Why do you people keep making me laugh so hard I spit on my computer screen?

One thing that finally occured to me about me gear bags that I had figured out about food about the same time WD very carefully explained it in a post:
If you pack your food in hard little brickish shaped vaccum sealed bags you seriously limit your ability to use space in a bear canister very well. Same concept for my food bag. Okay, I figured that out alright.

Ah ha! Same concept applies to bags for separately different types of gear! If I press all the air out of the bags and roll the tops down and and clip them closed really tight, all I've done is create a little gear bricks that actually monopolize more space within my pack than it deserves. If I just press most of the air out and close it loosely, it mushes (technical term) into a far more packable shape.

I did pack my sleeping bag loosely in the main pack instead of making a sleeping bag brick out of it. I think lori might have suggested that.

May the learning never end!