You are about to leave for two or three weeks on a trip and in front of your huge suitcase you understand that you will not be able to take everything. So you’ll have to find quickly a trick to wash your clothes when you travel!
All the tips and tricks to wash your clothes while traveling
The basic rules when washing clothes while traveling are, first of all, never wait until your clothes are too dirty. Because a garment worn several days in a row will be more difficult to recover than the same garment washed every other day.
On the other hand, if you have to wash your clothes yourself while traveling, you should do it as soon as you arrive at your accommodation. The sooner you start washing, the sooner you will be able to recover perfectly dry clothes. In case of an incident during the drying process, bring a plastic bag. Your clothes will continue to dry on the road or at your next stop.
1. Washing clothes at the hotel
If you stay in a hotel during your trip, I’m a little tempted to say that you are “royalty at the bar”.
Use the hotel’s laundry service
Because usually, hotels have an in-house service to wash guests’ laundry. The number one rule in this case is to never give away the clothes you care about most. Don’t be naive, in this kind of process there is always a risk that your clothes will be damaged or lost. You can therefore use the hotel’s laundry service by using the small white plastic bag in a closet. But you must take a minimum of precautions. You must understand that it is always complicated to know how to wash elastane or linen or lycra in a country where culturally the clothes are 100% cotton.
The disadvantage of this service is that it is relatively expensive. So if you want to wash your clothes while traveling at a lower cost, you will have to do it differently.
How to wash your clothes in your hotel room
You can use the hotel bathroom to wash your dirty clothes. And there are two solutions. The first is to simply wash your clothes in the sink. If you have laundry, it will go by itself. Because it will suffice to run a little hot water and rub the clothes, to let them soak. But above all, do not neglect the most important step, which is rinsing. Because badly rinsed clothes are quite unpleasant to wear. If you don’t have washing powder, don’t panic. Hotels usually provide you with small soaps and shower gel.
The solution I prefer to wash my clothes while traveling is to wash them in the shower every day. Sometimes I even go into the shower fully dressed. We are underwater, we do not lose time and it is super practical. And for the rinsing stage, I simply leave the clothes in the shower tray.
Then it is enough, to wring out well your clothes and to make them dry the linen in the bathroom. Preferably over the bathtub or shower tray. This will prevent you from creating a mini flood.
Another point: when you travel, don’t hesitate to take a long, detergent, a small soap, some string to dry your clothes, and a universal plastic cap.
2. Washing clothes on a camping site or in a youth hostel
Some campsites offer self-service washing machines. And this for a few euros. The most important thing is not to wash your clothes but to check if there is a dryer. If this is not the case, check if there are clotheslines, preferably under a shelter.
When camping or in a youth hostel you can wash your clothes with you in the shower as mentioned above.
If you go camping, it is best to take a basin and special detergent for hand washing (and ideally without scrubbing) with you. Again, be careful with the rinsing step. For the drying stage, wring out your clothes well before hanging them up. Then place your laundry in the sun or in a place where the air circulates a little.
Tip: If you have to wash white clothes and you want to recover some of their former whiteness, don’t hesitate to wash them in your basin with eggshell and your detergent. This also works for machine washing.
3. Washing clothes on a road trip
If you are on a road trip things start to get complicated. Because generally, whether you are by car, bus or train, you change accommodation every day. So you will have to identify the stages where you might spend more than two consecutive nights. In addition, you will have to do some weather forecasting. Nothing very complicated, no stress, you will just have to be quick and opportunistic to take advantage of a few rays of sunshine to dry your clothes more quickly. If you are in the car, the ideal way to dry your clothes is to simply put them in your suitcase or on the back of the car.
As for the washing method, nothing changes, you just have a time constraint. To avoid this, you can try to find a small laundry in the city where you are. Usually, it is relatively cheap especially if you are in Asia or Latin America.
Have a good trip. Now you know how to wash your clothes while traveling. Do you have tips and tricks? Don’t hesitate to share them in the comments with the escaledenuit.com community of travelers