When you travel a lot, it can be very important to have an easy and quick way to do your laundry.   While sometimes you are lucky enough to have access to a washer and/or dryer for a cheap cost (30c in my hostel in Thailand for example), other times you are left with doing laundry in a sink and using a clothesline. I usually travel with 5-7 days of clothes and then after that have to do a “load”  of laundry in a sink or tubs.

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First, you need some sort of soap to wash your clothes in a sink. I love the Dr Bronner Castile soaps as they work great for laundry, as well as as a body wash, hand soap, and even a shampoo without stripping your hair too much. So it’s a very all-purpose cleanser. I like the almond scent best, but they have citrus, lavender, peppermint, and unscented (as well as others) options as well.

 

Fill the sink/tub and swish the items around for a bit (scrub any areas that need it) and let them soak for 10-15 minutes then swish them around again. Drain out and refill the water if it looks dirty after the soak. I generally do 3 rinses (the first with a soak) to get all the soap out for sure. And then finally, press out as much water as you can, then lay the clothes on a towel and roll it up and step on it. This will get the vast majority of the water out.

This (picture is clickable) is a great clothesline to hang your clothes to dry almost anywhere.  I combine this with my random pack of things (twist ties, binder clips, magnets, . . .)  mentioned in another post, and I can do laundry almost anywhere. My mother often travels with a small clothesline and some clothespins which you can get at the dollar store for $2. But I like how this type of clothesline works.

 

If you use quick dry clothing, generally you will find everything dries overnight unless you are in a humid area (this didn’t quite work in Cambodia – so then in the morning I put the clothes out in the sun for a half hour or so and then they were dry).