Handling Laundry While Travelling

You have 4 choices when it comes to handling laundry while traveling.

• You take so many clothes that you never wear anything twice and you bring a giant suitcase—don’t do this. This is a bad idea.
• You pay for laundry service at your hotel. This is the most expensive option. Often the cost to clean the clothing item is more than what you paid to purchase the item.
• You search for a coin laundromat after you arrive. Searching for a laundromat then waiting for your clothes to be cleaned and dried would use up your previous vacation time. I don’t recommend this option either.
• I hand wash my clothes and hang them in the shower in my room. I bring light weight clothing that way everything dries quickly. I used to bring a bar of laundry soap but find it doesn’t rinse out well. So now I buy a small jug of liquid laundry soap when I arrive and hand wash things at night then rolling them in a towel to remove most of the moisture. My clothes are usually dry by the morning. If they're not dry in the morning no problem. I have other clothes to wear.

How much hand-washing are we talking about? That's up to you. Do you wear an article of clothes only once before washing? It depends. Think about it. In my opinion, hand-washing is no big deal and saves me a lot of time in a coin laundromat.

I recommend avoiding wearing blue jeans. Blue jeans take forever to hand wash, rinse and dry and, frankly, are really not so comfortable on a long haul flight especially if you have to sleep in them.

Think about packing light weight clothing that you can layer if it gets chilly.

Note: hotels will not be too happy if you drape wet clothes over their furniture and drip on wooden floors. Neither do they appreciate seeing your laundry on a balcony so hang your clothes in the shower and everyone is happy.

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