I always unpack everything. Makes me feel settled and ready to become a local for a few days.

Never had any bug problem in hotels or apts I have stayed in, regardless whether it was in USA, Mexico, Europe, Canada, or Puerto Rico. I have stayed at several 1 star hotels in Europe and have only had positive experiences. Knock on wood.

When I am traveling direct and with airport transportation pre-arranged, I like to use my favorite LV case. It has drawers & Shelves on one side and a mini closet rod and pockets on the other. When I take this baby with me there is no need to unpack. If I am catching trains and stopping off in several cities, I take a durable, smallish thing on wheels and I rarely unpack for short hotel stays, but always for long ones and when I stay with friends.

I'm a guy. Guy's don't unpack stuff. It's a pride thing, living out of a suitcase. It's a guy thing. It's a macho thing, plus it makes me feel 10 years younger to live this way when travelling, like I'm still in college (I'm 42 going on 18).

It's an Animal House thing - a guy has gotta be like John Belushi sometimes, kind of crazy and ready for anything. If you carefully, daintilly unpack all your stuff and put it in drawers, it just ain't cool! It's kind of feminine.

Plus, it's a lazy thing, living out of the suitcase. If you leave it all in there, you don't have to pack it all up again when you check out for the next spot. It's already there.

Lice? Roaches? Now I'm NEVER unpacking my freakin' suitcase again! Never even thought of those things.

Steve (it's all tongue n' cheek here)
USA

I did get roaches in my clothes when I put them in a dresser in a hotel room a few years ago. I was putting some clothes back into the suitcase and some little roaches ran out from them and across the bed, so then I had a dilemma, but all I could do was to shake out all my clothes and hope for the best. It was in the middle of my trip so whenever I put something on, I would feel something crawling under it, but I think it was just in my mind.

We unpack the toiletries for sure and
only the change of clothes for the following day.

I have a very simple but fool proof system. I like to take a small sheet of 120 grit sand paper, nothing too large, just to take the surface off of the interior of all the drawers. I then find that a pint can of Dunn Edwards Mold and Mildew resistant paint (travel size available on A.R.Traveler.com)provides a good penetrating seal. I then line the drawers with a high quality hypo-allergenic self-adhesive drawer liner (I'm partial to faux wood grain). Before leaving home I have already packed each article of clothing in its own vacuum sealed bag which, in addition to being sanitary, enables me to fit more clothes into each drawer. Using a pair of Playtex Living Gloves, I carfully extract the clothing from the bag, being careful not to let it come into contact with any part of my body. Once I have worn each article, I dispose of it with my portable travel incinerator, which not only leaves more room in my luggage for souveniers, but really saves laundry time at home. This system has never failed me.

russ, yours was the first post I have laughed out loud over in a long time, thanks.

Why, whatever do you mean???

Because of course you should use coarser sandpaper! :^)