When our friend Chad lived with us for a while, one of the big pieces of unexpected decoration that he brought with him was a lime green suitcase. I remarked to him on one occasion that it was by far the ugliest suitcase that I had ever seen.
“I know,” he said, “Isn’t it great?”
I told him that I didn’t understand what he meant by that and he went on to explain.
Imagine that you are standing at a luggage carousel with a hundred or so other people waiting for your luggage. There is a veritable sea of black and dark brown suitcases rolling out on the carousel. When your lime green suitcase comes out, it stands out like a man waving multicolored flags trying to get your attention.
Moreover, what suitcases are the ones to go on sale and clearance first? The ugly ones that don’t sell so well, of course! Which suitcase is more likely to get stole from your hotel room — classic Louis Vuitton or our friend the ugly green suitcase? You can bet nobody will want to steal that green suitcase.
Elizabeth and I bought our ugly green suitcase pictured above. It was on sale — about half off the list price, which is always nice when you’re a young couple with a toddler looking to save money when feasible.
We packed the suitcase and brought it with us to Florida— JetBlue allows one checked in suitcase per person for free at up to fifty pounds and we tipped in at about thirty-seven. After the flight we gathered around the luggage carousel and waited for the luggage to come out and I wondered how long it would be until I saw our suitcase. It only took a few minutes to get my answer as the green color did indeed stand out amongst all of the otherwise similar suitcases. I quickly grabbed it and got it out-of-the-way — you don’t want to be the person at the airport causing confusion and delay because you are lollygagging instead of taking your luggage efficiently.
Of course you don’t have to get a green suitcase. Any bright and tacky color that stands out will do. You can probably do well for yourself by seeing what suitcases are on sale and going based on that. When you quickly find your suitcase next trip, you can be happy that you read this — and we can thank Chad, too!