It seems that the more we travel, the more we love to take with us, with luggage and bags becoming increasingly taller and larger and lighter. With new advances in technology, the casing of a suitcase today is much stronger and more durable than that used in older suitcases, and is considerably lighter. This results in greater space for packing in your beloved possessions.

However, at the end of the day, regardless of how clever the technology is behind the manufacture of these cases, one certainty remains: you will still have to be the one to cart it about.

The problem of weight is two fold. Firstly there is the issue of the sheer weight you will have to carry about with you. Your suitcase is very likely to have wheels, but there will still be times when it will be necessary to lift it. There will be steps and stairs, the baggage conveyer itself, into or out of the car or taxi, and up the steps to your hotel. The lighter your bag can be, the easier these times will become.

The second problem is to do with the way the luggage handles. When you pack your suitcase, it is very often simply lying on your floor or bed, and you pack in things in no particular order. The problem arises when you close the case, and tip it up in the position it will actually be carried. If, like so many people, you packed all your heavy items, such as shoes and bottles of cosmetics, books and coats first, thinking perhaps that the lighter things on top will squash more easily into spaces, then you have problem.

Once the case is tipped up into the correct orientation, all of the heavy items will now be positioned to one side. This will make the whole case tend to lean that way, meaning that you will have a constant battle on your hands to keep it upright. Even if it stays upright, when you trundle it along on its wheels, the uneven weight distribution will mean that the case wobbles and swerves to one side like a badly behaved dog.

The same is true for supermarket trolleys. If you have ever put the bottles of milk and drink at the front of your trolley, with the lighter things at the back, you'll have experienced how much harder it is to control, and steer.

When you pack your case, consider the way round it will be once it is closed and being carried. Then, plan to place all of the heavy items where the base of the case will be, and spread them from the front of the case to the back, and out to both sides. This may take a bit of imagining at first, but the result, with the heavy items evenly distributed across the base of the case, will be much easier handling. It will also mean less tumbling of heavy items inside your case squashing and damaging the lighter items.