How to quickly unpack your suitcases
Do you know this situation? You’ve spent a wonderful time while on holiday and don’t want to go back to your normal routine? And there’s the massive suitcase that you need to unpack? For me, I prefer unpacking to packing the suitcase. All the little memories are coming back… and so is the laundry. We have collected our top 5 tips for the easiest unpacking:
- Use a laundry sack while on holidays. Every time you have dirty laundry, throw the piece into a laundry sack. You can keep your clean clothes fresh and know immediately which clothes need to be washed while on holiday. I personally wash all clothes put in that suitcase once back at home. It’s a precaution to avoid bringing any little bugs home.
- Pre-sort your laundry while on holidays. This is taking our first tip one step further. You can use different laundry sacks (e.g. 1 for white clothes, 1 for black clothes and 1 for coloured clothes) and already pre-sort your holiday, just like at home. Different coloured laundry bags (e.g. a white bag for white clothes, a black one for dark clothes and a bright one for coloured clothes) help differentiating what goes where and even little ones can follow this system. Alternatively, bring a laundry sorter bag from Sortasack.
- Unpack your suitcase where most of it content belongs. For me, the first thing is doing laundry once the suitcases are unpacked and I thus unpack near the laundry machine. The laptop bag contains all the paper work and would go straight into the office. If you have loose items, consider taking them in a clear plastic bag back. This way they’re protected from any leakages and you can quickly see what it is.
- Use different suitcases for different items. Friends of mine shared this tip some time ago. As you’re going on holidays, you’d like to spread clothes of all family members across all luggage. If a suitcase gets delayed or lost, you can still change into fresh clothes while it’s being sent to you. Coming back, however, you don’t need this. You are at home and have other – fresh and clean – clothes in your closet. For example, put all your dirty laundry in one suitcase and all toys or other things the kids brought along in another one. The laundry one will be unpacked near the washing machine, the suitcase with the kids’ toys in their bedroom.
- Use a timer. Just like packing, unpacking a suitcase can take as much time as you give it. By setting a timer, you don’t allow procrastination to kick in. If you have younger kids, you can even turn it into a game. How many bags can you unpack in 15 minutes? Then, how many books can I place on the bookshelf after they’ve been unpacked? How quickly can I separate dirty laundry if I’ve only used one laundry bag?
Before returning the suitcases to their regular storage space, we top them over to clear all remaining content (e.g. fluff) and let them air out overnight.
We’ve found that the sooner we unpack a suitcase, the easier the transition to our normal live is. We can appreciate the clean state of the house again and enjoy the souvenirs we brought from our trip like this little piece of chocolate I’m now eating.
What hacks do you use to unpack your suitcases?
Until next time,
Agni