Hard cases beat fabric for pencil stains

To keep a pencil case clean, first buy one made of something wipeable instead of cloth. That’s the whole trick. A hard plastic or PU leather case lets you just wipe ink and eraser smudges off with a damp cloth. Fabric and canvas cases soak everything in, and once ink sets, it’s basically permanent.

For prevention, the other big lever is what you put inside. Pens and markers leak, so don’t throw them loose in the same compartment as your erasers and nice stuff.