms = 15 outfits).
Wear bulky items on the plane.
Once the right items are sitting next to the bag, the placement step is trivial.
Where placement skill helps.
After the trim, place heavy items at the bottom, soft items in gaps, and shoes against the wheels.
That is real placement strategy. It is also the last 10 minutes of packing, not the whole job.
The full sequence is the 10-step Space-Saving Travel Packing Method I built over those 12+ years of traveling half the year. Sudoku-style placement is one step of ten, not the whole method.
Trim first.
Place last.
Both matter, in that order.
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Sudoku packing is the last step. The earlier steps are why it works.
12-year nomad, carry-on-only traveler across 5 continents, and creator of Organizing.TV.
I help you pack smaller, stress less, and actually enjoy the packing part of travel.