When we travel, we’re often exposed to more germs and dirt than we might be in our day to day lives. Planes and hotels often aren’t as clean as you might hope, and while planes are given a tidy up in between each flight, one flight attendant has recommended taking extra precautions and giving your seat and window a quick wipe down before taking off. 

From the parts of an aeroplane that are considered a hotbed for germs to what blankets are actually washed in your hotel room, by the time you come back from a holiday, it’s a good idea to give all of your items a good clean. While you might be used to wiping down your phone, it’s also encouraged to give your passport a once over with a disinfectant wipe, especially if you’ve left it in the plane seat pocket or lying around in your hotel room. But there’s one other item that you should also be cleaning after travelling, which most people probably don’t. 

In an article for Better Homes & Gardens, the cleaning expert Jolie Kerr revealed the one less obvious item that many of us use “on repeat without giving much thought to how clean they actually are”. 

Packing cubes are used by many of us to fit more into our suitcases, and keep everything organised while travelling, but they can quickly become dirty with constant use, especially if you remove them from your case and place them on a hostel or hotel room floor. 

While they might not be directly exposed to germs during transit, like anything that’s used frequently, they can quickly become dirty, especially if you’re using them to store unwashed laundry. 

For frequent travellers, Jolie recommends washing packing cubes after every three to five uses to prevent any dirt and grime building up in the fabric and causing stains, or even unpleasant odours. 

If you’ve kept your dirty laundry in a packing cube, or a spill has occurred in one of them, it should be washed immediately after use. 

Fortunately, most packing cubes are designed to be machine-washed, meaning you can simply chuck them in with the rest of your laundry. I

t’s best to wash them on a cold cycle with similar items on a gentle cycle, as they’re often made from lighter material. 

Pretreat any stains as normal, and once they’ve been rinsed, leave them out on a clean, dry towel to air dry.

If you need to clean them immediately, especially if something has spilt inside, go ahead and hand wash them in a sink or bathtub using soap.

If you don’t have any laundry detergent to hand, you can simply use hand soap or bar soap.

Body and face wash, and shampoo, will also work but it’s best to avoid any that aren’t clear or contain conditioning agents as these can leave a soapy residue that’s hard to remove.