Avoid A Smelly Suitcase While Traveling By Packing Dirty Laundry The Right Way

Successfully packing for a trip is one thing — but dealing with all of those worn clothes and sweaty socks during and after your travels? That's an entirely different challenge. After all, there's nothing worse than opening your bag at the end of a trip only to discover that your few remaining clean clothes have picked up the scent of everything else you've worn during your getaway.

And while most travelers typically default to tightly-wrapped plastic bags for storing their dirty laundry — or to simply cramming dirty clothes wherever they'll fit — the truth is that these quick fixes can often create more problems than they solve. After all, trapping damp clothes in plastic bags can actually make odors worse and even lead to mildew. Thankfully, when it comes to keeping your suitcase smelling great and staying organized, there are actually much better and more effective ways to handle stinky, post-travel clothes.

Better yet, you won't need any complicated folding techniques or expensive gadgets to help you keep things under control. Just a few smart packing strategies — did someone say packing cubes? — combined with some common household items will easily do the trick, essentially keeping all of your dirty and not-so-dirty belongings separate.

Put simply, the key to managing dirty clothes while on vacation — especially if you haven't found a practical way to do laundry while traveling — is all about choosing the right packing tools. For starters, while traditional mesh packing cubes might work well for clean clothes, they're actually not ideal for your dirty items since their ventilation allows odors to escape. Instead, you'll want to opt for solid, non-mesh compression packing cubes that are specifically designed to contain both odors and bulk at the same time.

Additionally, one of the most common packing mistakes people make is forgetting (or avoiding) to bag their shoes. However, whatever you do, you never want to mix your dirty laundry with your shoes — especially canvas sneakers. This is because shoes can actually absorb odors from dirty clothes, which creates an even bigger problem than you might have had to start with. That said, make sure you always store your shoes separately — like in these dedicated travel shoe bags that can be zipped up and thrown in your suitcase. Not only will this help protect both your footwear and other belongings from picking up each others' smells, but it can also make packing your shoes even easier.

Lastly, for a touch of extra freshness, go ahead and throw an unused dryer sheet into your dirty laundry cube. This simple (and affordable) addition can help control any lingering bad smells — especially during longer or more strenuous trips. Plus, dryer sheets take up virtually no room in your luggage, which ultimately means that there's no need to worry about sacrificing any precious packing space for the sake of clean-smelling clothes.