If you’ve ever made the mistake of grabbing the wrong suitcase while traveling by plane, then you know what a mortifying experience it can be. You feel like a thief, even though your action was unintentional and an obvious mistake. However, there are things you can do to make your luggage easier to spot.
Can you put stickers on your luggage and is it a good idea? If you want to avoid feeling like a culprit by mistake with the increased security, we see on airlines nowadays, adding a few stickers to make your luggage stand out is a great idea. The stickers will help make your bags look unique, so it won’t be so easy to grab the wrong bags.
Since there isn’t a lot of information on the Internet about what you can put on your luggage and how you’re allowed to distinguish your bags from other travelers, I have created this blog post. I’ll cover a few things you can do to make your luggage stand out, including putting stickers on your luggage.
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Can You Put Stickers on Your Luggage? (I Did) – But is it a Good Idea?
For those of you looking for a way to distinguish your luggage more easily from the rest of the pack, you’ll be happy to know you can put stickers on your luggage. Part of the problem with travel is how alike your luggage will look when compared to other people’s.
Last year, 25 million Americans traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday, which is always the most popular time to visit annually. About 80 percent of those Americans used dark or black, rectangular suitcases. That means that 80% of the bags looked similar over the busiest holiday season of the year.
So, with that in mind, you can see why it might be a good idea to distinguish your luggage from other people’s luggage. Now that we’re nearing the time of the year once again for holiday travel, you might want to consider ways you can make your luggage easier to distinguish from other people’s bags.
Also, if you make your luggage easier for you to distinguish, other people will be able to tell your luggage apart from theirs. That means you won’t run into the issue of lost luggage, which will be a massive benefit for you in your travels.
After all, it’s complicated when you lose your luggage, especially if you’ve brought essential, irreplaceable items along with you. So, consider decorating your luggage with stickers and using other ideas as well to make your luggage easy to spot. That way, other people will know your stuff isn’t theirs, and you won’t grab the wrong items, either.
When decorating your luggage, think about practical terms. While you can add your sense of style to the bags, you do want to make your luggage stand out, so it’s unique. So, be practical about your approach.
Having a suitcase that stands out will help speed things up when you’re at the airport. You’ll also be able to avoid mixing up your luggage with others or having other people grab your bags by mistake. Making your luggage more unique can discourage any accidental theft incidents.
We’ll cover a few ways you can personalize your luggage below.
Get a Distinctive Luggage Tag
Avoid using those standard-issue airline luggage tags when you travel. If you think about it, getting a unique luggage tag that stands out is probably your first line of defense when it comes to stopping people from mistaking your luggage for theirs.
Instead of using that standard-issue paper airline luggage tag, get something with big, bold handwriting. Even add some neon colors to that tag. You can use a Bigfoot luggage tag, for instance, and have your name placed on the bag in an innovative way that stands out.
Since you want something that will look different when compared to a traditional luggage tag, it’s a good idea to purchase an easily identifiable luggage tag. After all, tags are inexpensive, and they do a great job of preventing mistaken identity when it comes to luggage.
There are plenty of unique luggage tag sets available for purchase on the market today, and that can help you save some time and trouble when it comes to your travels.
Stickers on Luggage
Adding stickers on your luggage provides you with the opportunity to glamourize your luggage a bit, but it also serves another vital purpose. By placing recognizable labels on your luggage, you’ll be able to make your luggage stand out at an affordable rate easily.
Stickers for luggage bags are another inexpensive way to make your luggage look distinctive. If you want to make sure you buy something that will stick with some duration on your luggage, consider adding travel stickers to your bags. Travel stickers show off where you’ve been, where you are going, etc., and are specifically made to stay on luggage.
Previously, fabric luggage was the most popular trend for travel, which took away people’s ability to use stickers. However, lately, purchasing plastic suitcases has been on the rise, so plastic bags are now coming back in style.
Plastic suitcases are great for holding travel stickers. If you have a plastic bag, you can easily place the stickers on your suitcase. It helps to cover your decorations with a thick layer of craft’s glue as well to hold it in place and protect your stickers from any damage.
Patches on Luggage
If you’re stuck with some old fabric luggage and you don’t have the cash to purchase anything plastic, don’t worry. If you have fabric luggage, you still have another option so that you can decorate your bags and make it stand out. You can personalize your fabric luggage with patches.
If you must use patches instead of stickers, you want to sew them onto areas of your luggage that is very visible. You can find different types of sew-on patches online and at fabric stores. They are quite cheap, and most of them you can easily sew on or attach with safety pins if you don’t have time to sew.
Another option you have when it comes to patches and fabric luggage is iron-on patches. Iron-on patches feature everything from rhinestones to X-Men logos and will let you make your luggage stand out easily.
TIP: If you pick iron-on or sew-on patches, it’s a good idea to add another layer of adhesive around the edges. Using a stable craft’s glue around the edges will help hold your patches in place.
Colorful Tape
Another idea to help make your luggage stand out is to use colorful tape on your luggage. You can wrap duct tape, especially if it’s bright, around your suitcase’s handles. Think about the importance of decorating the handles on your luggage for a moment.
Most of the time, when we grab our luggage, we go for the handles. So, if you’re putting some brightly colored tape on the handles, it makes the luggage hard to miss. That will make it easier for you to tell your luggage apart from somebody else’s. That also means it is less likely that somebody else will mistake your luggage and accidentally grab it.
You can also decorate your luggage in a few other ways in addition to using colorful, bright tape on your luggage handle. Nowadays, you can purchase duct tape in a wide variety of colors. If you pick up some bright colors, you can add some vertical stripes to your luggage, too.
Another idea is to wrap duct tape around your luggage a few times before dropping it off with the baggage check. Doing that brings you an extra layer of security with your luggage. If you notice a break in the tape, then you know your luggage was opened, even if you aren’t given a note from TSA.
So, for people that are worried about the security of their luggage and they want to make sure nothing is opened, putting a layer of duct tape over the baggage is an excellent way to feel more secure when traveling.
REMEMBER: If you do decide to duct tape around your baggage to secure it and to prevent it from being opened, you’ll need to pack a small pair of scissors in your checked bag.
You’ll have to have something like that to cut the tape so you can open your bag again when you need it!
Create a Pattern with Duct Tape
You can also use duct tape to create a pattern on both the front and back areas of your suitcase. There are a few different things you can do if you decide to use this idea to make your luggage more distinctive.
You can use duct tape to brightly write your initials or your name on the front and back of your luggage. You can create a picture if you’d like anything you can imagine. You can use the duct tape like an art form and make a portrait of your favorite pet on your luggage to make your bags stand out.
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