Are you missing your wigs or maybe a wooden fertility doll? Here’s what the 2023 Unclaimed Baggage Report found

Have you ever wondered what happens to lost luggage that never gets retrieved and, therefore, technically remains lost forever? If so, you are not alone — and you are in luck.

A store in Scottsboro, Alabama, aptly named the Unclaimed Baggage Store recovers and sells these items.

Though the Unclaimed Baggage Store has existed since 1970, the store did something new this year. It compiled the 2023 Unclaimed Baggage Found Report, examining more than 2 million items from nearly 33,000 bags lost by passengers and never found.

Here's what the store found.

The 10 most common items left behind

As you might suspect, travelers routinely leave behind some fairly normal items you likely pack in your own suitcase, including clothing and electronics. Among those, the report recorded these 10 items the most:

• Underwear
• Shoes (especially women's shoes)
• T-shirts (with an increase in vintage tees)
• Blue jeans (12% more men's jeans and women's low-rise jeans)
• Dresses
• Tablets
• Headphones (specifically more Bluetooth earbuds, including AirPods)
• Cellphones (largely iPhones)
• Books (notably those by Colleen Hoover and James Patterson)

The 10 most unexpected items found

Though the store compiled 40 of the most unusual items left behind, here are my personal top 10:

• Not one but two live snakes
• Two Hermes Birkin bags (which are among the most expensive handbags on the market, costing thousands, or even millions, of dollars)
• 19 Rolex watches
• A diamond tennis necklace worth $35,000
• An entire suitcase full of wigs
• A life-size Winnie-the-Pooh bear
• A golf simulator
• A Halloween card signed by former President Richard Nixon
• A wooden fertility doll
• A Truly Hard Seltzer beer tap

Other trends

Within the most common items found, the report also cited finding 12% more women's apparel than men's, which could suggest that women tend to pack more clothing than men, not that I am speaking from personal experience as a woman who refuses to check a bag.

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One item you will always find in my carry-on bag is Lululemon clothing, the most frequently packed athletic brand in these lost bags. Another commonly found clothing item was Nike shoes, comprising 14% of all shoes the group discovered.

Though I've never lost a bag, I have left two Hydro Flasks on flights. It seems that many others did last year, too, as Yeti and Hydro Flask were the two most lost water bottle brands, according to the report.

Tips to avoid losing your luggage

If you've made it thus far, you might fear that losing your luggage is inevitable. Know, though, that nearly 100% of both checked and carry-on bags are eventually reunited with their rightful owners. This report simply details the small fraction of luggage that remains lost or unclaimed.

"Over the last couple of years, the recovery of air travel surpassed expectations, with traffic surging to 858,548,196 passengers in 2023," the report read. "More than 99.5% of checked and carry-on bags are eventually reunited with their owners."

Even so, there are steps you can take to minimize the chances of losing your bag in the first place, especially if you frequently check bags. The No. 1 piece of advice to keep in mind is to arm your bag with a tracking device, such as an Apple AirTag. It enables Bluetooth tracking via Apple devices like iPhones and iPads. Additionally, you'll want to remember to use a credit card that provides baggage delay coverage when booking your flight.

Bottom line

In general, an airline will classify your bag as lost after 14 to 21 days, at which point you can submit a claim to your airline detailing the contents of your luggage. Lost baggage typically results in higher compensation than delayed baggage, though you can and should submit claims for delayed baggage, too.

Just note that if an airline has already paid for your expenses while your bag was thought to be delayed, that amount will likely be deducted from your final payout from the lost baggage claim, though there are exceptions for specific carriers.

Related reading:

• Lost vs. delayed baggage: How are they different and how do you protect yourself?
• Here’s what to pack in a carry-on bag every time you travel
• In a sea of checked bags, the $29 Apple AirTag is my holiday hero
• How AirTags helped me get my delayed bags back (twice in one trip)