How To Clean Your Luggage

June 28, 2024 by Mulberry Maids

Tweet

Whether you travel a lot or a little, chances are that you use luggage from time to time. From airport travel to road trips, your luggage will take a beating, and get pretty dirty in the process. While often overlooked in home cleaning, making sure your luggage is clean and sanitary should be part of every traveler’s cleaning routine. 

As the best maid service in Fort Collins CO, we are here to help guide you through the easy process of getting, and keeping, your luggage clean. Read on for all you need to know about luggage cleaning. 

Why is it important to clean your luggage?

Now that we are in the full swing of travel season, whether you are heading to a local vacation home for a week or taking a flight to Europe, you will want to make sure that your luggage is clean to start your journey.

Health

While we typically don’t think of our luggage as something that can affect our health, luggage goes everywhere, and picks up lots of germs and other microbes that can lead to sickness or infection. While it is never fun to be sick at home, being sick on a trip is even worse!

Luggage goes over all floors, and is handled by numerous people if you are taking a flight. That can add up to be a lot of different hands touching your luggage in a short amount of time. 

To be careful while en route, bring some sanitizing wipes to easily and quickly wipe down the handles and exterior of your luggage to make sure it is clean and germ free. 

Maintenance  

Keeping your luggage clean goes beyond just health, but can also help with the maintenance of your gear. Keeping luggage clean will allow it to work smoothly, and you will also see if anything needs to be fixed while it is being cleaned. From suitcase wheels to zippers, cleanliness goes a long way. 

Appearance and Longevity of Luggage

Cleaning will also help to keep your baggage lasting longer – it will appear cleaner and less used, and thus will likely be treated better. All of this will keep your bags lasting longer and functioning better into the future. 

What are some tips for getting my luggage clean?

Just because you are working hard and sweating, doesn’t mean that you are cleaning the right way. The best way to clean will ensure that you are not straining or working too hard, and this is the same for cleaning your luggage. In addition to quick wipe downs with sanitizing wipes while en route to your destination, there are some other areas you should focus on cleaning for your luggage to be in the best shape possible. 

Focus on the handles or grips

The handles and grips are likely harboring the most amount of germs on your luggage due to potentially dozens of hands being on them in the traveling process. Even if you are traveling by car, our own handles can be guilty of dirtying the luggage handles. To stay healthy while traveling, concentrate on keeping these areas clean and sanitized regularly. 

An easy way to clean them is to use a sanitizing wipe, making sure to follow the instructions for full effectiveness. Alternatively, you can also use a sanitizing spray on the handles and grips. Make sure to let the spray sit on the surface for at least a minute, or follow the directions, to make sure it has a chance to properly sanitize the surface. Also, make sure to fully extend out the handle to get all parts of them clean and sanitized. 

If you are at home after a trip, you may want to do a deeper cleaning of these areas. Simply grab a microfiber cloth and your all purpose spray of choice, and wipe away. Finish this up with a sanitizing spray or wipe. 

Take time to clean the bottom

Just like your luggage handles, the bottom of luggage has the potential to get really dirty. From setting a suitcase or duffel bag on the floor, to dragging it through city streets en route to your destination, the bottom of the bag will pick up germs, dirt, grime and all sorts of debris. 

When you are on your trip, depending on the type of luggage you have, cleaning it may not be the easiest task, but there are a couple of things that you can do. If you don’t have access to any cleaning supplies, you can use any wet wipe or towel to do a quick wipedown of the bottom to make sure you are not collecting extra dirt and grime. You can use soap and water for some added cleaning power as well. 

When you get home from your trip, you can focus on doing a fuller deep cleaning of the bottom of the bag when you focus on cleaning the exterior of your luggage. 

Do a full cleaning of the exterior

Cleaning the exterior of your luggage is a pretty simple task, but will vary slightly with the type of material you are working with. Cleaning hard sided cases will be really easy, as you can hose them down like a car, and scrub as needed using dish soap or any mild all purpose cleaner. This will help to reduce the buildup of residue and stains after each trip. Make sure to look at the wheels as well, as they will collect tons of dust, hair, and other debris. 

Once you have rinsed and dried the exterior, you can then sanitize it, using a sanitizing spray or sanitizing wipes. 

For soft shelled luggage, you can do the same as with hard sided luggage, but you will need to make sure that it is safe for the material. You will also not want to over soak or saturate the soft material with water. 

If you are worried that the bags or suitcase will get too wet, you can wipe down the exterior with an all purpose spray, such as water and dish soap or a store bought version, then fully rinse and dry the material as needed. Follow this up with sanitizing wipes as described before. 

A helpful tip is to store your soft shelled luggage in a dust bag when not in use. This will help keep the soft material cleaner, and prevent the buildup of dust on the fabric. 

Don’t neglect the interior

While the interior of your luggage should be the cleanest area of all, it should still not be neglected. This area can get surprisingly dirty, as you may end up storing shoes or other dirty clothing inside it during your travels. 

The first thing to do is to dust, vacuum, shake, or do whatever is needed to get any dirt and debris out of the interior that has built up over your travels. Just like when cleaning a room, look into the corners and edges for lodged in dust or debris that needs to be removed. Take a look for any stains that have developed as well, usually caused by leaking foods, liquids, soaps or shampoos. You can try to use a stain remover, or can use an all natural vinegar and water solution as long as it is safe on the surface. Baking soda can add in extra scrubbing power as well. 

To tackle stains naturally, you can make a baking soda and water paste that can be applied to the stain. You can spray vinegar on it, let it sit for a few minutes, and then scrub the stain away. The only drawback to this is you will need to get the paste fully cleaned up from the interior of your luggage. Depending on the material this may be easy, but if it seems too difficult to get cleaned up, you may want to stick to a store bought stain removing spray. 

Once the stains are dealt with, you can do a wipe down of the interior, using a sanitizing spray or sanitizing wipes. To make the interior cleaning easier and less frequent, consider using organizational tools, such as packing cubes and shoe bags, so the interior luggage material doesn’t get dirty and grimy.  

A maid service in Fort Collins CO that does it all! 

Mulberry Maids is all about your 100% satisfaction, from the start to finish. We only work with the best cleaners and office administrators to make sure that the whole process is smooth for you. From move in and out cleanings to weekly recurring service, we are here for all of your residential home cleaning needs. 

So take a break after your recent trip, and grab some baked goods at the Explorado Market in Fort Collins. Don’t stress about your chores – let us handle that for you.

Thanks for stopping by, and we hope to hear from you soon!