Your Suitcase Wheels Are Filthier Than a Toilet Seat—And Not Even the Fancy Airport Ones

Ever rolled your suitcase across an airport floor, through a hotel lobby, and straight onto your bed at home? Yeah… you might wanna stop doing that.

Turns out, the wheels on your luggage are the raccoons of the travel world—picking up every bit of grime along the way.

They’re 58 times dirtier than a public toilet seat, according to a study from InsureandGo (an insurance company that now also dabbles in germ shaming).

Let that sink in: your suitcase is dirtier than the seat in a sketchy rest stop bathroom off the 401. And it’s not just “oops, I dropped my bag on the sidewalk” dirty—it’s environmental moulds, skin flakes, and yes, even fecal germs dirty. Shudders in hand sanitizer.

Most of these microscopic hitchhikers aren’t super harmful, but they do team up to create that lovely film of mystery grime you may have noticed the last time you dug your suitcase out of the basement and thought, Why does this smell like a hockey locker and broken dreams?

RELATED: Hotel Hack: Why Your Luggage Belongs in the Bathroom

Your Luggage is a Biohazard on Wheels

Now that you’re properly grossed out, let’s take a walk down germy memory lane: Think about all the places your suitcase wheels have touched—the airport floor (home to a thousand sneezes), public washroom stalls, maybe even that sketchy Airbnb hallway with questionable stains.

And then you plop it right onto your bedspread. Beside your pillow. Where your face goes.

Experts recommend keeping luggage off clean surfaces and giving it a proper scrub now and then. Don’t worry, you don’t need a hazmat suit—just follow these steps:

1. Snip away any stray hair, lint, or mystery fuzz stuck in the wheels (because ew).
2. Wipe down the wheels with an all-purpose cleaner.
3. If you’re feeling extra fancy, slap some shower caps on the wheels before rolling it inside. (Yes. It’s the haute couture of hygiene.)

Or better yet, invest in a washable suitcase cover. It’s like a raincoat for your luggage—but instead of protecting it from weather, it protects you from having a biofilm party on your bedroom carpet.