Tips for Keeping Laundry Chores to a Minimum While on the Go--
 

The following is excerpted from a recent post on my blog <BucketListing101.com>

1.  Access to washing machines may be surprisingly limited, depending on  your itinerary.  I was on a two-week cruise last year, & discovered there was no access to washing machines.  There was a laundry service, but the prices were outrageous.   My travel buddy & I improvised with a 2-gallon Ziploc bag & some of my homemade laundry soap.  At night we would add the laundry soap & water to our dirty clothes in the plastic bag.  The overnight soaking, combining with the agitation from the movement of the ship, resulted in acceptably clean clothes in the morning.  A quick rinse, & everything was ready for hanging in the shower to dry.

2. Although shampoo or bath soap will do in a pinch, if your trip is longer than a week, carrying your own laundry soap makes sense.  You might not have easy access to a shop that carries it, & even if you are near a laundromat, buying detergent there is expensive.  For a variety of reasons I make my own laundry soap. The recipe is at <SudsforDuds.com>, but if I'm likely to have access to a washing machine, I carry a few Tide laundry detergent pods in a plastic baggie instead of packing liquid.  If I was backpacking for a lengthy period I would carry a bar or partial bar of laundry soap like Zote (my fave) or Fels Naptha.

3. Drying socks & other heavy clothing is sometimes not possible overnight.  However, if you roll those items in a towel & apply a lot of pressure, you can remove a surprising amount of moisture before hanging to finish the drying process before morning.

4.  A travel clothesline is well worth the tiny space it takes in your luggage.  I like the 2-ply elastic kind that has a suction cup on either end, perfect for shower hanging.  Wet items can be hung by weaving edges in-between the elastics.  Small (but not the teensy ones that easily break) clothes pins are also handy, so a few of those go in my bag, too.

5.  Even if there isn't an iron in your room, chances are good that there is one on the premises, even in a hostel, so ask if you really need one.

6.  Travel steamers work well on wrinkles, but I no longer carry one because of limited luggage space & the fact my travel these days is mostly casual.  However, I did find them very useful when I was doing a lot of business travel & traveled with a working professional wardrobe.

7.  In a pinch, hanging wrinkled clothes in the bathroom while you take a hot shower will help.  Once you are out of the shower, use your still-damp hands to smooth out the worst of the wrinkles.  Allow clothes to air-dry before donning the garment, or use a hair dryer.

8.  Preventive measures can decrease your laundry requirements.  Check clothes for stains when undressing.  A stain from dining can be addressed before it has a chance to set, & chances are good you can remove the stain so you can get another wearing out of the clothing article before it requires a full wash.  Tide-To-Go is a handy stick for treating stains as soon as discovered.

9.  Sometimes the entire garment doesn't require laundering.  For example, on a recent month-long trip the collar of my favorite overshirt, the one with nice buttoned pockets that I wear instead of a sweater over t-shirts, needed a good wash.  However, the rest of the shirt was perfectly clean, as it had gone through a washing machine in Scotland, so I merely soaped up the collar in a London hotel, scrubbed it with my always-packed nail brush, rinsed & let it dry overnight.  A week later in Paris I dripped something over one sleeve.  It was a quick job to wash only the spotted sleeve, & my shirt made it all the way home before it got the full machine treatment it deserved.

10.  Discarding clothing on the go can delay the day you need to confront dirty laundry.   I once met a woman who in 1968 had sailed solo from Japan to California, the first woman to do so.  I asked her how she handled her laundry at sea. " I didn't do any," she replied, simply.  Then she explained that she bought all her at-sea clothes at thrift shops, then just threw them overboard when they got too dirty.  This won't work on all trips, but most of us have some less-than perfect undies that could be tossed once worn.  If your itinerary starts with dirt-clinging activities & ends with a less strenuous agenda, consider taking & discarding grubbies.  I've left more than one pair of jeans on the road.

When living on a sailboat as a full-time cruiser most of the time I did laundry on board, using a bucket & a (clean, dedicated) toilet plunger as my agitator.  That's why I limited towel usage to handtowels, perfectly adequate for after-bathing, especially when using only a gallon of water in a sun shower (black plastic bag to soak up heat from the sun, with an attached hose for showering) for both shampoo & bathing.  However, when in port we would treat ourselves & our sheets to a laundry service.  Once, in an anchorage near a village in Costa Rica we found someone who did laundry for cruisers for a modest fee.  Later that day we went for a walk & passed by a very modest dwelling surrounded by a low barbed wire fence.  There, drying on the wire were all the the clothes & linens from our boat, Yankee Rogue.  The sight gave us a good laugh.  I didn't care that my undies were hanging on barbed wire.  I was just glad I hadn't had to wring out all those towels & sheets by hand (though twisting them around a boat stanchion would have done the job).

"Even if there isn't an iron in your room, chances are good that there is one on the premises, even in a hostel, so ask if you really need one."

travel with clothes that need ironing is bush league.

<i>travel with clothes that need ironing is bush league.</i>

Yup.

This is 2013, not 1913.

I don't even iron clothes at home, never mind on the road. I don't travel with clothes I haven't tested by hand washing and drip drying them.

Shampoo works fine for washing clothes, no need to mess with making your own!!!

This is all very basic info.

Sounds like too much trouble for me, I'll just "bite the bullet" budget-wise and have the hotel send out my laundry - Pricey? Yes, but my time is too valuable to waste ding laundry when I travel.

If I am traveling for an extended time and it's all hotels, I actually don't mind going to a laundromat to do my laundry. It forces me into a few hours of down time.

Making your own soap is a recommendation?

I have to admit that I'm an ironed clothes nut. Of course, while on vacation I let go of this but we stayed at a hotel with a pants press in the closet once. I was in heaven.

The Ziplock washer is the best thing I've ever learned on Fodors years ago.

<<<Making your own soap is a recommendation?>>>

I think the recommendation was to take your own and the OP chooses to make their own.


<<<I actually don't mind going to a laundromat to do my laundry. It forces me into a few hours of down time.>>>

It can also get interesting when there are other people there if they're in the mood to talk to the crazy tourist. :)


I generally take enough undies for the entire trip (I never get to travel more than 2-3 weeks due to work so it's not like I'm traveling for 6+ weeks). Bras and shirts get a quick rinse about every night and get a wash every 2-3 wearings if needed. Pants get rinsed as needed, though generally just the waistband.

I bring along pantyliners so I don't have to worry about washing my pants that often.

Usually if I need to wash my clothes my husband and I do it half way through the trip.

Luckily, I don't sweat much, so my clothes don't really get all that dirty. Before I leave for a trip I iron my pants with starch and that helps to keep them clean. (as noted I'm a nut for ironed clothes)

"travel with clothes that need ironing is bush league."

Unless you travel for work, then it can be very hard to avoid clothing that wrinkles.

>>Unless you travel for work, then it can be very hard to avoid clothing that wrinkles.<<

Not IME. I traveled for work for 20+ years - almost always in a dress/jacket, dress/cardigan, skirted suit or nice trouser suit -- and can count on one hand the number of times I needed to use an iron. It is partly in how one packs -- I use (and teach) the bundle method and things simply do not wrinkle.

I guess you are just more of a pro at it than I am Janis ;) I don't have to iron everything, but I rarely get through a week of travel without having to iron a few things. A lot of times, it isn't freshly laundered and packed things that need to be ironed, but rather something I have already worn that got wrinkles from me, not the suitcase. And really, taking 5 minutes to iron a blouse in the morning or touch up a pair of pants isn't much of an imposition.

This posters seems more like a typical backpacker to me, than a business traveler.

I agree. Business travelers have the hotel do their laundry and then submit an expense report for reimbursement.

I agree. Business travelers have the hotel do their laundry and then submit an expense report for reimbursement.>>

not if you're self-employed you don't. not everyone who travels on business has an expense account. I like to use a product sold by Boots called "travel wash" - it comes in a tube and you can use it in a hotel basin or bidet with as small or large a number of clothes as you wish. you can also use it for spot cleaning of stains on a small part of the garment.

I agree with November Moon that ironing out the wrinkles can distract the eye from clothes that are less than fresh and get you an extra day out of an outfit. My favourites though are the clothes that need to ironing - I have an overblouse that I can scrumple up at the bottom of a bag and it still comes up looking as new.

Bookmarking.

I'm hoping the woman who said she threw her clothes overboard was just kidding. There's enough garbage floating in the world's oceans and seas without adding to the problem...

I agree, these are rookie suggestions. I guess anyone can put up a blog though. I spend a month in Mexico every winter and never iron or do laundry. We have lived on sailboats around the world and it was the same. Its vacation! If I want to do laundry, I'll stay at home. I would never take up valuable packing space for detergetent and clothes lines. Our upcoming trip to Africa allows only 44 lbs of gear -- that will include all our camera equipment and gear for a month. No way is even one ounce getting alotted to laundry periphenalia.

You don't do laundry for 1 month in Mexico? Really?

An interesting debate, although the piece about panty liners was a little too much information! Then again, "don't knock it till you tried it!

I used to travel a lot on business but am now in danger of becoming a permanent back packer. We are currently on a six month trip around South America one of several extended trips we have taken around the world over the last 5 years. We travel with carry on bags ( 40 litre) only so doing laundry is essential. We tend to stay in a variety of places, mostly small hostels and B & B s but with the occasional splurge in upmarket hotel.

In many parts of the world, notably Asia and South America getting laundry done is ridiculously cheap ( often around $1 per kilo) so we will usually do that, except for expensive stuff like merino thermals etc. where you just don't want to risk it. In many cheaper hostels it is fine to do your own laundry in room using anything from proprietary washing powder or laundry soap to shampoo or shower gel in an "emergency" no need to take a washing line, a piece of string, or even tooth floss will do just as well. Drying can be a problem in humid climates.

When I used to travel on business even on expenses, I would refuse to pay the often outrageous prices charged for laundry - I would rather shell out for a new shirt!

I rarely iron stuff as I no longer need to impress anyone and, the sort of stuff I wear, doesn't need it and, even if it did, an hour after wearing it it looks like it needs ironing again Life is too short to iron tee shirts..

" I would never take up valuable packing space for detergetent and clothes lines."

They would take up a lot less room than extra clothes. However, I find shampoo works just as well as detergent, and I carry a couple of light weight plastic clothes hangers rather than a clothes line.

Sure...a month without laundry. Why not? First, a month is only four weeks. So we take a weeks worth of clothes and wear each thing four times. We live the majority of each day in swimwear. No need to launder that. It gets rinsed out in the shower at the end of each day to get rid of any salt water, but that's all. Then it's just whatever we pull on to go to dinner each night. Tee shirts and shorts, a sun dress......no need to iron. I pack a lot of light weight linen that requires no ironing. In humid climates, merely hanging it up will do. At the very most I will hand wash delicates in the bathroom sink with some shampoo to get the sweat out. That's it. Like I said....I'm on vacation!

"Life is too short to iron tee shirts.."

I want this on a t-shirt

TC: OK - maybe it is a semantics thing, but isn't hand washing in the bathroom . . . Doing laundry? It is to me.

Why not? I am anything but a neat-nix but I couldn't go a month on a week's worth of clothes without doing a bit of "laundry" (either sending it out or in the sink) in Mexico where it is so hot and humid. Things actually do get sweaty. Plus workout clothes/sneaker socks really do need washed.

I agree with the tshirt, shorts, sundresses, linen strategy. Also sounds like we're doing different things (I'm not in my bathing suit only all day, I'm out around town, in clothes -lol).

Janis & Suze, I guess it is semantics...but rinsing one bra and a pair of delicates in the basin isn't "doing laundry" to me. I don't even take work out clothes or sneakers or socks. Swimming is my workout. So while I do rinse out a thing or two in the basin and occasionally spot off a drop of salsa on a shirt, I don't consider that "laundry". No machine, suds, line, pegs or iron involved.

Definitely semantics. I travel for months at a time, and all my laundry is done in the bathroom sink. Suds, yes. Use of shower rod as clothes line, yes. Machine, pegs, iron, never.

Do you think those women in places like SEA or India who do their wash with river water and rocks aren't doing laundry?

I've done the laundry in a plastic bag thing, but only when backpacking or camping. Otherwise I use a sink.
If you're going to do this, you should have quick-drying clothes made of nylon and similar materials and NOT cotton. These clothes also tend to not wrinkle, so forget the ironing.
I didn't think anyone actually ironed their clothes anymore (except for suit shirts and trousers, and I send my husband's to the cleaners for them to do that..) but my husband told me last week that his secretary was relating how she irons her husband's undershirts, even, and it drives her nuts when they travel because she sometimes cannot find an iron. !!

I like the ziplock method because I can really shake up the clothes. In a little sink the water gets every where.

>>but rinsing one bra and a pair of delicates in the basin isn't "doing laundry" to me<<

Yep -- that is officially 'Laundry'. That is the only sort of laundry I usually have to do on any trip less than maybe 3 or 4 weeks.

For longer trips I sometimes have to do one bigger load that works better in a Launderette.

<I don't even take work out clothes or sneakers or socks.>

Like I mentioned, clearly we do different things on a "mexican vacation". I often walk miles around town in the daytime (it's hot, the clothes get sweaty/wet), I take Zumba classes, I go to a gym.

I don't carry a clothesline, clothespin, etc. but do take a small bottle of Woolite in my toiletries case and wash stuff in the kitchen sink and dry out on the sunny patio. Sometimes even drop a small load at the lavendaria or have the maid at the apartment building do one for me. I don't see this as any big hardship or horrible inconvenience to do on vacation.

Well...back to the original post. My version of "laundry" and the OP version are worlds apart. I still will not give over one inch of space in my packing to "laundry". Stripping off my swimsuit in the shower for a rinse or dipping my bra in a little water to refresh it isn't how I do "laundry" at home.....but <I>"you say potato"</I>.......etc, etc. :). It's all good.

"Pants get rinsed as needed, though generally just the waistband." Iowa_Redhead

The waistband? Really? I've been rinsing out the wrong part all these years.

No kidding. I was cracking up over the wash the waistband idea.

Shampoo is really too often overlooked as a laundry product. It does a remarkable job on collars, grease spots, and general grime. Hotel shampoo isn't much good for anything else. Also take a pair on insoles along for the trip and exchange them for the ones in your shoes/smeakers when needed.This wat you don't have to worry about drying overnight.

"Pants get rinsed as needed, though generally just the waistband." Iowa_Redhead

The waistband? Really? I've been rinsing out the wrong part all these years.>>

I suspect it depends on your definition of "pants".

And which "pants" require the rinsing of the waistband? Whatever the definition, that seems to me to be a bit north of the usual concern. Or maybe I just don't sweat enough around my waist to understand. Anything is possible.

<<<Or maybe I just don't sweat enough around my waist to understand. Anything is possible.>>>

Italy in August plus LOTS of walking means pretty much everything getting sweaty. :) The waistband of the pants (trousers) gets sweaty since that's the part that's tight against the skin so wash that part. The legs of the pants stay fairly clean so why dink with those and wait for them to dry??

As for being further up than the area of usual concern, that's what underwear are for. Wash those after every wash.

<<<Wash those after every wash.>>>

Oh for... grr! "Wash those after every WEAR".

:P