One of the problems of travelling, especially when you’re away for quite some time, is doing the laundry. Keeping your clothes clean may be easy if you’re staying in a property that provides on-premise laundry services like in some hotels or Airbnbs. No matter where you’re staying when you travel, there are several ways to keep your clothes clean.
Managing Laundry While Travelling
- Hand wash
This ancient style of doing the laundry- hand washing- will always come in handy. It is a simple method that everyone should know how to do. For those of you that don’t know how to properly hand wash, check out our blog on how to hand wash clothes. All you need is a sink, bucket or tub, water and soap.
- Bag method
There are two methods of washing your clothes using a bag: the Aloksak method and the scrubba wash bag. The Aloksak bag is a transparent, durable and waterproof ziplock bag, designed to store items of any kind and works great for doing the laundry. Add your dirty clothes, water and soap inside the bag and mix it up before leaving to soak for 10 minutes and rinsing it out.
The scrubba wash bag is a portable wash bag that provides a quality wash. Perfect for travelling or camping. To use the scrubba wash bag, add your dirty clothes, water and soap, and then seal the bag. Then, deflate to remove excess air and start rubbing the clothes around for a few minutes before rinsing.
- Laundromat
Laundromats can pretty much be found all over the world, specifically in larger cities and towns. They’re usually easy to spot and are great for other services too such as dry-cleaning and tailoring. The only problem with this is, you’ll need to carry around cash, and you’ll have to do your research for the best laundromat in town to avoid inconvenient problems.
- Local laundry services
If you travel to a town with no nearby laundry facilities (typically in places within Asia or Africa), there may be a chance that someone in the area runs a local laundry business within their own home or would be willing to do the laundry for your for a small fee. If this is the case, it will be helpful to ask local people if they know anyone who can do this for you.
- Laundry collection and delivery service
Fortunately, the demand for outsourcing laundry is becoming increasingly popular that there are laundry services that will pick up and drop off your laundry to your location. Laundryheap laundry and dry cleaning services are available in some areas with the UK, Ireland, Amsterdam, Dubai and Sharjah.
Best Fabrics To Travel With
The best clothing fabrics to bring on holiday are ones that are durable and can be worn multiple times without being washed. They are quick at drying, wrinkle resistant, lightweight to pack and odour resistant.
You won’t find the perfect material that ticks ALL boxes but there are some fabrics that will make doing laundry while travelling much easier.
- Denim: Doesn’t require regular washing.
- Polyester and Nylon: Dries quickly, wrinkle resistant and lightweight.
- Merino wool: Lightweight, dries quickly and is wrinkle resistant.
- Rayon: Quick drying and wrinkle resistant.
Whatever clothing you decide to bring, make sure to check the care label to see if clothes are machine washable and can be machine dried if you don’t plan on regularly hand washing them.