Holidays are a big travel season, so it's a good time to pull out your luggage to clean and freshen them up before your next trip out of town. An under-the-seat-carry-on doubles as an overnight bag, lunch box, computer bag, and even a workout bag. It's made of a polyester fabric and is advertised as stain-resistant and water-repellant. However, nowhere does it say resistant from dirt or spills, nor does it remove odors on its own.
One might ask why not just spray a fabric deodorizer to remove the odor? However, some say those sprays don't really remove the odor, they merely mask them. We're not here to argue if they work or not were more concerned about safety as it relates to using air fresheners or deodorizers. Instead, the inventors of Powerizer, wanted to ensure that clean really means clean, so our laundry detergent, along with the scent is intended to rinse clean. Scents should rinse clean to eliminate the possibilities of skin irritations or allergic reactions. Providing a safer product for our consumers that effectively cleans is more important.
Read how to effectively clean your luggage, remove spills, lift stains, and safely deodorize scents through the process of cleaning instead of merely masking the odor. Powerizer Complete is excellent for cleaning hard surfaces, removing stains from upholstery, so why not try it out on my luggage. After all, Powerizer does clean everything dirty.
Let's start by collecting the best tools for cleaning.
- Powerizer Complete
- Pre-treat bottle to mix a concentrated mixture of Powerizer Complete using one (1) full scoop mixed in 16 oz of water.
- Cleaning bucket to mix a wash solution using Powerizer Complete using one (1) full scoop mixed in one (1) gallon of water.
- Microfiber cloths for washing and drying the surfaces
- Hand dish scrubber
- Tub or basin large enough to wash and rinse your luggage in.
- Vacuum or shop-vac for removing debris (only if necessary)
The First Step is to make your pre-treat using warm to hot water and a Wash Solution in a separate bucket or tub. Allow the detergent to dissolve and carry your luggage to your cleaning spot. It's for you to determine if the task can be done in the tub to contain all the dirt in one place, have access to free-flowing water? Otherwise, if weather permits your back porch with access to your garden hose on a clean surface like a cement pavement is recommended.
The Second Step is to remove all the items from your luggage and use your hand dish scrubber to perform a mechanical clean before wetting the surfaces. To do this, simply brush the interior and exterior surfaces to remove hair, dust, dirt, sand, or any debris that could have lodged into crevices or adhered to the fibers of the luggage. Dump the loosened waste out. This is where you can opt for using a vacuum to remove debris if a dry microfiber cloth isn't sufficient enough.
The Third Step is to pre-treat the stains and spills that may have dried from travel containers. Give the detergent about 5 minutes to begin to neutralize these pre-treated surfaces.
The Fourth step is to begin washing all the surfaces using the wash solution and a microfiber cloth, scrub areas when needed using a hand dish scrubber. Watch how the dirt quickly lifts and begins to brighten up the surface. For hard-side polycarbonate luggage, the cleaning process is simple. The lining is usually thin nylon or polyester fabric. Use a damp microfiber cloth to spot clean the entire surface of the lining using the wash solution.
The Fifth step is to rinse all surfaces with plain water. After thoroughly cleaning all surfaces rinse every surface you cleaned. We have two(2) suggestions depending on the type of luggage your have.
Hardside Luggage
Start with the interior of a hard-side piece of luggage first. Use a damp microfiber cloth to wipe the interior surfaces using plain water. Then use a dry Microfiber cloth to absorb as much of the moisture from interior surfaces. For the exterior surface, zip the luggage shut, then wipe the exterior surface with plain water. Use a dry microfiber cloth to remove residues and excess moisture. Unzip the luggage and let it sit open to air dry.
Soft Piece Suitcase
The ideal process for rinsing the fabric of a soft piece suitcase is to spray plain water using the pressure from the garden hose. If washing the bag inside the tub is your only option, us a shower hose. If a shower hose isn't available, instead place the luggage under the faucet or completely submerge it underwater. Use the hand dish scrubber to scrub all surfaces to remove excess detergent, especially the areas where the concentrated pre-treat mixture was applied. If you fail to remove the detergent, you may see a brownish line near seams or if the fabric is dark, an ash color will dry on the surface where detergent did not rinse clean. If this happens, rinse the luggage again, paying particular attention to those areas.
The Last step is to wipe all surfaces using a dry microfiber cloth, the inside lining of the hard-side luggage will dry fairly quickly. However, make sure you give your luggage at least 24 to 48 hours to air dry in a sunny area or near a register before packing clothes to avoid trapping moisture inside the luggage.
This process can be easily duplicated for your sports equipment gear, gym bags, backpacks, or any other equipment used for transporting things. Try it on containers and bags as well. Of course, we offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on your purchase. If you're new to Powerizer and become infected with a Clean Freak Powerizer bug, you may want to upgrade your purchase to the Family Size Laundry Detergent. It comes with a free Microfiber Cleaning Cloth. We mention them in every blog because there really is no better cloth for dusting and cleaning surfaces. But don't take our word for it; try it for yourself.
