How to Do Laundry While Traveling: 4 Practical Options
Traveling light comes with a lot of perks, but it can also come with a potential headache – doing laundry on the road. Fortunately, laundry doesn’t need to be difficult. In fact, doing laundry while traveling is pretty simple, if you know how to do it. And it starts with planning ahead and packing the right clothes!
Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase.
Options for Laundry on the Road
No matter how long you are traveling for, you have the option of packing light, in just a carry-on and doing laundry along the way. If you’re planning to travel long term, you’ll have to do laundry along the way. In any case, knowing how to do laundry while traveling can change your life! Fortunately, there are four viable options.
1. Book Accommodations with Self-Serve Laundry Facilities
One of the easiest ways to solve your laundry woes is to book accommodations with self-service laundry facilities attached. This could be an Airbnb, hostel, or potentially hotel.
If the washer and dryer are ensuite, you are in luck as you have maximum flexibility on when you do laundry, you won’t lose any valuable articles of clothing, and you can control how your clothes are treated. This is by far one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do laundry while traveling.
If the laundry is in a common area, waiting for the laundry to finish may eat into valuable vacation time, but it’s the smart choice. This ensures no one removes your clothing half way clean, or worse, steals your clothes! Fortunately, you can use this time to do things like plan out your day or onward travel.
If you want to go this route, definitely pack some laundry detergent strips. They are perfect for travel and make doing laundry on the road a breeze!
2. Go to a Laundromat
Depending where you’re traveling, going to a laundromat may be an option. This is a cost effective option but does take more time. Because of that, its a better option if you’re traveling for a long time versus on a 1-2 week trip.
Similarly to doing laundry in your accommodations, you’ll need to supply your own laundry detergent. Additionally, you’ll need a way to take your clothes to the laundromat. Using a lightweight, super collapsible laundry bag can make this easy! Rather than going for a traditional laundry bag, opt for a multi-use lightweight tote bag that can double as a beach bag or grocery bag.
3. Send Your Laundry Out to a Laundry Service
Laundry services can be found almost anywhere, especially if you’re willing to pay more for your laundry to be done. However, in some parts of the world its pretty much the only choice you have for doing laundry while traveling. You won’t find accommodations with laundry facilities available. Fortunately, it’s easy to find a laundry service. Just ask your accommodations!
Laundry services of course comes with some massive pros and cons. For one, you save a lot of time by not having to wait on your laundry to be done. This can be a big consideration if you’re on a tight schedule during your trip. Of course, you won’t be able to dictate how each of your clothing items are handled, and it is possible that some of your clothes could go missing. I once had 3 shirts go “missing” in the Philippines from a laundry service!
Two things to always find out before you drop your clothes off to a laundry service are:
1. How long it will take. It could be 2 days until you get your clothes back, especially if they hang them to dry. This means you need to plan accordingly. For one, you can’t wash everything in your bag as you’ll need clothes to wear to explore and sleep. For another, you’ll need to make sure you’ll still be in town when they’re done!
2. How they charge. Some laundry places charge by article of clothing, others do it by weight, and some do it by how much fits in a bag. Clarify this before you drop your laundry off to save yourself any shock at the bill!
4. Hand Wash Your Clothes
Depending how long you’re traveling for and what type of clothes you’ve packed, you may be able to simply hand wash your clothes. This is fast and easy, but you need time, and space, to then let your clothes air-dry.
There are a couple of options of how to hand wash your clothes.
- Using a Sink or Bath Tub
Stop up the drain. Add water and clothes. Let the clothes soak for a couple minutes. Then add detergent. Wash the clothes by rubbing the clothing against itself and swishing them around to get them good and sudsy. Rinse and repeat as necessary. Then do one final rinse, wring out your clothes, and hang them to dry.
- Using a WaterProof or Portable Washing Bag
Pack a waterproof bag or portable wash bag to wash your clothes in. Add water, clothes, and detergent. Shake shake shake… Let it sit a bit, and then shake shake shake again. Make sure the soap really has the opportunity to get sudsy. Rinse and repeat as necessary. Then do one final rinse, wring out your clothes, and hang them to dry.
As a bonus, you can use the waterproof bag (when dry) for any water activities you might do on your trip!
If this is your go to strategy, consider packing a travel clothesline to make drying your clothes as fast as possible! Another “hack” to help your clothing dry faster is to wring them out in a dry towel – if you have an extra towel available. This will transfer some of the lingering water to the towel leaving your clothes drier, faster.
Packing Tips to Consider for Laundry Days
Packing the right types of clothes will help make doing laundry on the road a simple task. And, it will help you pack in just a carry-on. After all, you don’t want to carry weeks worth of clothing that will only each be worn once – it’s just dead weight!
Avoid Packing Special Care Items
Those “special care” clothing items will be a huge hassle on the road. If they need special handling, leave them at home. If you have to send them out for laundry service, there is about a 9 out of 10 chance that they will be ruined or shrink. Pack clothing that can be thrown in a dryer or hung to dry. Similarly, pack clothes that have already been washed a few times. This will help ensure the colors don’t run and that you don’t end up with shrunken clothes that don’t fit!
Take Clothes You Can Part With
When you send clothes out for laundry, it is unfortunately not uncommon for an article of clothing or two to go missing. If you have really expensive clothes or a favorite article of clothing that you would be heartbroken if it went missing, please be cautious. An expensive article of clothing could be worth more than some of the locals make in a week, depending where you’re traveling. And, you don’t have many options when something goes “missing”.
Determine What to Wear on Laundry Day
Anytime you send laundry out, or even do laundry yourself, remember you will not be able to wash all of your clothing at once. You will need something to wear during the day and potentially overnight and into day two until you get your laundry back. If you are traveling really light, this can be a challenge.
Pack Smart with a Couple of Quick Dry Clothes
To add some flexibility to your laundry schedule on the road, pack a couple of items you can hand wash that are quick dry for when you are in a pinch. This is particularly true for undergarments. You want to be clean and fresh, no matter how difficult it is to get laundry done. To find great quick dry clothing, check out athletic, outdoor, and travel companies, like North Face, ExOfficio, and Nike.
This also helps solve the challenge of what to wear on laundry day. Just simply hand wash and dry the articles that don’t make it through the official laundry cycle.
Take Your Own Laundry Detergent
While it’s easy to get laundry detergent some places, others it can be a real challenge. Make your life easier by carrying some laundry detergent with you. Don’t worry about the liquids or weight of the detergent because there’s an option perfect for travel – laundry detergent strips. They are light weight and work just as well as your liquid detergent or pods! If you’d rather take liquid detergent, put it into a small carry on bottle.
Pack a Tide To Go Instant Stain Remover Pen
Save yourself some headaches, and potentially extra laundry, by taking care of stains quickly and painlessly with a Tide To Go pen. Inexpensive, lightweight, and TSA compliant, Tide to Go pens will help you solve many of your travel laundry woes!
Wear Dark Colors and Patterns
Leave the white clothes at home. Wearing dark colors and patterns can help keep your clothes looking clean, even if they’re not. This is particularly true in places which are hot and sweaty or exceptionally dirty and dusty. Light colored clothes will look dingy almost immediately.
Keep Your Bag Smelling Clean Until Laundry Day
Chances are your dirty laundry crammed into your bag will start to have an unpleasant scent. To keep everything smelling so fresh, so clean, just throw in a dryer sheet or two! They are the easiest way to keep scents at bay. If that doesn’t interest you, you can also use a few drops of essential oils. Lavender is perfect! Alternatively, silicon bags can be great for absorbing smells.
The Benefits of Doing Laundry on Your Trip
With the hassle of doing laundry on the road figured out, you’ll be able to focus on other things, like packing the right items, and not too many of them! After all, when you can do laundry while traveling, you’ll be able to pack less saving you money on checked bags, hassle from carrying around heavy backpacks, and time figuring out what to wear each day.
Check out How to Pack in a Carry On – No Matter the Trip Length to get a feel for capsule wardrobes and what to wear on your trips to make laundry even easier!
Ready to start packing? Here’s some posts that may be of interest!
- Top 10 Travel Items I Never Travel Without
- Master Long Term Travel Packing List for Your Next Big Adventure
- The Complete Packing List for the Mount Everest Base Camp Trek
Like this post? Pin it.
Thanks for the great tips for doing laundry while travelling. I hadn’t heard of laundry strips before but will definitely be taking some with me next trip!
They are such a lifesaver for traveling!! I’ll never go back to liquid detergents or pods on the road!
Throwing in some dryer sheets is such a good idea! I’ve used laundromats before when traveling through Asia and that was a lifesaver!
Definitely – smelling good while not lugging around your whole wardrobe is the best!
I have done a lot of hand washing on my trips, air drying in a hotel room isn’t always the best option haha. I just used a detergent strip yesterday for the first time and it is a game changer!! Great tip!
Air drying is definitely a challenge if there’s no where to hang things or it’s super humid! And you definitely don’t want to put damp clothes into your bag (yuck!).
The laundry detergent strips are literally the best. I actually was introduced to them as a light weight option for my grandma when the liquid detergent bottles got to be too heavy!
Love this post. This is an important topic that I think not many people have written about. I usually hand wash my clothes and I find that body soap bars work wonders, especially on tough stains. Even better than laundry detergents!
That’s a great tip and one I’ll have to try! Honestly, when I started doing laundry on the road, traveling and packing got so much easier!!
Great tips! Definitely done my fair share of handwashing but the budget launderettes abroad (particularly in Southeast Asia) definitely came in super handy!
100% – it’s surprisingly easy to get laundry done!!