Laundry on the road

Travel laundry challenges that happened to me and fellow travellers:

Typical hotel laundry costs -
but at least this one offers
to wash your monk robe and
safari suit

• It took me one whole week to dry my wet jeans in an Iceland summer
• Meg says she has to stay 2 nights everywhere just so she can dry t-shirts
• Felicity sent her travel pants to the Moroccan hotel laundry, who set them on fire.

But you can travel with a small bag of clothes - or even just cabin baggage - and keep moving from place to place once you figure out how to wash and dry items overnight, without running up outrageous hotel laundry bills (or having your clothes charred beyond use).

How I wash and dry on the road

1. Pack light quick dry clothes that I can layer if I want to be warm (plus 'travel' undies don't dry as fast as ordinary nylon knickers).
2. Pack an elastic pegless clothes line.



Wash in the basin, rinse in the shower, roll in the towel,
stamp on the floor, hang it on the line. Easy.

3. Use the "travellers' washer and spin dryer": I wash my bras, undies - even t-shirts and shorts - every night in the basin or shower, squeeze out the water, roll the wet clothes up tightly in a towel (my own or the hotel's), stamp on them to force the water out of the clothes into the towel, then hang them up on the pegless clothesline in the breeziest, warmest spot I can find.

This animation shows the basic steps in this process (camera work and art direction by   Judy; if you ever decide to give up your day job.....)

What's your worst/best travel laundry story?