If you’re going on a trip that is longer than a few days, you’re likely thinking about doing laundry while traveling. Whether this is because you’ve packed in a small carry on suitcase or because you’re doing a long term trip, it is the reality of the less-glamorous side of travel.
Over the years we’ve tried every product, tip and technique for travel laundry so we’re here to share our top tips for successfully washing laundry when on the move.
1. Plan Your Accommodation Around Laundry
This is our top tip if you have a longer trip planned, especially if you are moving around. Rather than booking hotels for your entire stay, include a couple of nights at an apartment/house or room that has access to a washing machine.
We like to do this around the mid point of our trip. This way you can get up to date with the dirty laundry that’s been accumulating, and finish your trip without worrying about having clean clothes.
Accommodation with a washing machine usually also comes with a washing rack or line to dry your clothes on. Dryers are not that common outside of the US so you should factor in time for those clothes to dry however.
Having access to your own washing machine means you can adjust the water temperature and spin cycle speed to suit your clothing. This avoids the uncertainty of a laundry service or large laundromat machines which can be far more aggressive and hard-wearing on your items.
Check the Temperature
This applies to machines in your accommodation or if you go to a laundromat. Remember that 60 degrees in Europe is Celsius which is hot water and should not be the default for laundry.
30°C is a good cool temperature to select, but most modern washing machines also work well even at 20°C if you are worried about colors running or items shrinking.
2. Don’t Worry About Washing All Your Dirty Laundry
A lot of people we speak to try to do all their laundry while traveling. For us, we prefer to only wash the essential items we know we will need or want to wear again, giving us a few options. If something is dirty but not particularly smelly or stained, and we know we won’t be wearing it again during our trip, it can stay in the laundry bag until we get home.
Whether you have access to a machine in your accommodation or are hand washing items in your hotel room, you don’t want to be dealing with large amounts of wet clothes. Chances are high that you won’t have unlimited space to hang clothing out, and you don’t want to be surrounded by laundry all the time.
Be selective with what you are washing and save the big load for when you return home.
3. Get To Grips With Hand Washing
If you are only staying in hotels or don’t want to do a full load of laundry while traveling, you’ll need to get the hang of hand washing clothing.
While Sarah often rinses out her underwear when she’s in the shower, if you want to wash more than just a couple of small items, there is a technique for optimal sink washing.
Sink Laundry
Firstly, assess how much drying space you have. Focus on the bathroom or balconies where you won’t damage anything or bother people below with dripping washing. Then, place the items you want to wash in the hotel room sink, getting them wet through with tepid water before adding any detergent or soap.
Add your choice of laundry soap to the water and make sure it dissolves properly, gently swishing and agitating the clothes to remove dirt and smells. This works best if you then leave the clothes in the sink for around 15-30 minutes. After you’re happy with the cleaning process, empty the sink and rinse all items very well to ensure the soap does not leave any residue.
Squeeze out all the excess water before rolling the items in a clean towel (it’s worth sacrificing a shower towel for this) and squeezing some more. The towel will soak up even more of the excess water and help the clothes dry faster. Sopping wet laundry will take forever to dry so get it as dry as you can before you hang clothes up.
If you prefer, you can use a dry bag for washing clothing instead of the sink, but we prefer to keep it simple.
Hotel Laundry Bonus Tip
If you get a stain on something while traveling, grab the hotel bar soap. Wet the stain and then rub the soap bar over it, rinse the area and let it dry.
This has saved us multiple times over the years. We’ve used bar soap to get grass stains out of cream linen pants, red wine splashes off a blouse and even blood from an unexpected nose bleed. It’s much better to treat a bad stain immediately than leave it to set in your clothes and something about the bar soap lifts stains extremely well!
4. Come Prepared to do Laundry While Traveling
There are a few elements to consider when thinking about doing laundry while traveling; the items you will need to successfully wash clothes on the go and the type of clothing itself.
Travel Laundry Items To Pack
The first thing to consider is what laundry detergent you will want to use. If you’re just planning on doing shower laundry or a quick underwear wash you may not want to bring anything and rely on the hotel soap. However, we recommend bringing laundry soap sheets, particularly if you are going to use a machine in your accommodation.
These laundry detergent sheets are light, easy to pack and you can use a full sheet or just a small piece if you’re doing sink laundry. Bringing powder/liquid or detergent pods is more bulky and there is a much higher risk of them splitting and making a mess in your luggage. Similarly I would not bring fabric softener; it’s more hassle than it’s worth.
Next, we’ve found a travel washing line to be very helpful. These are a strong cord that you can tie or fasten with a carabiner to a convenient tree, post or balcony to create a temporary line for drying your clothes. These often come with pegs as well and extend your drying space considerably.
You should always be careful where you hang wet laundry (the last thing you want is to bring down your shower curtain rod) so a dedicated travel washing line is very useful when you have a larger load to deal with.
Finally, make sure you have a bag to hold your dirty clothes. Whether you’re carrying them to a machine or want to forget about them until you get home, a decent bag makes a big difference.
Choosing Your Travel Clothing
If you’re planning on doing laundry while traveling, you should assess the clothes you want to bring with you.
Washing heavy clothing like jeans or wool jumpers is a challenge as you will probably struggle to get them dry. Delicate, embellished tops or pants will make it difficult to get them clean and anything that needs specialist treatment is best avoided for travel laundry.
You want clothes that are lighter and quick to dry, that won’t bleed color so can go in all together and that can hold up pretty well against rougher treatment. Darker colors in general work better, not only because they won’t show if a little color does run in the wash, but also because you can get away with wearing them more before washing at all.
One Final Tip…
If you cannot face the idea of doing sink laundry or dealing with wet clothing in your accommodation, you can either find a local laundromat or laundry service, or ask your hotel to do the laundry for you.
All of these come with additional costs but they will make your life a little easier, and avoid the sight of wet clothes around your room. We like having the control that doing our own laundry gives us while traveling, but we know not everyone wants to deal with it when on vacation.
For lots more packing and travel tips and suggestions make sure to check out our blog and Sarah’s YouTube channel here. Got your own travel laundry tips? Share them below.
I love a 20L Sea to Summit Wet/Dry bag for laundry. When traveling, I use this bag for wet swimsuits, dirty clothes, etc. You can even use it as a cooler by putting ice in (short periods of time). I’m a big fan of washing as I go during trips and I often wash my underwear while I shower and hang to dry. I’m not a big fan of using the hotel sinks because I find they are quite shallow and I end up sloshing water everywhere. The sea to summit bag allows me to swish my clothes around and scrub. I bring small amounts of powdered detergent in a ziploc bag with a plastic tablespoon to measure. I’m presently in Iceland and while they have dryers, they are quite different from what we’re used to in the US. Here, even in a geothermal-heated room, my clothes take a full day to dry. The wet/dry bag (doesn’t have to be the brand mentioned) lives in my suitcase. I roll it up and store it inside my suitcase liner so it’s always in my bag.
All good ideas. I bring a few collapsible hangers to use for drying clothes. Many hotels only have the hangers that have to stay in the closet. Also, many hotel sinks have no stoppers to allow for soaking, so keep that in mind. There are some stoppers you can buy to bring with you. In my hotel in Paris, though, there was not a standard drain hole. It was a trough-style sink where the water ran down one whole side. I still managed to wash my undies though.