How To Protect Yourself From Broken Bottles in Suitcases

Broken bottle. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
 

As soon as the suitcase was opened you could tell by the damp stain on the suitcase lining and the smell that something had broken. Underneath the clothes, was the inflated plastic cover of the bottles. Luckily for the clothes, the broken bottle was white wine which did not stain. Unluckily for the wine drinkers, the Reisling bottle was broken. Unluckily for the person unpacking, you had to be careful removing the bottle, because of broken glass. The bottle was broken. The clothes all had to be washed, in order to remove the smell.

Years ago, I had learned from a broken bottle of spirits, inside a suitcase, that a suitcase packer needs two layers of protection. The first, obvious, layer of protection is around the bottle, the padding, and waterproof. A second, less obvious to the lucky novice, obvious to the unlucky experienced, is the waterproof protection needed around the clothes. 

Ideally, not just one bag around all the clothes. Preferably a bag around each item. Why? Because a black item of clothing (or paper) which gets wet, will leak its own stain to the white item alongside.

What went wrong this time? The bottles had seeming protection. First, the inflated, ridged, transparent bottle protectors (which we received from commercial bottle shippers) had partially deflated. Secondly, smaller glass jars had been jolted against the more fragile necks of the bottles.