Washing clothes while on the “road†enable us to pack light. Doing a little laundry at night doesn’t have to be too difficult even if you’ve enjoyed a little too much local wine with dinner.
Washing clothes in your hotel room is a quicker solution than going to a Laundromat, which can eat up precious time, especially if you are on a short trip.
There are various travel laundry kits available that consist of: a travel clothesline, a sink stopper, and small packets of laundry detergent. The travel clothesline ought to be braided so you can just tuck your clothes in between the braids instead of using clips.
You can use biodegradable soap such as campsuds that can also be used to wash your body if your really hardcore about double duty items. A small spot remover is handy to carry around to handle any accidents.
The easy part of doing laundry on the road is finding a sink and swishing your clothes around in it. The challenge lies in trying to find a spot to hang your clothes. Most hotels discourage doing laundry in the rooms. Careful and considerate behavior ensures that your hotel be none the wiser.
Finding a space to attach your travel clothesline involves creativity and sometimes straining the laws of physics. Hotels don’t usually like clothes hanging from their windows so don’t take advantage of this option. If you have a room with a bathroom hanging clothes in there is ideal. Otherwise be careful that drips don’t ruin furniture or carpet.
Using a packtowel helps you dry your clothes faster. A packtowel is a small towel made up of a chamois or microfiber material. The packtowels ability to absorb up to 7 times its weight and quickly dry makes it quite useful for the traveler. After wringing out wet clothes wrap them inside the packtowel and wring them some more to soak up excess water.
Despite your best efforts sometimes your clothes will remain damp in the morning. In this case well there’s nothing warmer than your body, you’ll be surprised how quickly clothes dry once you put them on.
Determining when your clothes need washing is a personal decision. For socks and underwear it goes without saying that these should be washed after wearing. Each time you repack your bag if you slip in a few dryer sheets these will help keep your clothes fresh smelling. Febreeze spray is also a good option for freshening up clothes.
Unless you stain an item of clothing I think that most clothes can be worn at least twice without washing. Sometimes just airing out clothing helps. Basic hygiene protects your clothes from getting too stinky. There are also disposable clothing shields (also called dress shields) that are placed in the underarm area of clothes to absorb excess moisture and odor.