March 31, 2025
How To Clean Your Suitcase In Five Easy Steps
Cleaning your suitcase is important to keeping your private spaces clean and healthy. Doing so removes dirt, bacteria, debris, dust, and other unhygienic and unhealthy microbes.
Caring for luggage is a crucial part of travel that many overlook. Your suitcase moves through various spaces throughout your trips and passes many hands at airports, hotels, and vehicles. It makes sense to clean it for your health, home cleanliness, and the case’s longevity.
What You’ll Need
To clean your soft or hard exterior suitcase, you can use available home products, including:
- Sanitary wipes
- Antibacterial or dish soap
- All-purpose cleaner
- An all-purpose spray
- A gentle or microfiber cloth
- Baking soda
- White vinegar
- Screwdriver
- Leather cleaner (for leather exteriors)
- Vacuum
- Sponge
5 Luggage Cleaning Tips for Travel Baggage or Suitcases
Clean your suitcase with these five steps. You can switch some of them around to suit your space and preferences.
1. Sanitize High-Touch Areas
Before unpacking and cleaning your suitcase, you’ll want to start by sanitizing the surfaces that come into contact with the most germs or bacteria. This includes small side and top grips, zippered areas, and the pulley handle. Use soap and water or disinfectant wipes to clean these areas and minimize the transfer of germs and bacteria from your luggage to your home spaces.
2. Unpack
If you’re returning from your trip, you’ll want to unpack the suitcase’s contents before thorough cleaning. Your clothes may also carry bacteria from your trip, so unpack and wash them immediately, and wash or disinfect your hands before continuing your suitcase cleaning.
3. Clean the Exterior
Next, you can clean your exterior or interior. To clean your hard-case exteriors made from metal, polycarbonate, or ABS, use soap or an all-purpose cleaner to wipe your suitcase down. Avoid using bleach or abrasive cleaners, as these may scratch your exterior.
For soft-shell nylon, canvas, or fabric cases, wipe the luggage down with a damp, soapy cloth. To target stains, use an upholstery cleaner, sprinkle baking soda to soak up oily spots, or blot regular stains with a laundry soap and water solution. Remove scuffs from hard-shell or fabric cases by spraying with an all-purpose spray and wiping down.
Leather cases may need more specialized cleaning, but you can still wipe them down at home. Run a soft, damp towel over the surface to remove dirt. For a deeper clean, you can also use a mild soap solution, but make sure you remove any soap residue with a clean cloth and allow the case to dry completely.
Always test your cleaning solution on a small area before using it on the whole suitcase.
4. Wipe the Wheels and Bottom
Your suitcase wheels can carry lots of dirt, germs, and debris. For basic cleaning, spray them with a liquid soap and water mixture or an all-purpose solution. Wipe them down with your soap solution and dry them with a microfiber cloth. If you’d like to do an intensive cleaning on your suitcase wheels, detach them with a screwdriver, clean them with the same soap solution, and reattach them.
5. Clean the Interior
Luggage interiors can be challenging to clean as they’re made from porous materials that keep odors. You may also have to deal with a few stains and debris inside your bag.
First, vacuum your interior to remove dirt, dust, and debris, targeting tight corners. If you have lotion, shampoo, or other thick liquid spills, target the dried remains with your vacuum. To remove these and other stains, gently wipe them with soapy water and a sponge. To eliminate odors, sprinkle baking soda and let it sit overnight before vacuuming again in the morning.
Set It to Dry in the Sun
A fabric suitcase may need some time in the sun to dry. Placing your suitcase in the sun can also add an extra disinfectant measure, as sunlight can kill remaining bacteria.
Keep Your Spaces Healthy and Clean With Maid Bright
Cleaning your suitcase is important to keeping your private spaces clean and healthy. Doing so removes dirt, bacteria, debris, dust, and other unhygienic and unhealthy microbes. Contact Maid Bright, your reliable residential cleaning service, for deeper home cleaning after a trip. Book our service team today!
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